In the shadow of the grand AFM and AFI events currently taking place this weekend in Los Angeles, another festival with similar initials, AFF, is kicking off. The Arab Film Festival from October 31st through November 4th is happening in Los Angeles this weekend at the WRITERS GUILD THEATER. This is a festival that, while smaller in scope and reach than the monster festival, may have more global importance than any other film gathering in town this week. I know, it’s a bold statement, but hey, I’m a bold girl.
Good stuff in the line-up. All L.A. Premieres.
Centerpiece Screening of FALAFEL epitomizes the notion that, maybe they’re not so different than us? Hot girls, parties, yummy food in Beirut – and a good storyline to boot!
Also, there are a couple of great docs, both interesting and really important.
USA VS AL-ARIAN – Sami Al-Arian was a Florida State professor and a Palestinian activist who was charged with terrorism by the US Government after 9/11. Held in jail for 2 years, when he finally went to trial he was acquitted on every count. Yet, even then, he was still unable to go free. Wherever you may fall on the question of Israel/Palestine, this movie is a chilling portrait of the current state of the American justice system and freedom of speech.
I LOVE HIP HOP IN MOROCCO – The name basically speaks for itself, but it’s an incredibly fun doc that also manages to show how kids in Morocco are using hip hop as an avenue to fight for their rights.
SALATA BALADI – The antidote to the idea of ‘us against them,” this Egyptian doc follows one family as they explore the their diverse ethnic and religious background made up of Italians, Palestinians, Egyptians, Israelis, Russians, Turks, Christians, Jews and Muslims. The name, which translates as both “Egyptian Salad” and “Mixed Salad” captures the tone perfectly.
Oh yeah, and the filmmakers are going to be at all of these screenings.
Tickets and details: Arab Film Festival
This entry is embarrassingly overdue. Not only did this film come out in the beginning of 2006, but I saw it in 2006! That said, I’m still thinking about it, and still thinking that others should see it.
THESE GIRLS, a documentary by Tahani Rached, is one of the most emotional and beautiful documentaries I’ve seen in a very long time. It follows the lives of a group of Cairene street girls as they deal with the tragically standard list of daily obstacles one might expect from street life; poverty, drugs, rape, abuse, pregnancy. But, surprisingly, you don’t have to be a masochist to enjoy this film. What makes it so remarkable, in fact, is not the tragedy of it all, but that the girls are so damn sassy, moody, hilarious and tough.
THESE GIRLS was shown at Cannes, Toronto and The NY Film Fest in 2006 and has received loads of great reviews. I’d been waiting to see this doc for quite some time as I’ve been a huge fan of the Lebanese-Canadian director since seeing her insightful documentary, FOUR WOMEN OF EGYPT in 1997. I finally got around to seeing it while in Dubai. What I find so extraordinary about Rached is that she, better than any other director I can think of, knows how to capture the simultaneous lightheartedness and boldness of so many Egyptian women. Anyone with preexisting notion of “the passive Arab woman” will find their opinions in check after seeing either of these movies. Both THESE GIRLS and FOUR WOMEN OF EGYPT are distributed by Women Make Movies.
Buy THESE GIRLS here
And FOUR WOMEN OF EGYPT here
This Moroccan film premiered at the Venice Film Fest last September and despite its off-putting title, I was surprised at how much I liked it. The second feature film from director Faouzi Bensaidi, it follows the intertwining lives of four characters in contemporary Casablanca: a female traffic cop, a hit man, a sometimes prostitute and an Internet-savvy teenager.
Surprisingly, all of his cinematic nods to other films (Kill Bill, Amelie, Chung King Express) actually made me appreciate his talent more, as opposed to convince me of his lack of inspiration. Like a good hip-hop song, it felt like a new story built on layers of tradition.
I especially loved the performance of Nezha Rahil who is so silly and cute as she performs a her love-induced traffic control dance on a raised platform in the middle of a roundabout that it becomes nearly impossible to resist her charms.
Here’s a fairly old, but good review of it from Variety.
Greetings from the Dubai International Film Festival! As promised, I have seen almost exclusively Arabic language films while here, (often sadly having to pass up some good-looking Bollywood fare) and I am pleased to say there are a few winners.
In the past, I have been known to go on and on about how there needs to be an Arab film revolution in which filmmakers embrace the humor and irony that is so prevalent in everyday Arab cultural life and chill out on all the heavy, earnest issue-driven content. How about some good old-fashioned entertainment in addition to the wide range of ‘educating through film’ films? Or even better, how about having both in the same film?
