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September 2026 | Hayy Cinema is back!
Hayy Cinema returns this October with an elevated cinema experience inspired by the closing of Hayy Arts’ exhibition, ‘Global Positioning System’.
The film programme, titled Between Destinations, explores the road trip as a cinematic form that privileges movement over arrival, and brings together a diverse selection of films following journeys that begin with curiosity & attempts to answer long-lost questions on journeys that gradually transform into life-changing experiences.
Rather than treating travel as a means of reaching a destination, the films dwell on the experience of traversing landscapes, tracing how roads, vehicles, and journeys shape our understanding of place, memory, and distance, while considering how movement transforms our relationship to land and resistance to borders in an age increasingly mediated by navigation technologies.
As routes become optimised and landscapes reduced to coordinates, what is gained and what is lost in the act of travelling? Together, these works invite viewers to reflect on the road not simply as infrastructure, but as a space of encounter, observation, and storytelling—where the journey itself becomes a way of reading the world.
The monthly programme this October will include a special screening of three short films on October 8: Elephant Bird (2019), The Preludes (2024), and Lines That World a River (2026). The screenings will be followed by a conversation with the artists and filmmakers, moderated by the exhibition’s curators, Indranjan Banerjee and Lucas Morin. To book your seat and read more about the films, please head to this page.
See you at the cinema!
Book your tickets in person via the on-site ticketing booth.
Hayy Cinema | Between Destinations: Closing Programme of the ‘Global Positioning System’ Exhibition at Hayy Arts
Premiered in the main competition at the 71st Cannes Film Festival
Yomeddine (2018)
Beshay – a man cured of leprosy – has never left the leper colony in the Egyptian desert where he has lived since childhood. Following the death of his wife, he finally decides to go in search of his roots. With his meager possessions strapped to a donkey cart, he sets out.
Quickly joined by Obama, the Nubian orphan he has taken under his wing, Beshay will cross Egypt and confront the world with all its sorrows, its hardships and moments of grace, in his quest for a family, a place to belong, and a little humanity.
Screening dates: October 7, 14, 16, 17, 22, 23, 28, 29, 30, 31
Directed by: A.B Shawky Genre: Adventure/Comedy
Duration: 1h37m Country of Production: Egypt, United States of America, Austria
Language: Arabic Subtitles: English Age Classification: R15
“Abdelkarim El-Fassi takes a Moroccan-Dutch family on a redemptive road trip full of emotional baggage in his feature-length fiction debut”-Cine Europa
Porte Bagage (2025)
Noor lives with and cares for her stubborn father, Musa. When she’s offered her dream job as a chef in Paris, she faces a tough decision. So that her siblings will comprehend the seriousness of their father’s condition, Noor arranges an appointment with a neurologist. Musa is diagnosed with a progressive form of dementia, and Noor worries she’ll have to give up her chance of working in Paris if she continues to look after him. After the death of a close friend, Musa expresses his wish to return to Morocco. Initially sceptical, Noor starts to see this as a way out—helping her father go home while finally pursuing her own dreams of independence.
Screening dates: October 7, 9, 10, 11, 14, 16, 17, 21, 24, 25, 28, 30, 31
Directed by: Abdelkarim AlFassi Genre: Drama
Duration: 1h44m Country of Production: Netherlands, Morocco
Language: Dutch, Arabic Subtitles: English Age Classification: PG12
Winner of Best Emerging Director at Locarno International Film Festival
143 Sahara Street (2019)
In the middle of the Sahara Desert, at the geographic centre of Algeria, Malika lives alone. Nestled amongst the vast expanse of sand and buffeted by harsh winds, she runs a café, welcoming weary travellers to stop for an omelette, some tea and to share their stories. People from all walks of life sit with Malika (and her beloved cat, Mimi) to discuss everything and nothing: religion, the economy, politics, family — Malika listens, interjects and absorbs. But even Malika’s remote kingdom isn’t immune to the march of so-called “progress”: a petrol station is to be built next door. Director Hassen Ferhani’s warm, crowd-pleasing documentary is a welcome reminder of the need for familiarity and respectful human interaction in a world in a state of flux.
Screening dates: October 8, 9, 10, 15, 16, 18, 22, 23, 24, 29, 30, 31
Directed by: Hassan Ferhani Genre: Documentary
Duration: 1h40m Country of Production: Algeria, France, Qatar
Language: Arabic Subtitles: English Age Classification: PG12
Between Destinations: Short Films & Artist Discussion
Join us on October 8, 2026 for a special screening of three short films: Elephant Bird (2019), directed by Amir Masoud Soheili; The Preludes (2024), by artist Cheng Xinhao; and Lines That World a River (2026), by artist Shahana Rajani, followed by a conversation with the artists and filmmakers, moderated by Art Jameel curators Indranjan Banerjee and Lucas Morin. The films and conversation engage with landscapes and ecologies disconnected by infrastructural and social violence, and dwells on ways to keep disappearing worlds alive.
For more information on the films and to RSVP, kindly head to this page.
Rendezvous With French Cinema
Join us this October with the goal of practicing, listening, and strengthening French language skills with monthly screenings at Hayy Cinema.
La Traversée (The Crossing) (2021)
An animated feature film following the dramatic journey of two siblings, Kyona and her brother Adriel, who are running away because they are being pursued by an unspecified Eastern European country.
A story about the neverending effort to find a new home and a better life, an effort worth risking life for. On this journey of hope, characters overcome various perils and experience the most terrible of situations. They are fueled by the awareness of who they really are, what they are running from and what they are hopeful of. La Traversée tells the story of an experience that becomes a story worth telling again and again.
Screening dates: October 9, 10, 11, 15, 16, 17, 18, 22, 29
Directed by: Florence Miailhe Genre: Drama, Animation
Duration: 1h24m Country of Production: France, Czech Republic, Germany
Language: French Subtitles: Arabic
