Arab Cinema Weekend 2006 @ BAFTA, London
17- 19 March 2006
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) hosted a showcase of contemporary Arab cinema from March 17 – 19 2006. Organised by Zenith Foundation and hosted by the Academy at 195 Piccadilly, the event featured acclaimed films from across the Arab world, including Egypt, Lebanon, Iraq and Syria. The Arab cinema showcase included a number of UK premieres, and many of the filmmakers took part in public Q&A sessions. The event also included a tribute screening to the late Moustapha Akkad, the Syrian director who was tragically killed in a terrorist attack in Jordan during the previous year.We are grateful for the support received from our sponsors The International Arab Charity, Syracuse University, and the Royal Lancaster Hotel.
Dunia, Kiss Me Not On The Eyes
Acclaimed Lebanese director Jocelyne Saab tackles a young Egpytian woman’s struggles to overcome the pressures of being a modern woman with typical sensitivity and visual lyricism. Dunia, played by rising star Hanan Turk, yearns to follow in the footsteps of her mother and become a famous dancer. A childhood secret, however, continues to bore away at her, preventing her from expressing her passion for her art and the man she loves. As the plot hurtles towards a shocking end, Saab offers viewers a complex and richly rewarding portrait of contemporary Cairo, hovering skillfully between the power of dreams and nightmares.
Opening night – by invitation only
Friday 17 March
18:30 – Reception
19:00 – Screening
Acclaimed Lebanese director Jocelyne Saab tackles a young Egpytian woman’s struggles to overcome the pressures of being a modern woman with typical sensitivity and visual lyricism. Dunia, played by rising star Hanan Turk, yearns to follow in the footsteps of her mother and become a famous dancer. A childhood secret, however, continues to bore away at her, preventing her from expressing her passion for her art and the man she loves. As the plot hurtles towards a shocking end, Saab offers viewers a complex and richly rewarding portrait of contemporary Cairo, hovering skillfully between the power of dreams and nightmares.
Opening night – by invitation only
Friday 17 March
18:30 – Reception
19:00 – Screening
I Love Cinema
Playing like an Egpytian Cinema Paradiso, director Oussama Faouzi’s I Love Cinema is one of the best and most entertaining films from the “Hollywood on the Nile” for many years. A simple tale of a young boy’s love for movies set against his strict, religious father (an Egyptian Copt Christian), the film plays hard and fast with the sacred cows of sex, politics and religion. By choosing to focus on the wonderment that persists when the lights go down, the curtains part and that celestial beam from the projector is allowed to simply entertain its audiences, Faouzi reminds everyone of why Egpytian cinema used to be hailed as one of the world’s best.
Saturday 18 March
13.00
Playing like an Egpytian Cinema Paradiso, director Oussama Faouzi’s I Love Cinema is one of the best and most entertaining films from the “Hollywood on the Nile” for many years. A simple tale of a young boy’s love for movies set against his strict, religious father (an Egyptian Copt Christian), the film plays hard and fast with the sacred cows of sex, politics and religion. By choosing to focus on the wonderment that persists when the lights go down, the curtains part and that celestial beam from the projector is allowed to simply entertain its audiences, Faouzi reminds everyone of why Egpytian cinema used to be hailed as one of the world’s best.
Saturday 18 March
13.00
Zaman, Man of the Reeds
A deceptively simple tale of an elderly man forced to travel from his home, in Iraq’s marshland in the South, to Baghdad to buy his ailing wife lifesaving medicine. Filmed with panoramic beauty on the eve of the US-led invasion, sounds of planes and news reports are ominously present, and the devastating impact of sanctions on ordinary Iraqis is very much part of the story. However, Alwan, who only returned to Iraq in 2003 following years spent in France, keeps politics in the background. Instead, he films the natural beauty of his country with the elegiac nostalgia of the exile returned.
Saturday 18 March
15.30
A deceptively simple tale of an elderly man forced to travel from his home, in Iraq’s marshland in the South, to Baghdad to buy his ailing wife lifesaving medicine. Filmed with panoramic beauty on the eve of the US-led invasion, sounds of planes and news reports are ominously present, and the devastating impact of sanctions on ordinary Iraqis is very much part of the story. However, Alwan, who only returned to Iraq in 2003 following years spent in France, keeps politics in the background. Instead, he films the natural beauty of his country with the elegiac nostalgia of the exile returned.
Saturday 18 March
15.30
Passion
Syrian director Mohammad Malas tackles the insidious rise of Islamic fundamentalism with great deft in Passion. The film follows Imane, an ordinary housewife, happily married, raising two kids of her own as well as the daughter of a brother imprisoned for pro-democracy activism. From here, however, Malas pulls no punches in a powerful depiction of the repression suffered by women in Syrian society. Beautifully lensed, the film offers a rare and vivid portrayal of Damascus, a city whose mysteries have all too often remained just that for Western audiences.
