Syrian director Mohammad Malas’s films attempt to preserve the memory of Quneitra, the Syrian town destroyed by Israel in 1974. With Israel again invading Syrian territory, Séamus Malekafzali introduces the filmmaker’s mournful, & newly relevant oeuvre.

Iranian director Ahmad Bahrami remains little known in the West, but the director—a spiritual and formal heir to Hungarian master Béla Tarr—deserves much wider recognition, writes Séamus Malekafzali.