
Nefise Özkal Lorentzen
2021Seyran Ateş: Sex, Revolution and Islam
Nefise Özkal Lorentzen
Seyran Ateş
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.
Seyran Ateş: Sex, Revolution and Islam

En ballong til Allah
Nefise Özkal Lorentzen
Nefise Özkal Lorentzen
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 Balloon for Allah

Mannislam: Maskulinitet og Islam
Nefise Özkal Lorentzen
Naif Al-Mutawa, Ihsan Eliaçık
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.
Manislam: Islam and Masculinity

Gender Me: Homosexuality and Islam
Nefise Özkal Lorentzen
Mansour Saberi, Abdullah
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: Homosexuality and Islam

En gave fra Gud
Jørgen Lorentzen, Nefise Özkal Lorentzen
Can Atakli, Henri Barkey
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.
A Gift from God
