My Favourite Fabric (En Sevdiğim Kumaş)

My Favourite Fabric (Mon tissu préféré) is the feature debut of Syrian director Gaya Jiji, inspired by her personal memories from her years exiled in Paris. The 2018 drama is an Arabic-language co-production between France, Germany and Turkey, with a screenplay credited to Jiji and Eiji Yamazaki.

Set in Damascus in 2011, as Syria slides toward civil war, the story follows Nahla, a 25-year-old woman suffocated by her traditional life and yearning for freedom. Played by Manal Issa, Nahla pins her hopes on an arranged marriage to Samir, a Syrian immigrant living in the United States, only to see him choose her more docile sister Myriam instead. She then grows close to her mysterious new neighbour Jiji, discovering a world she never knew and beginning to rediscover herself. The film premiered in the Un Certain Regard section of the 2018 Cannes Film Festival and was released theatrically in 2019.