Qantara.de - Dialog mit der islamischen Welt

In May 2018, Jafar Panahiʹs film "Three Faces" was screened at the Cannes International Film Festival and won the prize for the best screenplay. It is the Iranian film directorʹs fourth film since the Mullah regime sentenced him to a 20-year ban on travel and work in 2010. Review by Fahimeh FarsaieMore

Can art help individuals process the experience of fleeing across the Mediterranean? Sponsored by Malteser International, the art project "Human Cargo" in Ahaus, Germany, is helping refugees come to terms with the horrors they experienced on their odyssey. By Wolfgang DickMore

For young women throughout the Arab world, everyday life is fraught with tension. In this piece Algerian writer and film-maker Drifa Mezenner presents her own take on conflicting generational expectations, societal pressures and the deeply felt desire to live a self-determined existenceMore

Ahmet Altanʹs "Like a Sword Wound", translated into English by Brendan Freely, reads like a grand adventure story: intrigue, suspense, romance and politics. Yet, each little incident, from the in-fighting in the palace to the conditions aboard Ottoman naval vessels, reveals a deep current of rot. Richard Marcus read the bookMore

Turkey's most famous photographer, Ara Guler, has died in Istanbul at the age of 90. With his images of both the people and places of the Turkish capital, Guler has done more than any other to keep the memory of the city as it used to look alive. By Marian BrehmerMore

Emine Sevgi Ozdamar's writing is characterised by its unique figurative language – Arabic children's prayers, Turkish idioms and English film quotations all line up like telling beads, complementing each other and unfolding their own special rhythm. Aygul Cizmecioglu introduces the authorMore

Stella Gitanoʹs "Withered Flowers" is a powerful short story collection that showcases work from the very beginnings of an impressive and unusual literary career. The stories, now translated by Anthony Calderbank, centre on the lives of Sudanʹs marginalised and are elevated by bold, fearless imagery. Marcia Lynx Qualey read the bookMore

In 2011, the year of the Syrian revolution, Dima Wannous left her homeland and moved to Beirut. At that point she had published a volume of short stories and a novel, but afterwards she suffered writerʹs block. Her new novel is something of a personal account about overcoming trauma in the wake of dictatorship and war. By Volker KaminskiMore

In the south-eastern Tunisian region of Medenine, music represented a socially marginalised way for post-emancipation blacks to advance. These days thatʹs not enough to satisfy the younger generation. By Marta ScaglioniMore