One of the best ways to teach a visual generation about the Middle East is through film, both from and about the region. We highlight the best films for the classroom from the Middle East as well as documentaries and other films about the region and related topics:

Promises

Promises is a 2001 documentary film that examines the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from the perspectives of seven children living in the Palestinian communities in the West Bank and Israeli neighborhoods of Jerusalem. A study guide has been created by a team of educators, writers, and the filmmakers is available on through their website.

Children of Heaven

Children of Heaven is a 1997 Iranian film by Majid Majidi. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1998. It deals with a brother and sister and their adventures over a lost pair of shoes.

Muhammad: Legacy of the Prophet

Muhammad: Legacy of a Prophet, travels in the footsteps of the prophet to the Arabian desert and the holy city of Mecca where much of Muhammad’s story unfolded. But the film does not just stay in the past. Much of its story is told through the observations of contemporary American Muslims, including a fireman at the World Trade Center on September 11, a second generation Arab-American family building a community based on Islamic principles, a Congressional Chief of Staff working for justice, and a refugee fleeing religious persecution, whose experiences in some way echo Muhammad’s life.

Cities of Light: The Rise and Fall of Islamic Spain

Cities of Light tells a story about the triumphs and shortcomings, achievements and ultimate failures of a centuries-long period when Muslims, Christians, and Jews inhabited the same far corner of Western Europe and built a society that lit the Dark Ages. The history of Islamic Spain demonstrates that when religious diversity is accommodated within a social and political system, problems and tensions may still exist, but society is able to successfully manage them, generally to the benefit of all. But when a power system or religious movement rejects complexity and insists on a single cultural and religiously-centered point of view, then society is likely to come to grief with everyone losing something.

A Land Called Paradise

In December 2007, over 2,000 American Muslims were asked what they wished they could say to the world. Their comments were compiled into a short music video for Kareem Salama's song "A Land Called Paradise."

Captain Abu Raed

Captain Abu Raed is a story of friendship, inspiration and heroism set in contemporary Jordan. Abu Raed is a lonely janitor at Amman’s International Airport. Never having realized his dreams of seeing the world, he experiences it vicariously through books and brief encounters with travelers.

The West Bank Story

The West Bank Story musical comedy about David, an Israeli soldier, and Fatima, a Palestinian fast food cashier - an unlikely couple who fall in love amidst the animosity of their families' dueling falafel stands in the West Bank.

Allah Made Me Funny

Allah Made Me Funny follows three acclaimed comedians on stage and off as they lift the veil to reveal the humorous truth of what it's really like to be Muslim in America. Mo Amer, Azhar Usman, and Preacher Moss poke fun at themselves, their communities, government, human nature and the tricky predicament of living in post-9/11 America.

The Iron Wall

The Iron Wall documentary covers the issue of the Israeli settlements in the Palestinian Occupied Territories and their impact on the two-state solution. While the name suggests that the film is devoted to the separation wall, its primary focus is on the settlements and their impact on Palestinian life and the prospects for peace.

House of Saddam

House of Saddam is 2008 drama that explores the inner workings of Saddam Hussein's family and his relationship with his closest advisers. The drama charts the rise and fall of one of the most significant political figures in recent history.

Iraq in Fragments

Iraq In Fragments offers a series of intimate, passionately-felt portraits: A fatherless 11-year-old is apprenticed to the domineering owner of a Baghdad garage; Sadr followers in two Shiite cities rally for regional elections while enforcing Islamic law at the point of a gun; a family of Kurdish farmers welcomes the US presence, which has allowed them a measure of freedom previously denied. American director James Longley spent more than two years filming in Iraq to create this stunningly photographed, poetically rendered documentary of the war-torn country as seen through the eyes of Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds.