Saeed Taji Farouky

Directing

Saeed Taji Farouky

UK

Saeed Taji Farouky is a Palestinian-British filmmaker and artist who has been producing work around themes of conflict, human rights and colonialism since 1998. He writes, directs and creates long-term, humanist art and film projects, and is lead tutor and course leader of the Re:Creative film school which offers free film education and training to people from backgrounds that are underrepresented in the film industry. In 2011 he was awarded a Senior TED Fellowship for his work, and he has previously been named Artist-In-Residence at the British Museum and Tate Britain. He has been a speaker and human rights educator with Amnesty International for over 10 years and has been teaching filmmaking and cinematography since 2009.

Acting credits

Behind the camera

A Thousand Fires poster
7.7

Using their bare hands, married couple Htwe Tin and Thein Shwe draw oil from a pit they drilled themselves on the land next to their house. There are lots of these “artisanal” oilfields dotted around Myanmar, where people have swapped crop cultivation for selling the oil they pump from the ground by hand.

A Thousand Fires

2021

A Thousand Fires poster
7.7

Using their bare hands, married couple Htwe Tin and Thein Shwe draw oil from a pit they drilled themselves on the land next to their house. There are lots of these “artisanal” oilfields dotted around Myanmar, where people have swapped crop cultivation for selling the oil they pump from the ground by hand.

A Thousand Fires

2021

Tunnel Trade poster
NR

When the Israeli army withdrew from the Sinai Peninsula in 1982, it built a wall along Gaza’s southern border with Egypt. This split the city of Rafah in half. Today virtually nothing crosses the border. Yet through an underground network of tunnels, people smuggle everything from weapons, food supplies to medicines. The film is produced for Al-Jazeera International.

Tunnel Trade

2007

Tunnel Trade poster
NR

When the Israeli army withdrew from the Sinai Peninsula in 1982, it built a wall along Gaza’s southern border with Egypt. This split the city of Rafah in half. Today virtually nothing crosses the border. Yet through an underground network of tunnels, people smuggle everything from weapons, food supplies to medicines. The film is produced for Al-Jazeera International.

Tunnel Trade

2007

No artwork available
NR

Newlyn Harbour is the largest fishing village in Britain, but the fishermen and the people of the village are faced with making some difficult decisions if they want their village - and industry - to survive. Plans to commercialise the harbour, or introduce retail and pleasure boats, could save the industry but would also fundamentally change the character of Newlyn forever.

Newlyn Harbour

2010

No artwork available
NR

Newlyn Harbour is the largest fishing village in Britain, but the fishermen and the people of the village are faced with making some difficult decisions if they want their village - and industry - to survive. Plans to commercialise the harbour, or introduce retail and pleasure boats, could save the industry but would also fundamentally change the character of Newlyn forever.

Newlyn Harbour

2010

The runner poster
NR

The Runner is a film about endurance. It is the story of a champion long-distance runner whose journey transformed him from an athlete into the symbol of a national liberation movement. Salah Hmatou Ameidan is willing to risk his life, his career, his family and his nationality to run for a country that doesn't exist. He is from Western Sahara, officially Africa's last colony and under Moroccan occupation since 1975.

The runner

2013

Strange Cities Are Familiar poster
NR

A political refugee living in London tries to get back to his home in Palestine to see his dying son.

Strange Cities Are Familiar

2019

Strange Cities Are Familiar poster
NR

A political refugee living in London tries to get back to his home in Palestine to see his dying son.

Strange Cities Are Familiar

2019

No artwork available
NR

No synopsis available yet.

The Path of Most Resistance

2009

No artwork available
NR

No synopsis available yet.

The Path of Most Resistance

2009

No artwork available
NR

In May 2025, artist filmmaker Saeed Taji Farouky collaboratively devised scenarios and filmed with people arrested and tried for pro-Palestinian activism. Together they built sets and performed idealised re-enactments of their police interviews and trials, re-enactments in which they said what they weren’t allowed to say in their real interviews and trials. In July 2025, the group with which some of those participants took action was banned as a terrorist organisation and an unprecedented crackdown on the language of Palestinian liberation began.

