Graphic design by Nayfa Naji

For the tenth year, the Muslim Women’s Coalition will present the Milwaukee Muslim Film Festival (MMFF). The four-day event, Thursday, Oct. 2 through Sunday, Oct. 5, will be held at the Oriental Theatre (2230 N. Farwell Ave.). Each selection reflects on Muslim identity and experiences. Tickets on sale now.

The idea of bringing Muslim films to Milwaukee’s big screens began several years before MMFF’s inaugural year, according to Janan Najeeb, founder and executive director of the Muslim Women’s Coalition. “As a fan of film, I thought it was a wonderful way for the Muslim community to feel represented as well as to invite the public to learn more about the Muslim community and the rich culture and diverse people,” she said.

Najeeb began her venture into cinema with a few stand-alone films. “We showed several sold out shows for Fordson, about a predominantly Arab football team in a Michigan high school,” she explained. “We were able to have the director join the shows for the talk backs as well. We also partnered with the IMAX in Milwaukee where we had several sold out shows of the film Journey to Mecca. Many of the attendees came out of curiosity but loved the film as well as the opportunity to interact in a discussion after the film.” 

Connecting with community partners

With the example in mind of the ethnic or regional film festivals screened annually at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Najeeb “set up meetings with a number of different people, including Jonathan Jackson, who at the time was the Executive Director of Milwaukee Film. He also was open to any questions I might have along the way. The first three years, we worked with a number of student organizations at UWM, so many of the films were in the Union Theater, but we also realized that the public doesn’t necessarily come to campus for their films.” 

The following years found MMFF migrating between the Times Theater, the Oriental, the Milwaukee Art Museum and venues at Alverno College and Marquette University. “Then about seven years ago, Jonathan Jackson contacted me and said he was looking to bring a diversity of film festivals to Milwaukee Film, at the time I was on one of the advisory groups at Milwaukee Film. So we moved the festival to the Oriental Theater.  The staff at Milwaukee Film has been phenomenal to work with,” Najeeb said.

For the past several years, MWC’s board member, Dr. Hanadi Bu Ali has led MMFF’s programming team whose members screen and grade each submission. They make their choices “based on a number of criteria including being family friendly, interesting or entertaining” as well as their ability to “address a topic of relevance to the Muslim community and the broader community,” Najeeb explained.   

A decade of success

MMFF’s opening night includes From Ground Zero, an anthology of 22 short films by 22 filmmakers surviving in Gaza under extreme conditions. In Reema Mahmoud’s “Selfie,” the filmmaker describes the conditions of life with her children in a tent city. She goes to market to find expired can goods and makes her way to her former home, a beautiful building still standing despite damage and finds her cat hiding in the debris. “People who don’t die in the bombings die from depression and hunger,” she says, passing desperate people on the road.

In another selection From Ground Zero, “No Signal,” Muhammad Alshareef desperately searches the rubble of his home and chases off a scavenger picking firewood from the ruins. He believes his brother is buried under the rubble and the scavenger tells him to call civil defense, but his cellphone has no signal. And anyway, the scavenger adds, the civil defense bulldozer working nearby has run out of gas. Explosions, the gray smoky dust of collapsing buildings, the insect-like buzz from overhead drones and the desperate resilience of Gaza’s residents are the prevailing themes.

From Ground Zero

  10/2 at 7 p.m. Includes post – screening talkback. Purchase tickets  (click on image to view trailer)

All That’s Left of You 

History is dramatized with a human face in All That’s Left of You, directed by Cherien Dabis, a Palestinian American best known in this country for the popular Hulu series “Only Murders in the Building.” All That’s Left of You explores a 40-year legacy of Palestinian displacement following the establishment of Israel in 1948. Her film begins with a teenage boy swept up into the 1988 intifada, and in the aftermath, his grandmother’s face fills the screen. “For you to understand, I must tell you what happened to his grandfather,” she says.

