Sanctity en andere korte films van Arabische vrouwen
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Long feature films by contemporary Arab women filmmakers are rarely screened in the West, but even rarer in European cinemas are new short films by Arab female directors. The programme “Where Do We Go Now?” – Arab Women behind the Camera features three recent short productions portraying the life of young women in the Arab world.
Unfortunately Ahd Kamel (Sanctity) will not be able to attend the Q&A session. Due to an ear infection she is not allowed to travel. We wish Ahd well.
Sanctity (La sainteté) Ahd Kamel (Saudi-Arabia, 2013) Arab spoken, English subtitles. 37”
Areej is a pregnant young woman in Saudi Arabia who has lost her husband unexpectedly. Being an orphan, it is customary that her in-laws now look after her. But her brother-in-law Abdullah refuses to support her. Areej needs to pay off a debt first, or else he will take possession of her house. Director Ahd Kamel offers a portrait of a resilient young Arab woman who manages to survive in times of great stress.
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El Boston El Saeed Street Maysoon El Massry (Egypt 2014) Arab spoken, English subtitles. 16”
Seventy-year-old Saied returns to the street where he grew up as a child, looking for things that once existed. As he passes worn buildings in search of the house of his sweetheart Narges, memories come back to him. Then he meets a postman, who throws out the letters that are left undelivered. Saied walks with him and tells him the story of his life on El Bostan El Saeed Street.
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Al Hamali Amal Al-Muftah (Qatar, 2014), Arab spoken, English subtitles. 5”
Short documentary on porters (“hamalis”) in Souq Waqif in Doha, Quatar”s liveliest market, where elderly men help people carry their shopping in return for a meagre fee. Al-Muftah”s short documentary about the tough life of the hamalis received 100,000 hits on YouTube.
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Iskenderia, Mayye Zayed, (Egypt 2012) 8”
Experimental montage of fragments from famous Egyptian narrative films, the documentary Sunken Ruins of Cleopatra's Palace, Constantine P. Cavafy”s poem The City and passages from Michel de Certeau”s book The Practice of Everyday Life.
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The Cup Reader (Palestine 2012) Suha Araj, 12”
A comedy about Arab women who fail to get married “in time”.
This is part of
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Where Do We Go Now?
‘Powerful, poignant, vibrant and provocative’, is how guest curator Ludmila Cvikova – Head of International Programming at the Doha Film Institute in Qatar from 2011 to 2014 – qualifies her selection of award-winning films.
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