Films in shooting or post-production
The Station
Synopsis
In a wartorn Yemeni village, Layal runs a women-only gas station, where she shelters her prepubescent brother, Laith, from the dangers of war, having already lost a brother to the fighting. While she manages her customers, Layal is confronted by local authorities who demand that Laith join the village boys in a military boot camp or pay an exemption fee Layal cannot afford. She is forced to ask for the help of her estranged older sister, Shams—a nurse who works at the rival army’s field hospital. To Layal’s shock, Shams arrives at the station with a teenage chaperone, intending to take Laith away with her. As tensions escalate, the relationship between the siblings reaches a breaking point. The sisters have to see eye to eye, or lose another brother.
Amine Berrada
Romain Namura
Darius Timmer, Tessa Rose Jackson
Manal Al-Mulaiki, Abeer Mohammad, Rashad Alrajeh, Saleh Almershahe
Screen Project (Jordan)
Ta Films (Jordan)
Nadia Eliewat
Georges Films (France)
Nicolas Leprêtre
One Two Films (Germany)
Fred Burle, Sol Bondy
KeplerFilm (Netherlands)
Koji Nelissen, Derk-Jan Warrink
Barents Film (Norway)
Ingrid Lill Høgtun
The Imaginarium Films (Jordan)
Rula Nasser
Paradise City Sales (France)
Alexandre Moreau
Film Clinic (Egypt - MENA)
Jessica Khoury
Paradiso (Netherlands - Benelux)
Edgar Daarnhouwer
Kalamata Film - CIS Region
Elizaveta Orlova
Director’s statement
During the war in Yemen in 2015, I came across a women-only gas station in the heart of Sana’a, my hometown. While waiting in long line-ups with my sisters, I witnessed a vibrant microcosm where women from all walks of life gather with one shared purpose: to sustain and support their families. They chatted from car windows, shared food, “car-schooled” their children, and exchanged stories. Amid hardship and loss, there was laughter, resilience, and solidarity. In this space, I heard deeply personal accounts of life during war—of separation, struggle, and survival. Although initially I hoped to capture this world in a documentary, social and security constraints made filming impossible. Yet, the spirit of those women stayed with me, inspiring The Station, my first fiction film, born of their strength, sisterhood, and unwavering will to persevere amid chaos.
Biographies
Sara Ishaq is a Yemeni-Scottish filmmaker whose debut short Karama Has No Walls (2012) earned nominations for an Academy Award and a Bafta New Talent Award. Her feature-length documentary The Mulberry House (2013) premiered at the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam and aired on Al Jazeera English. She is now completing her debut fiction feature The Station, and a Sundance-funded documentary. Ishaq co-founded Yemen’s Comra Academy in 2017 and manages the International Coalition for Filmmakers at Risk in Amsterdam.
Nadia Eliewat is a Jordanian producer, screenwriter, and script editor. She founded Screen Project in 2015 and became CEO and Creative Director of UAE-based Ta Films in 2022, and merged the two companies in 2025. She co-wrote and is producing The Station, which won the Final Cut prize at the Venice International Film Festival in 2025, and co-wrote and produced Mahbas (2016), and Yellow Bus (2023), which was selected for the Toronto International Film Festival. She made her debut with When Monaliza Smiled (2012). Eliewat taught filmmaking at the American University in Dubai from 2010 through 2017 and is an associate professor.
Kalamata Film, RPC VENTURE HOLDINGS, Jordan Film Fund, DFI, AFAC, FFA, Medienboard Berlin Brandenburg, ZDF/ARTE, Région IDF, CNC ACM, HBF, Dutch Production Incentive, SØRFOND
February 2026