Saturday 18 March
18.00
Syrian director Mohammad Malas tackles the insidious rise of Islamic fundamentalism with great deft in Passion. The film follows Imane, an ordinary housewife, happily married, raising two kids of her own as well as the daughter of a brother imprisoned for pro-democracy activism. From here, however, Malas pulls no punches in a powerful depiction of the repression suffered by women in Syrian society. Beautifully lensed, the film offers a rare and vivid portrayal of Damascus, a city whose mysteries have all too often remained just that for Western audiences.
Saturday 18 March
18.00
A Perfect Day
Awarded the Fipresci Prize at the Locarno Film Festival, the second feature from artists and film-making team Khalil Joreige and Joana Hadjithomas marks an important step in the renaissance of post-civil war Lebanese cinema. The film follows Claudia (Julia Kassar), and her son Malek (Ziad Saad), on the day she finally signs the paperwork to formally declare her husband dead, 15 years after he disappeared during the war. As Claudia grapples with her guilt and torment over the empty space in her bed, the borderline narcoleptic Malek sleepwalks his way through a renovated Beirut in search of his beautiful girlfriend, yet another listless member of a generation dislocated from reality and numbed by trauma. With a soundtrack provided by the likes of ultra-trendy Lebanese group Soap Kills, A Perfect Day evocatively captures a nation finding itself at a crossroads between war and peace, pain and resolution. Joreige and Hadjithomas embroider the film with their trademark mesmerising visuals, succeeding in creating a work that lingers long in the memory. Never before has a mobile phone ring-tone been so life-affirming!
Saturday 18 March
20.30
Awarded the Fipresci Prize at the Locarno Film Festival, the second feature from artists and film-making team Khalil Joreige and Joana Hadjithomas marks an important step in the renaissance of post-civil war Lebanese cinema. The film follows Claudia (Julia Kassar), and her son Malek (Ziad Saad), on the day she finally signs the paperwork to formally declare her husband dead, 15 years after he disappeared during the war. As Claudia grapples with her guilt and torment over the empty space in her bed, the borderline narcoleptic Malek sleepwalks his way through a renovated Beirut in search of his beautiful girlfriend, yet another listless member of a generation dislocated from reality and numbed by trauma. With a soundtrack provided by the likes of ultra-trendy Lebanese group Soap Kills, A Perfect Day evocatively captures a nation finding itself at a crossroads between war and peace, pain and resolution. Joreige and Hadjithomas embroider the film with their trademark mesmerising visuals, succeeding in creating a work that lingers long in the memory. Never before has a mobile phone ring-tone been so life-affirming!
Saturday 18 March
20.30
Le Grand Voyage
A Moroccan immigrant in France enlists his adolescent son, Reda, to drive him across seven countries as he undertakes the Hajj to Mecca. Outstanding performances, and a beautiful poignant film which won Best First Film at the Venice International Film Festival.
Sunday 19 March
14.30
A Moroccan immigrant in France enlists his adolescent son, Reda, to drive him across seven countries as he undertakes the Hajj to Mecca. Outstanding performances, and a beautiful poignant film which won Best First Film at the Venice International Film Festival.
Sunday 19 March
14.30
A State of Love
A box-office hit in its native Egypt, A State of Love is directed by Saad Hendawi and stars Hend Sabri, one of the most exciting Arab actress to emerge in recent years and arguably the best-equipped to repeat the cross-over success of Omar Sharif. Hendawi’s film is a post-9/11 love story looking at Arabs in the West and is a successful depiction of the dilemmas and challenges facing a generation all too often lost in translation amidst all the talk of dialogues between two civilisations.
Sunday 19 March
17.00
A box-office hit in its native Egypt, A State of Love is directed by Saad Hendawi and stars Hend Sabri, one of the most exciting Arab actress to emerge in recent years and arguably the best-equipped to repeat the cross-over success of Omar Sharif. Hendawi’s film is a post-9/11 love story looking at Arabs in the West and is a successful depiction of the dilemmas and challenges facing a generation all too often lost in translation amidst all the talk of dialogues between two civilisations.
Sunday 19 March
17.00
Mustapha Akkad Tribute
To commemorate the tragic death last year of producer-director Mustapha Akkad, we are pleased to hold a screening of Akkad’s The Lion in the Desert. With a star-studded cast including Sir John Gielgud, Anthony Quinn and Rod Steiger, the film tells the story of Omar Mukhtar, the Libyan resistance leader who successfully fought against the Italian army during World War 2. Akkad, a Syrian by birth, spent much of his later years in Hollywood, where he produced all of the Halloween films, and was for many years the most prominent face of Arab filmmaking in Hollywood.
Sunday 19 March
19.00
To commemorate the tragic death last year of producer-director Mustapha Akkad, we are pleased to hold a screening of Akkad’s The Lion in the Desert. With a star-studded cast including Sir John Gielgud, Anthony Quinn and Rod Steiger, the film tells the story of Omar Mukhtar, the Libyan resistance leader who successfully fought against the Italian army during World War 2. Akkad, a Syrian by birth, spent much of his later years in Hollywood, where he produced all of the Halloween films, and was for many years the most prominent face of Arab filmmaking in Hollywood.
Sunday 19 March
19.00
