1. IN THE FUTURE THEY ATE FROM THE FINEST PORCELAIN at Kino der Kunst, Gegenkino and Mawsem Cinéma Arabe
2. HAUNTED in Warszawa
3. AL-MANAM – new digital copy
4. OVER THE SAND, UNDER THE SUN in Dresden and Freiburg
5. ALEPPO, MAGAMS OF PLEASURE in Freiburg
6. DIARIES OF A FLYING DOG in Cairo
7. SOLOMON’S STONE in Lyon
8. FREE RANGE in Ramallah
9. New on DVD: FREE RANGE, SOLOMON’S STONE, THE DREAM, HAUNTED
10. events and publication
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1. IN THE FUTURE THEY ATE FROM THE FINEST PORCELAIN at Kino der Kunst, Gegenkino and Mawsem Cinéma Arabe

Larissa Sansour’s and Soren Lind’s newest Sci-fi IN THE FUTUTRE THEY ATE FROM THE FINEST PORCELAIN is selected to the competition of Kino der Kunst festival in Munich which is taking place this month. In addition the film is showing at Gegenkino in Leipzig and Mawsem Cinéma Arabe in Paris.

Content
In the Future They Ate From the Finest Porcelain resides in the cross-section between sci-fi, archaeology and politics. Combining live motion and CGI, the film explores the role of myth for history, fact and national identity.
A narrative resistance group makes underground deposits of elaborate porcelain – suggested to belong to an entirely fictional civilization. Their aim is to influence history and support future claims to their vanishing lands.
Palestine/Denmark/UK/Qatar 2015, 29 min, digital, cinescope, Arabic with English subtitles
more (incl. trailer)
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2. HAUNTED in Warszawa

Liwaa Yazji’s feature length documentary HAUNTED (Maskoon) is showing at the Beton Festival in Warszawa this month. For those who want to buy the DVD, it is out now at our online-shop.

Content
“When the bombs fell, the first thing we did was run away. It was not until later that we realized we had not looked back. We were not allowed to say goodbye to our home, our memories, our photos and the life that was lived within them. We have become vacant like these spaces; our hastily packed belongings and the forgotten things haunt us.” An uncertain existence followed the escape and expulsion from Syria that tumbled into a physical and mental nowhere, a non-space between yesterday and tomorrow. “Haunted” tells of the loss of home and security, of the real and metaphorical meaning which a house, a home has in one’s life.
Liwaa Yazji, Syria 2014, 112 min, digital, Arabic with English, French, Spanish, Turkish or German subtitles
more (incl. trailer)
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3. AL-MANAM – new digital copy

Mohamad Malas’ classic al-Manam (The Dream), which was released 30 years ago, is available for festivals and institutions with new digital copies, either mov or Blu-ray with mec film.

American University of Cairo Press published the director’s film diary The Dream: A Diary of a Film in December last year.

Content
"Haj: Don’t you see the horses carrying soldiers in the sky?
Woman 1: They landed on earth and transformed to green (blue) and brown roosters; they started to fight each other.
Old man: they are fighting each other so as to liberate Palestine.
Woman 2: Like Cain and Abel."
Shot in 1980-81, the film is composed of interviews with different Palestinian refugees including children, women, old people, and militants from the refugee camps of Sabra, Shatila, Bourj el-Barajneh, Ain al-Hilweh and Rashidieh in Lebanon. In the interviews Mohamad Malas questions them about their dreams at night. The dreams always converge on Palestine: a woman recounts her dreams about winning the war; a fedai of bombardment and martyrdom; and one man tells of a dream where he meets and is ignored by Gulf emirs. During filming Malas lived in the camps and conducted interviews with more than 400 people. In 1982 the Sabra and Shatila massacres occurred, taking the lives of several people he interviewed, and he stopped working on the project. He returned to it in 1986 and edited the many hours of footage gathered into this 45 minute film, released in 1987.
Mohamad Malas, Syria 1987, Arabic with English, German or French subtitles, 45‘
for a preview copy please contact us
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4. OVER THE SAND, UNDER THE SUN in Dresden and Freiburg

For the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Human Rights Mohamad Malas and Hala Alabdallah made the film Over The Sand, Under The Sun. This month the film is showing at the International Short Film Festival in Dresden as well as at the cinémathèque in Freiburg.