TERRORISM the TERRORISM land TERRORISM of TERRORISM common TERRORISM disgrace

2026

Tell Spring Not to Come This Year poster
6.6

When NATO troops withdrew from Afghanistan, the Afghan National Army (ANA) took over control of Helmand Province, an extremely dangerous region where attacks by Taliban fighters are the order of the day. Security, much less peace, would seem to be unattainable; it is even difficult to find a common language in a country where everyone mistrusts each other. The directors of this film accompanied an ANA company during a year of frontline duty in Helmand. The soldiers are paid irregularly, there are not enough supplies and their equipment is substandard. They cannot fight a war with the equipment left behind by the ISAF.

Tell Spring Not to Come This Year

2015

Tell Spring Not to Come This Year poster
6.6

When NATO troops withdrew from Afghanistan, the Afghan National Army (ANA) took over control of Helmand Province, an extremely dangerous region where attacks by Taliban fighters are the order of the day. Security, much less peace, would seem to be unattainable; it is even difficult to find a common language in a country where everyone mistrusts each other. The directors of this film accompanied an ANA company during a year of frontline duty in Helmand. The soldiers are paid irregularly, there are not enough supplies and their equipment is substandard. They cannot fight a war with the equipment left behind by the ISAF.

Tell Spring Not to Come This Year

2015

There Will Be Some Who Will Not Fear Even That Void poster
NR

There Will Be Some Who Will Not Fear Even That Void is an ecological film for the 21st century - a film about the future of our planet that turns the traditional environmental documentary on its head. Rather than looking at our influence on the environment, ...Even That Void examines the environment's influence on us - emotionally, psychologically and ethically. The film suggests that the limits to exploring and dominating nature are no longer technological, but moral. We now have the technology to 'conquer' virtually any part of the planet if we want to - the question is no longer 'can we' but 'should we'?

There Will Be Some Who Will Not Fear Even That Void

2013

There Will Be Some Who Will Not Fear Even That Void poster
NR

There Will Be Some Who Will Not Fear Even That Void is an ecological film for the 21st century - a film about the future of our planet that turns the traditional environmental documentary on its head. Rather than looking at our influence on the environment, ...Even That Void examines the environment's influence on us - emotionally, psychologically and ethically. The film suggests that the limits to exploring and dominating nature are no longer technological, but moral. We now have the technology to 'conquer' virtually any part of the planet if we want to - the question is no longer 'can we' but 'should we'?

There Will Be Some Who Will Not Fear Even That Void

2013

They Live in Forests, They Are Extremely Shy poster
NR

An Aboriginal man is invited to London for the Colonial Exhibition of 1886.

They Live in Forests, They Are Extremely Shy

2016

They Live in Forests, They Are Extremely Shy poster
NR

An Aboriginal man is invited to London for the Colonial Exhibition of 1886.

They Live in Forests, They Are Extremely Shy

2016

No artwork available
NR

In January of 2004, in the northern Moroccan city of Tangiers, documentary filmmaker Saeed Taji Farouky met a 26 year-old Moroccan named Abdelfattah. He was a clandestine, one of many Africans who try to cross the narrow Straits of Gibraltar and illegally enter Spain by stowing away on cargo ships or boarding inflatable rafts. By the end of their first meeting, Abdelfattah had agreed to let Saeed follow him to film every aspect of his journey.

I See The Stars At Noon

No artwork available
NR

Hala, an Opera singer living in Rome, comes back to Cairo to claim her mother’s inheritance. This takes her on a journey across Cairo, meeting various people and many sides of the city to resolve her grief and the memories of her mother in the rough fantastical backdrop of the city.

Standing at the Ruins

No artwork available
NR

Hala, an Opera singer living in Rome, comes back to Cairo to claim her mother’s inheritance. This takes her on a journey across Cairo, meeting various people and many sides of the city to resolve her grief and the memories of her mother in the rough fantastical backdrop of the city.

Standing at the Ruins

No artwork available
NR

Hala, an Opera singer living in Rome, comes back to Cairo to claim her mother’s inheritance. This takes her on a journey across Cairo, meeting various people and many sides of the city to resolve her grief and the memories of her mother in the rough fantastical backdrop of the city.

Standing at the Ruins

No artwork available
NR

We see a boy. We read a name. We view a landscape. We see a man. We see two children. A valley. A kite. A bicycle. A wall. The emotions are yours, not theirs. Not mine.

The Effect of All Peoples

2010