With the documentary V.H.S. - KAHLOUCHA my prayers have been answered. This Tunisian feature documentary, by Nejib Belkadhi, follows the filmmaking efforts of small town movie director/house painter, Mouncef Kahloucha. Using his neighbors as actors, cameraman, editors, stuntmen, he rallies nearly everyone to get involved in his original production, “Tarzan of the Arabs.” I’m not quite sure what is better: watching him stage the elaborate fight scenes with the local body builder turned stunt man, his impersonations of Clint Eastwood, or seeing everyone in his community (both those in Tunisia and those living illegally in Italy) hysterically laughing as Kahloucha tackles a stuffed goat while wearing only a loin cloth.
Beyond the comedic element of this doc, the real genius comes from the fact that Belkadhi exposes many of the major social problems in this poor Tunisian district: poverty, alcoholism, crime, unemployment, emigration, but never makes us feel like we’re eating our spinach.
This film was selected for the World Documentary Program at Sundance 2007 and I’m very curious to see how it plays for an audience there.
There is much to be excited about now that the Dubai Int’l Film Festival has posted their entire program on their website. This whole event is going to be one big ol’ love fest for me. I sorta feel like all those overly excited geeks the week before Comicon comes to town.
Overwhelmed by all this new information, I must start somewhere. All I know (and care) about are the Arabic films (I don’t know about the rest of you, but I ain’t flyin’ half way around the world to go watch Bobby) and I think that the shorts are fair place to begin.
Two excellent Palestinian shorts are competing in the Muhr Awards/Short Film Competition Program. Oddly, they’re both about little kids. Perhaps both the directors recognize the need for the world to see Palestinians as human beings. And really, aren’t cute kids a little more human than the rest of us jaded and bitter assholes?
ITAMANAH (Make a Wish) by Cherien Dabis was funded and produced (at least partly, I think) by the National Geographic All Roads Film Project. It’s about a little girl in Ramallah who attempts to raise enough money to buy a birthday cake. Pushed to the edge in desperation, she and her little sister become quasi-hustlers for a day. It’s beautifully shot and the performances Cherien got out of these two little girls was quite remarkable.
BE QUIET by Sameh Zoabi won 2nd place at Cannes for best short in 2005. It has some similar themes as La Vita e Bella, in that a father attempts give his son an optimistic view of the world in the most hopeless of situations, but in this case it’s while travelling through the Occupied Territories.
Finally, showing in the Arabian Nights Program is SABE’E KELAB (The Seventh Dog) by Zienna Durra. This short addresses the issues that two privileged young Arabs face/d while living in New York City after 9/11. I expect some critics will say, “When you’re a rich Arab living abroad, engaging in politics is optional. Why should we care about this couple?” In response to that, I say that this short conveys a simple and important point to which people should probably give a little more credence: “Don’t hate Arabs! They’re so hot and stylish!”
Make A Wish Clip
The Seventh Dog Trailer
The Dubai International Film Festival (Dec 10th - Dec 17th) has begun announcing it’s line-up and there are a number of Arab films of note.
Premiering at the festival is director Khaled Youssef’s KHIYANA SHAREYYAH (Justified Cheating), whose work tends to be influenced by the style of his mentor, acclaimed Egyptian filmmaker, Youssef Chahine. According to a festival press release, the film “tells the story of a young, rich man, Hani Salama, who kills his wife and brother when he finds them in a compromising situation. Told from shifting perspectives in the style of Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon, the film captures the imagination of the audience with its brilliant screenplay and technical execution.” Historically speaking, Egyptian cinema has not been known to mess with narrative structure. This departure will turn out either surprisingly inventive or typically cringy. Despite the fact that I wasn’t a fan of two of his other films, AL-ASIFA and ENTA OMRI, I’m sure I’ll see this one because I’m a sucker for the boyish charms of Hani Salama. (Or, as I often refer lovingly, Hani Salami)
Also competing for best Arabic film is Moroccan Faouzi Bennsaidi’s “WWW—WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD”, Michel Kammoun’s “FALAFEL” and the movie I may never shut up about, Rachid Bouchareb’s ”INDIGENES."
I’m hoping to attend the fest this year so there should be lots more where this came from. Get excited!
I got a bit of flak from y’all about saying there were too many docs about Iraq. Come on, guys. I KNOW it’s important. Perhaps the MOST important political issue out there today. But that doesn’t mean we have to suck it up and watch bad filmmaking, does it? Anyway, I just found this interview with John Sinno, founder of Arab Film Distribution, producer of IRAQ IN FRAGMENTS, and previously referenced here.
I felt mildly validated when he said, “The thing is, and documentaries already are at a disadvantage for distribution. A documentary about Iraq is even more at a disadvantage. And couple that with an over-saturation in the market - that basically kept a lot of people away from distributing this film.”
