With the Sydney launch on Thursday 1 July, tickets for the Arab Film Festival are selling fast. The festival kicks off at Parramatta’s Riverside Theatre with a beautiful night of sweets, live oud performances by Mohamed Youssef and the outstanding international favourite City of Life.

Joining us from Dubai is the film’s director Ali Mostafa. Don’t miss your chance to meet the maker of this edgy drama capturing the global buzz that has catapulted Dubai into the international spotlight.

Of mixed British-Emirati parentage, Mostafa grew up in Dubai and graduated from London Film School. His graduation film Under the Sun has been screened in international festivals across the world and won ‘Best Emirates Film 2006′ In the Annual Emirates Film Competition in Abu Dhabi.

Opening night tickets $30 per person (film+sweets+party). All other session ticket prices start from $10. They are selling fast – book yours now.

Don’t miss your chance to see another side to the Arab story. The Arab Film Festival gives us a fresh angle on the hackneyed stories we usually see in Australia. ‘Arab filmmakers are making it without Hollywood – they are making films under occupation, in cities of chaos, with limited funds and sometimes no budget at all,’ says festival co-director Mouna Zaylah.

‘We select the best to screen this year to Australian audiences – stories by Arabs about Arabs – authentic stories from an authentic perspective,’ she says.

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Spotlight on… Our closing feature: The Time that Remains

Palestine’s much-loved director Elia Sulieman brings his signature mix of quirky wit and pathos to this personal film about Palestine since 1948. A favourite at Cannes (it was nominated for the Palm d’Or), the film once again brings black humour to the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Here Suleiman deepens and develops his absurdist style, which draws on precise comic timing, elements of fantasy and his own presence on the screen, often compared to Buster Keaton. Drawing on his father’s personal stories, his mothers letters and his own experiences living under occupation in Palestine, during and after the ‘Nakba’ (the ‘Catastrophe’), when the State of Israel was created in 1948.