About Cinema Paradisaea

Cinema Paradisaea is a series of film screenings celebrating the creative work of directors and artists from refugee and migrant backgrounds.

This February, for the first edition of Cinema Paradisaea, Migration Jam will be screening four documentaries by award-winning Syrian and Palestinian directors at the French Cultural Center in Istanbul. Each of these films will be screened in Istanbul for the very first time and is followed by a Q&A with the directors.

Seats are limited, make sure to book your tickets in advance. 

Full tickets 15 TL / Student tickets 10TL – You can reserve your seat/s now and pay for your ticket/s at the door.

Local COVID-19 regulations apply: guests must present either proof of vaccination, proof of recent recovery or a negative PCR test result.

The name Cinema Paradisaea is inspired by the bird Sterna Paradisaea – Arctic tern, this small bird takes the longest migration trip across all animals from pole to pole and back every year.

About As I Want

Cairo, January 25, 2013: An explosion of sexual assaults takes place in Tahrir Square on the second anniversary of the revolution. In response, a massive outpouring of enraged women fill the streets. Director Samaher Alqadi picks up her camera as a form of protection and begins documenting the growing women’s rebellion, not knowing where the story will lead her. When Samaher becomes pregnant during filming, she starts to re-examine the constructs of her own childhood in Palestine and what it means to be a woman and a mother in the Middle East. She begins an imaginary conversation with her mother, who died before Samaher could see her one last time. She begins to form the words left unsaid and shares her deepest secrets in an intimate inner voice that guides us through the story. She goes on a traumatic visit back to her parent’s house in Ramallah, where she is confronted with the dark memories of a childhood she managed to escape. Meanwhile, the struggle in Egypt continues and, even after the birth of her son, Samaher still finds herself on the frontline.