QUARC and Athar are thrilled to invite you to meet and connect for an evening of short films followed by a talk.
The short films to be screened represent personal queer life experiences that engage with body and society, integrating the revolution of volatile ideas in the shadow of regional political changes and their consequences.
Event details:
Friday, October 17
18:00 – 20:00
Biergarten Jockel, Ratiborstr. 14c, 10999 Berlin
Accessible on the ground floor
Donation-based
THE FILMS
Let My Body Speak — Madonnaِ ِAdib
A documentary of a personal and intimate journey exploring the repression experienced by the filmmaker during her childhood and the impact of political and social repression on her body in Damascus – Syria during the late 1980s and early 1990s under the Assad regime.
رقصة لأجل عيوني- وثائقي: هو رحلة شخصية وحميمة تستكشف القمع الذي عاشته المخرجة في طفولتها، وتأثير القمع السياسي والاجتماعي على جسدها في دمشق – سوريا خلال أواخر الثمانينيات وبداية التسعينيات تحت حكم نظام الأسد.
Madonnaِ ِAdib | She/Her is an award-winning Syrian director and writer whose work explores the intersections of the body, womanhood, and queerness. Through her films, she highlights questions of belonging, opens space for queer narratives, and weaves together personal and collective histories.
مادونا أديب هي مخرجة وكاتبة سورية، تستكشف أعمالها تقاطعات الجسد والأنوثة والهوية الكويرية. من خلال أفلامها، تسلّط الضوء على مفهوم الانتماء، وخلق مساحة للقصص الكويرية، والبحث بالتاريخ الشخصي والجماعي.
Madonna will be with us for Q&A after the screening.
What Remains — Mohamad (Moe) Sabbah
Traces of a “revolution”. the streets, cameras, a lover, and a mother.
ما تبقّى: آثار “ثورة”… الشوارع، الكاميرات، حبيب، وأم
– Mohamad (Moe) Sabbah, born in 1990, is a Lebanese filmmaker/artist based in Cologne, Germany. In his work, he questions family structures, grief and the human body. He co-directed EMBODIED CHORUS (IDFA 2023), a hybrid documentary about bodies and shame. Under the umbrella of his interdisciplinary project Escaping Him, Mohamad is currently working on a music album, installations and performative Interventions such as MOLD WILL EAT IT ALL (RJM – Theater an der Ruhr), THE TIME TELLER HAS RETURNED (Blonde Cobra – Kunstpalast Düsseldorf – Kunstmuseum Solingen). Mohamad is the 2025 recipient of the Chargesheimer Stipendium for Media Arts.
عيب (Shame) — Hadi Moussally
In this film, titled “عيب (Shame)”, the complex concept of shame is explored within the context of Arab culture, specifically focusing on its impact on societal norms, gender roles, and expressions of identity. The word “Shame” (عيب) is commonly used in the Arab world to dictate a social norm not to be transgressed in various situations, so much so that shame is ever-present in our surroundings.
Hadi Moussally is a Lebanese-French filmmaker with two master’s degrees in Fiction and Documentary/Anthropological Cinema from Paris. In 2015, he co-founded the production company h7o7, dedicated to creating and promoting hybrid works blending fashion, experimental, documentary, and fiction. In 2020, he launched Hybrid Wave, a collective of over 30 international hybrid artists. His bold and genre-defying films have earned him more than 60 awards and over 500 official film festival selections worldwide.