Posts tagged film

El sheita elli fat

Amr Waked Winter of Discontent is set against the momentous backdrop of the whirlwind protests in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, beginning on 25 January 2011. Activist Amr, journalist Farah, and State Security officer Adel experience a shifting reality in the days and nights leading up to the resignation of President Mubarak. As the stories of these characters unfold, they are propelled headlong into the heady, often surreal atmosphere of terror, uncertainty, and mass euphoria that surrounded those days that shaped history.

Best Actor Award for Amr Waked at the Dubai Film Festival 2012

A screening of the film Papa Hedi followed by a Q&A session with Claire Belhassine

Hedi Jouini has been described as the Frank Sinatra of the Arab world and remains one of Tunisia’s best-loved musicians. Claire Belhassine was in her 20s and living in London when she discovered that Jouini was her grandfather. This film charts Claire’s journey as she unravels the story of her grandfather’s legacy within Tunisian popular culture and the divisive effects his success had on her own family. In association with Shubbak – A Window on Contemporary Arab Culture.

Sunday 30 June, 11.00–12.30 Stevenson Lecture Theatre

The film Sanctity tells the story of Areej, a young, pregnant Saudi widow, who will do anything to protect her unborn child. Kamel not only wrote and directed the film, she also played the leading role. It was shot on location in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and is her second film. Igal Avidan met her in Berlin and asked her about women’s rights and film-making in a country that has no cinemas.

2013 London Palestine Film Festival

This year’s programme comprises 24 events at the Barbican Cinema and University of London, involving 38 titles, 24 guest speakers, and the UK’s first international conference on Palestine and the Moving Image.

Opening with a gala screening of David Koff’s trailblazing 1981 documentary, Occupied Palestine, the 2013 programme boasts historic depth with rarities including a thematic session marking the 25th anniversary of the first intifada, and an outing for Elia Suleiman’s debut, Homage by Assassination (part of 1991 portmanteau The Gulf War… What Next?).

For the 7th consecutive edition, Beirut DC is organizing Ayam Beirut Al Cinema’iya (Cinema Days of Beirut) Arab Film Festival, which is taking place from the 15th until the 24th of March 2013 in Cinema Metropolis Empire Sofil, Ashrafieh.

This edition includes more than 50 films, varying between feature length films, documentaries and short films, in addition to panels, networking sessions and master classes.

What is distinctive in this edition is that it witnesses the birth of a new Arab cinema coming from new countries, marking their spot on the international cinema route for the first time. The opening film, “Wadjda” by Saudi filmmaker Haifa Al Mansour just participated in Venice Film Festival, one of the most prestigious international film festivals and took several awards at the Dubai International Film Festival.

Reel Iraq 2013 marks 10 years since the US and UK led military invasion, against which the world mobilised in solidarity with the people of Iraq. Reel Iraq will explore the contribution of art, culture and creativity to Iraqi life in a time of conflict, with over 50 events taking place in London, Edinburgh, Bristol, Glasgow, Dumfries, Leeds, Derry/Londonderry, Newcastle and Stirling.

Human Rights Watch Film Festival

London 13 to 22 March 2013

Film Festival: Celebrating Arab Women Filmmakers, 3-10 April 2013 

BFI Southbank, Barbican, ICA & Hackney Picturehouse

In My Mother’s Arms + Q&A Mohamed & Atia Al Daradji

Thursday 21st February, 2013 at 6:30pm
The Lexi Cinema London 

In a dangerous district in Baghdad Husham cares fiercely for a group of 32 young orphans, some whose parents have been killed, some who have run away, but all who have been abused and abandoned by the state.

When their landlord gives the group just two weeks to vacate the only house they have ever felt safe in a panicked search for new shelter ensues. Fighting tirelessly to continue to build on the boys’ hopes, dreams and prospects while also keeping them from being reclaimed by the state, Husham crosses religious and racial divides to find help.

IN MY MOTHER’S ARMS is the story of some of the Iraq war’s biggest victims, children, trying to live out the bittersweet dramas of childhood, against a far more threatening backdrop.

Watch the powerful and hard-hitting documentary that has given the issue of acid violence global attention. Channel 4 will be showing the film on 16th January 2013 at 10pm.

Directed by Daniel Junge and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, Saving Face profiles two survivors of acid violence in Pakistan. The film follows them as they try to come to terms with their attacks, rebuild their lives and bring the perpetrators to justice. Saving Face highlights the work of Dr Muhammad Ali Jawad, pioneering British Pakistani plastic surgeon who worked for Islamic Help to treat the two survivors who are the subject of the film.

Al-Khoroug Lel-Nahar / Coming Forth by Day by Hala Lotfy (EGYPT)

Winner of the Golden Wihr for best feature film at the end of the sixth edition of the Oran Arab Film Festival in Algeria on 22 December 2012.

IT WAS BETTER TOMORROW

Winner of Muhr Arab / Documentary /Best Director: Hinde Boujemaa (Director)

SYNOPSIS: Aida, a homeless Tunisian woman tells us nothing has changed in Tunis after the fall of Ben Ali. In the aftermath of the uprisings, she wanders from one neighbourhood to the next in search of shelter for her children. According to Aida, the authorities continue to humiliate the Tunisian people and trample on women. In the film that documents – through her - the incessant suffering of the Tunisians, despite the death of a dictatorship and the hope of a democracy.

Dubai International Film Festival