What stories are simmering behind the recent turmoil in the Arab world?

The Arab Film Festival Australia launches on 30 June with a dazzling line-up of films that will take you inside the hearts and minds of the Arab Spring. These powerful stories reveal the inspirations and frustrations, the conflicts and passions that are propelling Arabs into this season of change.

Join us at Riverside Theatres, Parramatta from Thursday 30 June to Sunday 3 July before we hit the road on our national tour to Melbourne, Canberra, Adelaide and Brisbane in July.

Opening Night 30 June takes us straight to the barricades of Tahrir Square with The Cry of an Ant, the first feature film to address the Egyptian Revolution of January 2011. Gouda Al Masri loves his country, but fuelled by unemployment, humiliation and police corruption, he decides to fight back. Director Sameh Abdel Aziz fly in from Egypt to join us for the Australasian Premiere. Tickets are on sale now and they always sell fast – hit the website for full details.

“This year the Arab world is standing up, voices of the people are getting louder and firmer,” says Festival Co-director Mouna Zaylah. “Our audience will surely enjoy our film selection. We have something for everyone. Films that talk about the revolution, the romance and the realities of the Arab people, both in the Arab world and living in the diaspora.”

The program takes you from Australia to Morocco, Kuwait to Tunisia and Egypt. International festival favourite Son of Babylon follows a 12-year-old boy and his grandmother on a quest through a ravaged Iraq, two weeks after the fall of Saddam Hussein. This is My Picture When I Was Dead investigates the life of four-year-old Bashir who was with his father, a member of the PLO when he was assassinated in 1983, while Teta, Alf Marra (Grandma, a Thousand Times) introduces us to a feisty Beiruti grandmother in a magic-realist documentary.

 

Spotlight on…Stray Bullet

Loved Caramel? Then don’t miss your change to catch the stunning Nadine Labaki in her first role since Layale in the poignant Stray Bullet.

It’s the end of summer 1976 in the northern suburbs of Beirut, and Noha is getting married. But 15 days before the wedding, Noha changes her mind. Things get complicated when a former lover reappears in her life, while she finds herself trapped in the close, anxious atmosphere of wartime Beirut. Taking the Muhr Arab Feature prize at the Dubai International Film Festival, Stray Bullet is a poignant psychological drama juxtaposing family drama with the tension of war. The session also features the revealing work of Sydney’s own filmmakers Fatima Mawas.

Tickets on sale now – don’t miss out!

Check the website for full details

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