Arab Film Festival - Australia » Films

Walking Distance

AFF — Wed, 26 May 2010 07:59:17 +0000

One night Flouadi’s dreams are so intense he wakes up with no head, only to be replaced by a camera.

Screened in the Makhlouta Session

Mustache

AFF — Wed, 26 May 2010 07:54:21 +0000

A film set in old Kuwait, depicting the life of a man who is unable to grow a moustache.

Screened in the Makhlouta Session

The Butcher

AFF — Wed, 26 May 2010 07:51:29 +0000

Australian Premiere

Mimoun, an obstinate middle-aged Arab man, runs a once-profitable Halal butchery in an impoverished suburb of Paris. Despite his pessimistic outlook on life, he is a respected elder of the multicultural community in which he lives. One day he receives a lucrative offer for his business… can he leave this place he calls home?

Screened in the Makhlouta Session

Without Words

AFF — Wed, 26 May 2010 07:47:57 +0000

In a small fishing village in northern Morocco, a woman offers the best present she can to a black African man that saved her husband from sinking one day.

Screened in the Makhlouta Session

Ecce Hommos

AFF — Wed, 26 May 2010 07:43:54 +0000

Full of enthusiasm and hope, a young Lebanese filmmaker, script in hand, knocks on the door of an international producer to pitch his film project.

Screened in the Makhlouta Session

Traveller

AFF — Wed, 26 May 2010 07:39:32 +0000

Muhammad, a Sudanese refuge, wants to live a simple ‘successful’ life. Trying to assimilate, his philanthropic nature only begets trouble.

Screened in the Makhlouta Session

Mohammad

AFF — Wed, 26 May 2010 07:35:29 +0000

A personal documentary into the life of a young boy who lives through the physical movement of Parkour.

Screened in the Makhlouta Session

Rima

AFF — Wed, 26 May 2010 07:30:03 +0000

Rima is a young Muslim Australian woman who wears the veil. Her biggest passion is cars; fast cars that look good!

Screened in the Makhlouta Session

Absence

AFF — Wed, 26 May 2010 07:25:16 +0000

A couple in their fifties living alone in their house embody a sense of loneliness and waiting.

Screened in the Makhlouta Session

Lesh Sabreen?

AFF — Wed, 26 May 2010 07:20:23 +0000

Australian Premiere

Set in a Palestinian neighbourhood of Jerusalem, two young lovers’ dreams for the future are thwarted in a socially conservative and Israeli-controlled community.

Screened in the Makhlouta Session

Arabian Nights Animation Collection

AFF — Wed, 26 May 2010 06:51:33 +0000

World Premiere

Animation is nothing new to Arab filmmakers. When Walt Disney was beginning work on Snow White and Seven Dwarfs in the 1930s, a small group was also at work in Egypt, creating a film for the Ministry of Defence. The film, National Defense (1939), deployed animation in the propaganda war against the Nazi invasion of Egypt in World War II.

Today a new generation of Arab animators is at work in Egypt, Syria, Tunisia, Morocco and Middle East.Their work draws on a rich tradition of folklore, from the ArabianNights to the legends of Sinbad, Aladdin, Ali Baba and Scheherazade, as well as religious themes. Some are influenced by Western animation and Japanese anime styles, but many express a desire to create a new animation movement, to find a way for Arabs to tell the world their own stories with their ownvoice.

This exciting, world-first session offers a peek into the world of contemporary Arab animation. Films from Lebanon, Palestine, Sudan, Egypt, UAE, Tunisia and Algeria have been collated by Mohamed Ghazala, Director of ASIFA (the International Animated Film Association) Egypt, and animation lecturer at the Fine Arts Faculty of Minia University. Moving beyond the hackneyed depictions of the Arab world from a Western perspective, this session will delight your senses and defy the Arab stories you know and the way you’re used to seeing them.

A selection of animations will be screened at every session in Melbourne, Canberra, Adelaide and Brisbane

Home made Arab films, lost, but waiting to be found

AFF — Wed, 26 May 2010 06:41:19 +0000

World Premiere

Capturing tales of migration, adventure, pain and promise. A 10-minute segment of fascinating archival home movies will be screened with live oud performed by acclaimed local musician Mohamed Youssef

DO YOU HAVE OLD FAMILY FILM FOOTAGE?

Arab Film Festival Australia is collecting home movies from Arab Australians with footage from the 40s, 50s, 60s & 70s that were shot on film (16mm, Super 8). It might be sitting in the back of your cupboard, in your garage, or maybe at your cousin’s house – hunt it down and contact us!

WHAT WE WILL DO WITH IT?

These films will be gathered for a collection of home movies from Arab Australians at the National Film & Sound Archives in Canberra, accessible to the public. YOU will receive a copy of your films transferred onto DVD and your actual films returned to you.

GET IN TOUCH!

If you would like to share your films with us, and are interested in having them archived for national historical purposes, contact: info@arabfilmfestival.com.au.

This project has been made possible with the kind support of the National Film and Sound Archive, Canberra.

Watch the trailer

www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYC2B07ftAY

The Time That Remains

AFF — Wed, 26 May 2010 06:21:51 +0000

The Time That Remains is a powerful personal depiction of Palestine since 1948 by Elia Suleiman, the acclaimed director of Divine Intervention and Chronicle of a Disappearance.

