The fourth edition of the Cinema Arabe in the Netherlands, taking place in Amsterdam, Utrecht, the Hague and Maastricht, kicks off on 26 May until 8 June.

The festival will screen a number of feature-length films, short films and documentaries. The Egyptian films to be screened include Hisham El Essawy’s Cairo Exit, which presents a love story between a Muslim and a Copt, Microphone by Ahmed Abdallah, which delves into the lives of underground musicians in Alexandria, Dawood Abdel Sayed’s Messages from the Sea, which follows a stutterer who returns to Alexandria after many years away, Egyptian Maidens directed by Mohamed Amin which explores the lives of two unmarried women and the problems they face, and 678, which centres on sexual harassment.

Other films from the region include the Iraqi films, The Flowers of Kirkuk and Iraq: War, Love, God and Madness, the Lebanese films My Father from Haifa and We were Communists, as well as the Algerian films, The Last Passenger and Taxiphone.

A concert by the Egyptian band Massar Egbary, who appeared in the film Microphone, will also be held during the festival.