Nefise Özkal Lorentzen

Yusuf is a teenage boy growing up in the suburbs of Oslo with close friends and a loving mother, but something is haunting him that will force him to face his darkest feelings.

Why does a man in Kuwait inspired by the 99 names of Allah and the Quranic stories create a comics and cartoon series about super heroes called The 99? Why does a man in Bangladesh travel from one village to another, teaching the community how to play a board game? Why does a man in Indonesia encourage other men to wear mini skirts in a demonstration? They all have the same goal. They want to change the dark side of the masculinities in their cultures by playing games. They all want to reform Islam. They are the Muslim Davids against Goliath.

When the Norwegian-Turkish filmmaker Nefise Özkal Lorentzen was little, she used to send letters to Allah by balloon. Now she wants to send a new balloon to change the role of women in the Muslim culture. By following her grandmother's path as a 'sufi', she embarks on a journey to rediscover the Islam of her mother's mother. The film switches between her actual journey and her dreams. She experiences the diversity of Cairo, Istanbul and Oslo by drinking tea with the Egyptian feminist Nawal El Saadawi, finding hope and inspiration in the life of the 90-year-old author Gamal al-Banna and meeting a young Salafist. On her journey through the labyrinth, it dawns on Nefise that Islam is not the only place to search, but that there are correlations between the three Abrahamic religion and the oppression of women.

A documentary that explores the complex feelings of survivor's guilt felt by an enigmatic Syrian man living in Norway.

Gender Me is a road movie about Mansour’s voyage into the world of Islam. It is a personal odyssey through a world of taboos, filled with contradictory images. He explores questions regarding faith and gender in Islam with a special focus on the unusual stories of Muslim gays. Mansour is a homosexual Iranian refugee who has been living in Oslo for the past 18 years where he works as a pharmacist. Now he wants to travel back to Istanbul, where he lived for two years before he was granted asylum in Norway.

Gender Me is a road movie about Mansour’s voyage into the world of Islam. It is a personal odyssey through a world of taboos, filled with contradictory images. He explores questions regarding faith and gender in Islam with a special focus on the unusual stories of Muslim gays. Mansour is a homosexual Iranian refugee who has been living in Oslo for the past 18 years where he works as a pharmacist. Now he wants to travel back to Istanbul, where he lived for two years before he was granted asylum in Norway.

Adrian and Julian are brothers who move from Norway to Turkey, where they stay for six months. They have Turkish mother and Norwegian father. In this five-part documentary film, Adrian tells how it's to meet the Turkish culture, and how he gets to know it through school, new friends, dance and traveling.

The exemplary humanitarian work of Turkish-German radical feminist, lawyer, and imam, Seyran Ateş is the central focus of this compelling and revealing documentary. As a young Muslim girl in Berlin, Seyran grew up experiencing Islamic repression. Since then, she has dedicated herself to reforming Islam, opening the first mosque with no gender segregation and educating and empowering LGBTQ Muslim youth to embrace their sexuality. The film reveals a determined woman, one willing to put her life on the line in the name of religious reform and sexual freedom.

The exemplary humanitarian work of Turkish-German radical feminist, lawyer, and imam, Seyran Ateş is the central focus of this compelling and revealing documentary. As a young Muslim girl in Berlin, Seyran grew up experiencing Islamic repression. Since then, she has dedicated herself to reforming Islam, opening the first mosque with no gender segregation and educating and empowering LGBTQ Muslim youth to embrace their sexuality. The film reveals a determined woman, one willing to put her life on the line in the name of religious reform and sexual freedom.

After a lifetime of conflict in Iraq, 20-year-old Tiba joins the October 2019 protests. She is amazed to see so many young men and women gathering from across the nation. Regardless of class and religion, the youth stand side by side in a fight to reclaim their country. Tiba forms new friendships, ideas and dreams. When the peaceful protests are met with violence, she becomes a medic tending to the wounded. But she could never have imagined the heartache one fatality brings.

Palestinian brothers Yahya and Reda live in a neighbourhood in Oslo where their role models are often local gangsters. What begins as a seemingly insignificant argument within the gang ends in an attempted murder that leaves Yahya with life-threatening injuries. Against all odds, he survives. The brothers are faced with the choice of taking revenge or choosing forgiveness.

Six strangers in an elevator each hold a black box, containing stories of shame and violence. But what will they do when they arrive at their respective floors?

Six strangers in an elevator each hold a black box, containing stories of shame and violence. But what will they do when they arrive at their respective floors?

Journalist Jørgen Lorentzen was in Turkey when the coup attempt happened in 2016 and followed the event the whole evening. In the middle of the night one neighbour said: “This is not a real coup, I have experienced many coups and know what a coup is”. From that moment Lorentzen started the investigation of the event and its aftermath. This documentary is a critical analysis of the coup attempt in Turkey throughout the night between the 15th and 16th of July 2016.

Why does a man in Kuwait inspired by the 99 names of Allah and the Quranic stories create a comics and cartoon series about super heroes called The 99? Why does a man in Bangladesh travel from one village to another, teaching the community how to play a board game? Why does a man in Indonesia encourage other men to wear mini skirts in a demonstration? They all have the same goal. They want to change the dark side of the masculinities in their cultures by playing games. They all want to reform Islam. They are the Muslim Davids against Goliath.

Why does a man in Kuwait inspired by the 99 names of Allah and the Quranic stories create a comics and cartoon series about super heroes called The 99? Why does a man in Bangladesh travel from one village to another, teaching the community how to play a board game? Why does a man in Indonesia encourage other men to wear mini skirts in a demonstration? They all have the same goal. They want to change the dark side of the masculinities in their cultures by playing games. They all want to reform Islam. They are the Muslim Davids against Goliath.

When the Norwegian-Turkish filmmaker Nefise Özkal Lorentzen was little, she used to send letters to Allah by balloon. Now she wants to send a new balloon to change the role of women in the Muslim culture. By following her grandmother's path as a 'sufi', she embarks on a journey to rediscover the Islam of her mother's mother. The film switches between her actual journey and her dreams. She experiences the diversity of Cairo, Istanbul and Oslo by drinking tea with the Egyptian feminist Nawal El Saadawi, finding hope and inspiration in the life of the 90-year-old author Gamal al-Banna and meeting a young Salafist. On her journey through the labyrinth, it dawns on Nefise that Islam is not the only place to search, but that there are correlations between the three Abrahamic religion and the oppression of women.

When the Norwegian-Turkish filmmaker Nefise Özkal Lorentzen was little, she used to send letters to Allah by balloon. Now she wants to send a new balloon to change the role of women in the Muslim culture. By following her grandmother's path as a 'sufi', she embarks on a journey to rediscover the Islam of her mother's mother. The film switches between her actual journey and her dreams. She experiences the diversity of Cairo, Istanbul and Oslo by drinking tea with the Egyptian feminist Nawal El Saadawi, finding hope and inspiration in the life of the 90-year-old author Gamal al-Banna and meeting a young Salafist. On her journey through the labyrinth, it dawns on Nefise that Islam is not the only place to search, but that there are correlations between the three Abrahamic religion and the oppression of women.