Read the full interview here
Think there are already too many documentaries about the war in Iraq? Yeah, me too. Except finally there is one actually worth seeing.
This weekend, IRAQ IN FRAGMENTS will be released in art houses across America. Not only is James Longley, the director, a serious, intelligent and seemingly fearless documentarian, he’s also a remarkable artist. Having struggled through the unsteady and often nauseating camera work of docs like VOICES OF IRAQ and GUNNER PALACE, spending an hour and a half in Longley’s Iraq feels like a complicated exercise in psychologically reconciling the breathtaking beauty of tragedy.
This film took the prize for best directing, editing and cinematography at Sundance this year, in addition to tons of other awards at festivals across the globe. Just go see it already.
Trailer
Website
While my little Hollywood world is in the midst of AFI madness, another, not so glamorous festival is already underway. The Arabian Sights Film Festival hosted by the Washington DC International Film Festival is happening Oct. 27th through Nov. 5th (I know, I’m a little late, but you still have a whole weekend to pack in Arab movies!)
I’ve already discussed a number of the films showing at the fest on twitch, like Ahlaam and Bosta. I’ll take this opportunity to talk about another film that represents, probably more than any other film in the festival, the current state of Arab films made for Arab audiences. ”Lailat Suqout Baghdad,” aka The Night Baghdad Fell, is an Egyptian black comedy that projects what life would be like if, after the Americans invaded Baghdad, their next stop were Cairo. The film received a lot of heat for being outwardly anti-American, but on second look, it does a lot more to mock Egyptians than anyone else.
A highlight: When the wife of lovable, hashish-addicted Tariq can’t seem to get her husband inspired for sex, she dresses up like Condoleezza Rice and let’s him finally feel like a man again. When I saw this movie in a theatre in Cairo, this joke killed. Sadly, I’m not that sure the humor is really going to fly with an American audience - and I can only imagine how unfunny that translation is going to be. That said, for all those well-trained ‘Arab experts’ listening to phone taps in northern Virginia, seeing this silly little movie might give a better glimpse into that ever enigmatic ‘Arab Mind,’ than any Al-Jazeera report will ever do.
And the Director Mohammad Amin is going to be there. (It should be mentioned that one of his previous films, ‘A Cultural Film,” is a whole movie about three young guys trying to watch a porno. Nice!)
As much as I’m excited about new developments in Arab film, as a cinephile, it’s hard not to feel nostalgic for what is referred to as “The Golden Era of Egyptian Cinema.” Although it’s little known in the Western world, millions of people long for the kind of cinematic indulgence that they once experienced at theatres with names like Metro Cinema from Casablanca to Baghdad. Cairo in the 1940s and 50s gave us films with chic clothing, catchy music, sweet-faced actresses (oh Faten Hamama...sigh) and most importantly, a distinct optimism about modernity that now, due to years of suffocating, despotic rule, is all but absent from Egyptian artistic production.
For those who want to familiarize themselves with these great films, there are only a few options. Like me, you can get Arabic satelite on Dish Network (an unlikely option for most). You can move to Dearborn, MI or Jersey City, NJ where there are enough Arab immigrants to warrant whole video stores devoted to Arabic-language media (even more unlikely). You can move to the Arab World (most unlikely). Or, for the rest of you, there is Arab Film Distribution.
In 1990, John Sinno of Seattle started this distribution company with 5 Arabic DVDs. In recent years that number has exploded and in addition to distributing nearly every quality (and sometimes not so quality) Arab-related documentary out there, he is distributing tons of great, restored Egyptian classics on DVD with English subtitles. This is basically THE place to see these movies. So check it out. I’d be happy give recommendations.
And while I’m on the subject of old Egyptian movies, I should mention an excellent resource for vintage Arabic movie posters. Check out this site. Not only is there an endless list of kitchy Egyptian posters, there are some fun Arabic posters of non-Arabic movies. Give your sweetheart an Arabic poster of ‘Die Hard III’ for the holidays and she’ll never say goodbye.
Remember how I mentioned in an earlier post the two varieties of Arab cinema? High-brow art films for Western audiences and low-brow Egyptian films for Arab audiences. Well, here comes the unfortunate addendum to that list. Religious Propaganda films for...umm...no idea.
A member of the Muslim Brotherhood (Egypt’s Islamist organization and main opposition to the current government) has announced that he will start shooting the bio-pic of Hassan Al-Banna. Al-Banna is the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood and both he and Sayyid Qutb (author of Social Justice in Islam) are often credited with the modern call for a return to an Islamic state. Groups like Hamas are driven by the ideology associated with the Muslim Brotherhood. His movie will be called, “Hassan Al-Banna — An Unfinished Journey” and will be funded by Al-Banna’s family, among others. Sadly, I’m quite skeptical that this movie is going to really push the ‘art of filmmaking’ forward. Argh.
