Support

Celebrate SFF's 70th birthday with a gift towards its future. Your donation will help us inspire the next generation of filmmakers and filmgoers.

Learn how you can help

Become a Director's Patron

Support

Keep TFF Alive: Your donation will ensure the Travelling Film Festival can return to play a vital role in the recovery of our community and our local film industry.

Learn how you can help

Become a Director's Patron

The Burdened

Directed by Amr Gamal

2023

Yemen

91 minutes

Unclassified 15+

Book Tickets

In this rare and incredibly beautiful drama from Yemen, a married couple faces some tough decisions when they fall pregnant with their fourth child. Amnesty International prize, Berlinale 2023.

Isra’a (Abeer Mohammed) and her husband Ahmed (Khaled Hamdan) are adoring parents to their three young children. But times are tough in Aden during Yemen’s civil war, Ahmed hasn’t been paid for months, and they’re struggling to make ends meet. Then Isra’a finds out she’s pregnant. Reluctantly, they decide on an abortion and approach a friend – a female doctor – for help. Director Amr Gamal and co-writer Mazen Refaat based the film on a true story, one that offers a glimpse of a little-seen society, but also resonates widely in the context of women’s rights and the enduring impact of conflict.

What’s striking is how extremely spare and to the point Gamal’s storytelling style is: there’s zero fat on the bones of this story, giving the film a taut directness.

Jonathan Romney, Screen International

Gamal mostly frames his characters in wide shots, letting his camera linger on Aden’s cluttered exteriors after a stretch of dialogue ends, giving viewers the space to dwell on an ailing city on the brink.

Joseph Fahim, Middle East Eye