"For the past seven years Muhi, a brave and spirited Palestinian boy has been living in an Israeli hospital, unable to return to his home in Gaza. Caught between two worlds and two peoples, Muhi is raised in paradoxical circumstances that transcend identity, religion and the conflict that divides his world. His time at the … Continue reading Documentary “Muhi – Generally Temporary”
Category: Film
I recently went to see Capernaum at Picturehouse Central. When we left, my friend commented, "that was heavy." And it was, heavy in a way that felt difficult to process immediately, beyond that familiar discomfort of watching a film like this as entertainment, as people around us ate popcorn and checked their phones. During the … Continue reading Capernaum
The fourth edition of SAFAR is taking place at the ICA and the Institut Francais, running from 13-18 September. The festival, curated by Joseph Fahim, included films from Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, and Palestine, the genres ranging from adaptations, "creative documentaries," shorts and features. The full program can be found here. I attended the second … Continue reading SAFAR Film Festival
I went to see Philippe Van Leeuw's much-acclaimed Insyriated recently, with that by now familiar conflicted feeling about the lines between entertainment and reality. After the most recent events in Ghouta -- so difficult to watch, so easy to scroll past on social media timelines -- that unease was all the more present as we … Continue reading Insyriated
The Uppsala short film festival which ran from 23-29 October this week included a series called Lebanon Now, with four short films from Lebanon: Submarine, In White, Maki and Zorro, and Street of Death. Submarine imagines the garbage crisis continuing on into the future rendering Lebanon uninhabitable. As the program describes it: Under the imminent … Continue reading Lebanon Now: Uppsala Short Film Festival
Listening to Cairokee's Keif (Fix) recently, I was reminded to look up another crowdfunded project from a couple of years ago -- this one on Mahragan music and dance. The project was first put up on the site back in 2014, the idea being to make a documentary on the Mahragan movement, focusing on the … Continue reading Mahragan Music
Gaza Surf Club is a documentary film directed by Philip Gnadt and Mickey Yamine about surfers in Gaza. The film focuses mostly on three people: the main protagonist, Ibrahim, a 23-year-old man who wants to go to Hawaii to train and learn, Sabah, a 15-year-old girl who once loved to swim but has had to … Continue reading Gaza Surf Club
There are films from 92 countries entered for the Foreign Film category of the Oscars. Among these are eight films from Arabic-speaking countries. Several of the films deal in various ways with the impact of the conflict in Syria. There is the documentary from Syria, “Little Gandhi,” which follows the life and death of Syrian … Continue reading Arab Films Entered for Oscars
Amanda Bailly's film 8 Borders, 8 Days follows a Syrian woman, Sham, and her two children as they travel from Lebanon to Germany. In the beginning, during the parts in Syria and Lebanon, animation is used effectively to describe the problems Sham is fleeing in trying to reach Europe, and why the notion of … Continue reading Film: 8 Borders, 8 Days
‘On Arab Geographies’ brings together screenings of eight critically-acclaimed contemporary Arab films from across the region, as well as Q&A sessions and panel discussions on filmmaking in the region. The program runs from May 4-6. See the full schedule here. It is curated by Rabih El Khoury, who described it as a "travelogue": “This program aims to be a travelogue … Continue reading “On Arab Geographies”: Film Screenings in Abu Dhabi, May 4-6
The short film Alia directed by Raghed Charabaty is a "haunting and poetic glimpse into the flashpoint that started the Lebanese Civil War." In the film, a man reminisces about Alia and "the last few moments before the death of his beloved" which are imagined as marking the beginning of the Lebanese Civil War. The monologue is spoken like … Continue reading Remediating Fairuz
D-Caf (Downtown Contemporary Arts Festival) returns for its fifth edition on March 31 running until April 22. "Egypt’s only international multi-disciplinary contemporary arts festival," D-CAF has everything from literature readings to concerts, to film and theatre, comedy stand up and a puppet show. Dina El Wedidi and Khansa Batma open the show with a concert at Horreya Garden. … Continue reading Egyptian Arts Festival D-Caf (March 31- April 22)
The 5th edition of Luxor African Film Festival (LAFF) is scheduled to run between 17-23 March. The festival was established to remedy the lack of attention paid to African films in Egypt, with Luxor chosen to "de-centralize cultural or artistic events always organized in Cairo and Alexandria" This year LAFF is honoring Omar Sharif, who … Continue reading Luxor African Film Festival
With the 88th Academy Awards ceremony to take place this Sunday, Al Bawaba looks back at nine films from the region to be nominated for an Oscar, including Hany Abu Assad's Paradise Now (2005) and Omar (2013), and Rachid Bouchareb's Days of Glory (2006) and Outside the Law (2010), but also Incendies (2010), adapted from … Continue reading The Oscars and the Berlinale
Re:Orient in Stockholm, which arranges cultural events focusing on the Middle East, North Africa and the Balkans, is celebrating Music Freedom Day as well as International Women's Day with their week long Revolutionary Voices program from March 2-8. The program includes documentary screenings, a couple of panels and a concert, featuring Rim Banna, Tania Saleh, Dina … Continue reading Revolutionary Voices, Stockholm, March 2-8
Naji Abu Nowar's "Bedouin spaghetti western" Theeb (2014) is in the news again, only now it is the "BAFTA-winning, and Oscar nominated, Theeb." Theeb is "one of only 10 films from the MENA region to have been nominated for an Oscar for best foreign film since 1947, and of the 112 films submitted for the … Continue reading Naji Abu Nowar’s Theeb After the BAFTA
Mahmoud Sabbagh's Barakah Meets Barakah has been described as conventional in form, unconventional in setting. Surely one of the more conventional films ever to enjoy a premiere at the Berlinale's risk-embracing Forum parallel section, it's of considerable interest as a very rare cinematic export from a country where nearly all manifestations of cinema have been … Continue reading Mahmoud Sabbagh’s Barakah Meets Barakah
Inhebbek Hedi, directed by Tunisian director Mohamed Ben Attia, with Belgium's Dardenne brothers as co-producers, is "the first Arab contender in two decades" in the official competition of the Berlinale, running from 11-21 February. Hedi tells the story of "a simple young man" who "does not expect much from the life that is traced for … Continue reading Mohamed Ben Attia’s Hedi and the Berlinale
Essa Chhabra writes of five films at Sundance that "Reveal What Life Is Like in the Middle East Now." Who comes up with these headlines? The films that take on "the formidable task of telling stories from the conflict and turmoil of the Middle East" include Brian Oakes' Jim: The James Foley Story, and Elite Zexer's Sandstorm, about Bedouin … Continue reading Sundance and “The Middle East”
The Middle East & North Africa Region (MENAR) Film Festival in Sofia, Bulgaria, kicks off on January 14 and runs through the end of the month. The focus this year is on female directors - the films to be shown include Egyptian Nadine Khan's Chaos, Disorder (2012), Tunisian Kaouther Ben Hania's The Blade of Tunis … Continue reading MENAR Film Festival
Dégradé, a film by Palestinian twin brothers Tarzan and Arab Abou Nasser, forces the viewer into a claustrophobic situation and cranks up the tension to an almost unbearable degree. The title (which refers to a layered haircut but also evokes the word degradation) is an apt one, as the film uses the enclosed space of a faded … Continue reading Dégradé: An Exaggerated Drama?
Arab Hyphen 