Full article here
I realize that Twitch has covered the foreign-language official Oscar submissions previously this month but since five of them are from Arab countries, I thought I’d take this opportunity to examine those more closely. For the record, five films may not seem like a big accomplishment to you, since this represents only about 25% of all Arab countries, but when you take into account countries like Saudi Arabia, that have zero movie theatres, this feels really big. Good job guys!
Of the five that have been submitted, I’ve already discussed Egypt’s The Yacoubian Building and Algeria’s Indigenes.
From Lebanon is Bosta by Philippe Aractingi. Lebanese people LOVE this movie. It’s a crowd-pleasing dance/road-trip story. Think The Muppet Movie meets Dirty Dancing 2: Havana Nights. (That’s a complete lie. But, seriously, how incredible would that be!?) Watch the trailer. There are no subtitles, but who needs words when you have the language of dance and heavy make-up? A useful fun fact: This was the first Lebanese film entirely financed by Lebanese money. Be sure to drop that at your next dinner party and you’re sure to win new friends.
Website and trailer here.
From Iraq is Dreams (Ahlaam) by Mohamed Al-Daradji. They’re claiming this is the first feature shot in Iraq since the fall of Saddam. That’s not entirely true considering Oday Rasheed’s Underexposure took that prize in 2003. Either way, Ahlaam has gotten some good reviews from international press.
Website, trailer and press found here.
From Morocco is The Moroccan Symphony by Kamal Kamal. Not much online besides a synopsis. I’ll keep looking.
According to this article, Egyptian director Khaled El-Hagar, is in post-production with Egypt’s first musical film, MAFEESH GHEIR KIDA (Nothing But That). Now, just to set the record straight, that’s a lie. Admittedly, there haven’t been many musicals in recent years, but nearly every classic Egyptian film from the 1940’s and 50’s was a musical. They had all the great singers like Om Kalthoum and Mohamed Abd El-Wahab and that’s why everyone was so obsessed with them. Get it right, man!
Anyway, this new film has a fairly good cast with Nabila Ebeid, Khaled Abu El-Naga (in photo - who made an impressive crossover performance with CIVIC DUTY), Rola Mahmoud, and Ahmed Azmy. And the director Khaled El-Hagar isn’t half bad. He’s been called ‘the Egyptian Almodovar” which seems like a major stretch to me, but his last movie HOB AL-BANAT (Girl’s Love) was, albeit, quite predictable, but also fun and light in a Doris Day meets Bollywood sort of way. I’m optimistic, perhaps naively, that this next film will have some of the whimsy that makes Egyptian movies fans so nostalgic for the past.
Speaking of…
From Time Europe Edition:
“Rachid Bouchareb is the director and co-writer of Indigènes, a film opening in France this week that tells the little-known story of soldiers from the French colonies who fought to liberate France from German occupation. Indigènes, has become more than a movie — it’s an active campaign that has already changed France’s policy regarding veteran’s pensions.” More here.
Gillo Pontecorvo, director of THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS, died this week. I didn’t see this movie about the Algerian resistance against French occupation when it came out in 1967 (when it was banned in France), but I did see it in college, 35 years later, right in the middle of my, ‘Oh, the horrors of Colonialism!’ awakening and it certainly fueled the flames. If you haven’t ever seen it, you should, especially since the Criterion Collection put out a boxed set last year (with commentary by Mira Nair, Spike Lee, and Julian Schnabel to name a few) AND because the themes of terrorism and resistance seem more relevant today than ever.
That said, the real reason I mentioned this movie is because last week I saw a screening of the French/Algerian production of INDIGÈNES (or DAYS OF GLORY - but just try to say the French title because the English is so cheesy) by Rachid Boucharib. This won for best actor (the four leads collectively) at Cannes and showed at Toronto this year, so it’s not really new news, but it’s showing at AFI on November 9th and 10th, and if you know what’s good for you, you’ll go see it. It’s about the African soldiers - with a focus on North Africans - who fought in the French army during WWII. In addition to being incredibly well done, the aftermath of the film is perhaps even more impressive than the film itself. As a result of the film, “French President Jacques Chirac has announced that the pensions of foreign soldiers who fought in the French army are to be brought into line with those of French ones. The pensions were frozen in 1959 - “crystallised”, in the official language - meaning that 80,000 veterans in 23 countries receive less than one-third of the amount given to their French counterparts.” The whole BBC article.
INDIGÈNES trailer
