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Films of Change from the Middle East
5 & 6 November - Mini Arab Film Festival at Leiden International Film Festival 2013
'400 Years of Arabic' and the Leiden International Film Festival (LIFF) are excited to offer you 'Films of Change from the Middle East' during the 2013 edition of LIFF.
We have selected recent films by two young prizewinning filmmakers from the Middle East and invited these directors to suggest a movie that was inspirational to their own work.
On Tuesday 5 November, we will show Annemarie Jacir's 'When I Saw You' followed by her movie of choice 'The Runner (Davendeh).
On Wednesday 6 November, Egyptian filmmaker Ahmad Abdalla will personally (!) introduce his movie 'Microphone' as well as his movie of choice 'The City/Al Medina'. Ahmad Abdalla will also be present to answer questions from the audience.
We have selected recent films by two young prizewinning filmmakers from the Middle East and invited these directors to suggest a movie that was inspirational to their own work.
On Tuesday 5 November, we will show Annemarie Jacir's 'When I Saw You' followed by her movie of choice 'The Runner (Davendeh).
On Wednesday 6 November, Egyptian filmmaker Ahmad Abdalla will personally (!) introduce his movie 'Microphone' as well as his movie of choice 'The City/Al Medina'. Ahmad Abdalla will also be present to answer questions from the audience.
Tickets can be bought via the Leiden International Film Festival
Tuesday 5 November
When I Saw You - Annemarie Jacir
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Annemarie Jacir is an independent filmmaker and screenwriter living in Jordan. Named one of Filmmaker magazine’s 25 New Faces of Independent Cinema, two of her films have premiered as Official Selections at the Cannes Film Festival, one as an Academy Award qualifier, and one in Venice. Her first feature film, Salt of this Sea, was Palestine’s Official Oscar Entry for Best Foreign Language Film and was also noted as the first feature film directed by a Palestinian woman.
More info: When I Saw You |
Tuesday 5 November
18.30-20.18 Kijkhuis 1
Jordan, 1967. The world is alive with change: brimming with reawakened energy, new styles, music and an infectious sense of hope. In Jordan, a different kind of change is underway as tens of thousands of refugees pour across the border from Palestine. Having been separated from his father in the chaos of war, Tarek, 11, and his mother Ghaydaa, are amongst this latest wave of refugees. Placed in “temporary” refugee camps made up of tents and prefab houses until they would be able to return, they wait, like the generation before them who arrived in 1948. With difficulties adjusting to life in Harir camp and a longing to be reunited with his father, Tarek searches a way out, and discovers a new hope emerging with the times. Eventually his free spirit and curious nature lead him to a group of people on a journey that will change their lives. When I Saw You is the story of people affected by the times around them, in search of something more in their lives. A journey full of adventure, love, humor, and the desire to be free, but most of all this is a story about that moment in a person's life when he wakes up and finds the whole world is open and everything is possible - that moment you feel most alive. It is a journey of the human spirit that knows no borders.
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The Runner/Davandeh - Amir Naderi
(Annemarie Jacir's 'retrospective')
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Tuesday 5 November
20.45-22.35 Kijkhuis 1
The Runner is a 1985 film by Amir Naderi, one of the major directors of Iranian cinema before and after the Iranian Revolution. Naderi’s greatest international success, 'The Runner' was the film that ignited interest in the post-revolutionary Iranian cinema.
Naderi tells the story of a young orphan, Amiro a young Iranian boy who has lost his home during the Iran - Iraq war. He lives in south of Iran in a port ,spends his days by working odd jobs, dreaming about immigration to foreign countries, until he realizes that the only way that he can realize his dreams is by enrolling in school and working so hard for his goals. Finally there is a competition to see who can run faster and catch a part of ice. Amiro is the winner, because of his strong will. This film has been influential in the work of filmmaker Annemarie Jacir (When I Saw You). |
Wednesday 6 November
Microphone - Ahmad Abdalla
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Ahmad Abdalla is a filmmaker from Cairo, Egypt. He is the director of Rags & Tatters, Microphone and Heliopolis. Graduated from the Faculty of Music Education, worked as a film editor from 2003.
Ahmad Abdalla is the winner of the Golden Tulip from Istanbul International Film Festival, Tanit d'or from Journées cinématographiques de Carthage, Griot Best Film of African Film Festival of Tarifa, Best Arabic film from Cairo International Film Festival. He also won the Deutsche Welle Best Of Blogs award at 2008 for his arabic personal blog. More info on his work is on his website. |
Wednesday 6 November
18.30-20.15 Kijkhuis 2
Upon returning to his native Alexandria after traveling abroad in the United States for several years, Khaled discovers that time has altered and severed many of his prior relationships, namely between he and his former flame, Hadeer. Feeling alone and rejected, Khaled wanders the city and quickly stumbles into a new world: the underground arts scene. As he becomes increasingly enchanted with this counterculture movement, Khaled crosses paths with street hip-hoppers, rooftop rockers, graffiti artists and documentary filmmakers. Captivated by this diverse intersection of creativity, he attempts to pull together his limited resources in the hopes of supporting the onslaught of fresh talent. It is not long before his professional and personal life become completely immersed in music, film and art, a movement all the more extraordinary for it having not emerged from Cairo, Egypt’s bustling capital city.
NB Microphone is shot before the uprisings in Egypte. Director Ahmad Abdalla will be present for a Q&A |
The City/El Madina - Yousry Nasrallah
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Wednesday 6 November
21.15-23.18 Kijkhuis 2
Ali, a young man from Rod al-Farag, one of Cairo’s many working poor neighborhoods, dreams of becoming an actor, an entirely unlikely aspiration in the universe in which he lives. As the wholesale fruit and vegetable market from which he makes a living is to be relocated to al-Ubur, to the far edges of Cairo, his life is about to take a turn. He is pressed by family and friends to accept what life has served him, and face the dim prospect of down payments and moving his trade to the new inhospitable neighborhood. Instead, he chooses to rebel and escapes to France. With false papers, he finds work as a boxer in rigged matches, and learns that acting and lying are not the same thing”, and that Paris, is after all, not so different from Cairo.
This film has been influential in the work of filmmaker Ahmad Abdalla (Microphone). |