The film circles back to 1948 Jaffa where his grandfather and the family lived in a mansion surrounded by orange groves. Despite the relentless news of war on the radio, and the increasingly close sound of shellfire, he tells his children, “Nothing bad is going to happen here,” even as he packs them away in a refugee convoy headed toward the West Bank. He stays behind—interned for several years in a labor camp, his property seized—before reuniting with a family living a hard life as refugees. All That’s Left of You is strongly performed and includes a nuanced understanding of differing views within the Palestinian community. It debuted at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.

10/3 at 7:00 p.m. This film will not have a talkback. Purchase tickets  (click on image to view trailer)

One of MMFF’s other documentaries is a close-up look at another tragedy, the civil war in Sudan. “I still can’t really believe it happened—corpses rising with the Nile,” says the voice heard throughout Sudan, Remember Us by Hind Meddeb, a woman of North African heritage living in France. The film’s title is a nod to the reality that for the Western media, and the West generally, Sudan has been forgotten, especially in light of Ukraine and Gaza. The civil war that broke out in Sudan in 2023 has displaced some 12 million Sudanese, including 3.5 million who left the country altogether. Tens of thousands have died. The war continues.

Much of the documentary was shot during a time of hope following the 2019 coup that overthrew Sudan’s dictator Omar al-Bashir. The streets of Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, were thronged with singing, flag-waving crowds who turned the uprising into a massive celebration. A brutal crackdown followed, caught on cellphone cameras, but the worst was yet to come when the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Deployment Force clashed with tanks and planes, turning the country into a battlefield.

Najeeb said, “Our goal is to always screen a cross section of documentaries and features, representing different countries or aspects of the Muslim experience, but that is easier said than done. There are many films in many languages, but some great films don’t have English subtitles. We also find far more documentaries in English than thrillers, comedies and dramas.  I do think the team has done a great job these past 10 years to bring a variety of films.”

The intended audience for MMFF is everyone, Muslims “as well as the broader community who wants a fun way to learn about their Muslim neighbors or aspects of the Muslim experience,” Najeeb said. “A wonderful part of the experience is the opportunity to interact during the discussion after the film, people who may not always cross paths, are enjoying a film and talking with others.”

More 2025 MMFF feature films

American Coup

The first coup ever carried out by the CIA – Iran, 1953. Explores the blowback from this seminal event, as well as the coup’s lingering effects on the present US-Iranian relationship.

10/4 at 1 p.m.  Includes talkback speaker. Purchase tickets (click on image to view trailer)

Where Olive Trees Weep

Where Olive Trees Weep offers a searing window into the struggles and resilience of the Palestinian people under Israeli occupation. It explores themes of loss, trauma, and the quest for justice.

10/4 at 4 p.m. Includes talk back speaker, Munther Barakat, Psy.D. Purchase tickets (click on image to view trailer)

State of Passion

After bearing witness to the unprecedented horrors of an ongoing genocide, a war surgeon emerges from Gaza calling for justice and accountability.

10/4 at 7 p.m.  Includes talk back speaker. Purchase tickets.  (click on image to view trailer)

Sudan, Remember Us They are young Sudanese yearning for freedom. Their revolution is poetic, driven by the power of words. The film reassembles fragments of a revolution, a battle pitting the voices of youth against the military’s might.

10/5 at 1 p.m.  Includes talk back speaker. Purchase tickets. (click on image to view trailer)

Land of My Dreams Muslim women in Delhi protest nonviolently against the Citizenship Amendment Act at Shaheen Bagh, challenging societal norms around identity and patriotism.

10/5 at 4 p.m. Includes talk back speaker. Purchase tickets. (click on image to view trailer)

Yalla Parkour In her relentless pursuit of a memory that reinforces her sense of belonging, Areeb crosses paths with Ahmad, a Parkour athlete in Gaza. Nostalgia meets with ambition, and the weight of a confined past meets with an unpredictable future.

10/5 at 7 p.m. Includes talk back speaker. Purchase tickets. (click on image to view trailer)

The Muslim Women’s Coalition extends its heartfelt thanks to our incredible sponsors.  Your unwavering support and generosity are the driving force behind the ongoing success of the Milwaukee Muslim Film Festival.  

Because of you, we are able to share powerful stories, spark meaningful dialogue and celebrate Muslim voices through the art of film. Thank you for helping us make it possible.

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