WORDS OF WITNESS, Director: Mai Iskander

The Arab Spring, seen through the eyes of a young Egyptian journalist, Heba Afifi who’s reporting on the demonstrations on Cairo's Tahrir Square. Heba reveals state-sponsored violence, and has to struggle herself against traditional gender stereotypes. The journalist gets more and more involved with her work, making the most of new forms of communication and asserting herself at home. Using Heba as an example, filmmaker Mai Iskander shows how the younger generation in Egypt is standing up for democracy.

THE RELUCTANT REVOLUTIONARY, Director: Sean McAllister

British filmmaker Sean McAllister experiences the uprising in Yemen from the viewpoint of Kais, a tour guide. At first, there's a party mood. Initially, the demonstrators in the capital Sana’a believe almost naively in peaceful change. They don’t want to take up arms. But then Kais sees the military’s brutal attack on the demonstrators. Before his eyes and in front of the camera, they shoot into the crowds, wounding and killing people. In the Reluctant Revolutionary, we experience the demonstrators' desperation and determination at first hand. That's its real strength.

DEATH FOR SALE, Director: Faouzi Bensaïdi

The next film entitled "Death for sale" features three friends--with no job, no money – and no prospects for the future. Criminality is their only way out. But even pickpockets put their lives at risk here. Moroccan director Faouzi Bensaidi depicts the merciless struggle for survival in his home country and tells the story of Malik, who thinks he’s found the love of his life in the prostitute Dounia. The film's message is bitter: poverty destroys first hope and then lives. Death for Sale shows why so many people in the Arab world are no longer willing to wait for change.