In Suleiman’s own words this ‘is a semi-biographical film in four episodes, about a family, my family, from 1948 until recent times. The film is inspired by my father’s private diaries, starting from when he was a resistance fighter in 1948, and by my mother’s letters to family members who were forced to leave the country since that time. Combined with my intimate memories of them and with them, the film attempts to portray the daily life of those Palestinians who remained and were labelled “Israeli Arabs”, living as a minority in their own homeland’.

The film finds Suleiman reprising his enigmatic role as ‘ES’ – witness and participant in a series of historic and personal events across Palestine’s history. Laced with the director’s characteristic wit, The Time That Remains has been celebrated as Suleiman’s most complex and rewarding work to date.

What the Trailer:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmUPHXAC3Lk

Harragas

AFF — Wed, 26 May 2010 06:15:26 +0000

Veteran Algerian director Merzak Allouache delivers a tense drama set in the northern Algerian port city of Mostaganem. The title refers to the hordes of refugees, the Harragas, who smuggle themselves out of the country via any means possible.

Here we meet one such group, Rachid, Nasser and Imene who pay a smuggler, Hassan, to take them to Spain in his rickety boat. Along with a group of African and Arab migrants, they are risking all they have to cross the stormy straits. Allouache captures brilliantly the desperation and determination of the protagonists as they embark on their fateful mission.

Watch the Trailer

www.youtube.com/watch?v=d69m9B0KN70

Scheherazade, Tell Me a Story

AFF — Wed, 26 May 2010 05:36:13 +0000

A sharp observation of Egyptian society, Scheherazade, Tell Me a Story uses the classic Arabian Nights framework of a story within a story. Hebba Younis (Mona Zakki), is a contemporary, fiercely independent talk-show host. Married to Karim Hassan (Hassan El Raddad), a needy and opportunistic newspaper editor for a government-owned daily, Hebba is asked to forfeit the success of her career for the professional ambitions of her husband. In the eyes of government officials, before Karimmay ascend his own political and professional ladder, he must persuade his wife to soften the blazingly critical tone she broadcasts across the nation.

Afraid of how yet another divorce may affect her celebrity among the Cairo public, Hebba finally complies, ultimately privileging the success of her marriage over her own personal and professional aims. But by shifting from hard politics to softer ‘women’s stories’, she discovers lives and struggles that may be even more damaging to reveal.

Watch the trailer

www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDxyS7GT7Yw

Kick Off

AFF — Wed, 26 May 2010 05:28:08 +0000

Australian Premiere

A humane and eloquently voiced plea for Iraq’s marginal citizens, and a timely reminder, as the World Cup rages, of the place the game holds in hearts throughout the world.

In a half-destroyed Iraqi football stadium, about 300 refugee families are living in a hastily assembled shanty town. The elder son of one of the families is Asu, an idealistic young man who arranges a football match between the Kurdish, Arab, Turkmen and Assyrian boys of the camp, in the hope of cheering up his younger brother and impressing his beautiful neighbour, Hilin. But when the big day rolls around, the lives of all involved are thrown into chaos when unforeseen tragedy strikes.

Watch the trailer

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fm_YMVQX4ew

12 Angry Lebanese

AFF — Wed, 26 May 2010 05:20:17 +0000

Australian Premiere

A theatre director specialising in working with disadvantaged and traumatised people, Zeina Daccache struggled to set up Lebanon’s first prison-based drama project in the country’s notorious Roumieh Prison. For 15 months, 45 inmates, some completely illiterate, found themselves working together to present an adaptation of the famous stage play 12 Angry Men, here renamed 12 Angry Lebanese.

Through their new-found creative outlet, we witness the prisoners coalesce into a slick, professional ensemble. Inspiring and honest, this account of the prisoners’ journey demonstrates the power of art therapy and the positive effect on some of the most ostracised individuals in society.

Watch the trailer

www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDvCifo3NE4

City of Life

AFF — Wed, 26 May 2010 04:50:11 +0000

Three fascinating characters live in modern Dubai – a privileged young Arab man at odds with his cultural identity, a disillusioned Indian taxi driver who looks like a famous Bollywood star and a former Romanian ballet dancer searching for love and companionship. These people are about to collide for better or for worse in a city where ambition, growth and opportunity are encouraged and dreams can still be realized.

True to Dubai’s cosmopolitan makeup, the cast includes Romanian actress Alexandra Maria Lara, Northern Indian actor Sonu Sood, UAE nationals Saoud Al Ka’abi and Habib Ghuloom, British-based Jason Flemyng, Natalie Dormer and Susan George, Canadian-Iraqi rapper The Narcicyst, Egyptian-American comic Ahmed Ahmed, and Mumbai-born Jaaved Jaaferi.

City of Life is an urban drama that tracks the various intersections of a multiethnic cast, examining how random interactions and their consequences can irrevocably impact another’s life. As the name suggests, City of Life’s humane kaleidoscope of converging experiences introduces Dubai as a living pulsating character. City of Life ultimately reveals how unexpected tragedy and loss can lead to hope and profound transformation as it explores and exposes the complex network that exists in an emerging multicultural society’s race, ethnicity and class divides.