Content
A short documentary about political prisoners struggling to come to terms with haunting memories, produced for the anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The film presents a reflection on the effects of prison in general and on the theatre director Ghassan Jbaii in particular. The artist uses his work to come to terms with his haunting memories and regain the world outside the prison walls.
Mohamad Malas & Hala Alabdallah, Syria 1998, 32 min, Arabic with English or French subtitles
for a preview copy please contact us
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5. ALEPPO, MAGAMS OF PLEASURE in Freiburg

In his cinematic work Syrian director Mohamad Malas is exploring the society and the artistic traditions of his country. His portrait of late Tarab-master Sheikh Sabri Mudallal from Aleppo is showing at the cinémthèque in Freiburg in April.

Content
Sheik Sabri Mudallal (83 years) is the last of the Masters of Tarab reciting in Aleppo. The troupe (turath) he established is considered an oriental orchestra that maintains originality and purity, as far as singing, music processing and used instruments, are concerned.
According to Mudallal this kind of singing expresses the loyalty to the traditions of singing and the preserving of the classical school of Aleppo which is one of the main schools in oriental music. Although the education was based on religious reciting, many masters have revived and developed its basics in the beginning of this century, among them were, Sheik Ali Darwish, Omar Al Batch and Bakri Al Kurdi. Sheik Sabri Mudallal, a disciple of these masters, remains the witness and the keeper of this school. His memory and experience are a historical reference to all his predecessors.
Mohamad Malas, Syria 1999, 52 min, Arabic with English subtitles
for a preview copy pleasewrite an email to the adress below
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6. DIARIES OF A FLYING DOG in Cairo

Bassem Fayad’s sensitive documentary DIARIES OF A FLYING DOG is showing on April, 10th at Cimatheque Cairo.

Content  
A man and his tiny dog have something in common: obsessive compulsive anxiety disorder. Throughout their quest to heal, we dissect into pieces the surroundings - in its upbringing, fears and constant inner conflict. A memory is recalled; a memory filled with fear, violence, war, love and a past almost depicting itself again in the present and in the future. The setting is a family’s house. A father, a mother, sons, daughters and grandchildren living on a versant in Lebanon. The time is when beauty faded and ugliness and expiation prevailed. The man is the director, the dog is the mirror and the film is the instrument…
Bassem Fayad, Lebanon/UAE 2014, 75 min, Arabic with Engl ST
more (incl. trailer)
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7. SOLOMON’S STONE in Lyon

Ramzi Maqdisi‘s short film SOLOMON’S STONE shows in Lyon this month. On top the movie is out on DVD in our online shop now.

Content
Hussein, a Palestinian young man, receives a letter from the Israeli post office to appear in person to receive a package. He has to pay the sum of 20.000 $ US dollars in order to collect that package. Hussein’s curiosity to find out what the package contains drives him to sell everything he owns, despite the outright rejection of his mother, the matter that changes their lives afterwards.
The story is adapted by the novel Blue Light by Hussein Barghouty.
Palestine/Spain 2015, 25 min, color, Arabic with English or French subtitles
more (incl. trailer)
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8. FREE RANGE in Ramallah

Bass Bréche’s Lebanese Spaghetti Western FREE RANGE tours the world in it’s 4th year now. This time it stops at the Human Rights Film Festival in Ramallah. For those who want to own the film on DVD, it is available at mecfilm-shop.com now.

Content
Based on actual events, Free Range is the story of a cow that crosses the border from Israel to Lebanon and meets with 16 year old Malakeh and her family. A  Lebanese Spaghetti-Western that talks about borders and power between people, religions, cows and UN interventions.
Lebanon/Germany 2014, 16 min, digital, cinescope, Arabic with English subtitles
more
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9. New on DVD: FREE RANGE, SOLOMON’S STONE, THE DREAM, HAUNTED

After solving some technical problems we are happy to announce that mec film’s online shop is back. The new titles in the shop are
Free Range by Bass Bréche
Solomon’s Stone by Ramzi Maqdisi
The Dream (al-Manam) by Mohamad Malas
Haunted (Maskoon) by Liwaa Yazji
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10. events and publication

At the 1st Kuwait Film Festival Irit Neidhardt (mec film) was a panelist on the distribution of Arab films. She also gave a talk on the cooperation with Germany in presenting and co-producing films from Arab countries.
International Short Film Festival Dresden dedicates its retrospective to GDR-films on Syria. At the center of the program are two works of veteran documentarist Winfried Junge from 1970. Irit Neidhardt is moderating the retrospective and having a Q&A with Mr. Junge.

Irit Neidhardt’s last part of a trilogy about the German project Cinema Jenin in Palestine is out now in the latest issue of German quarterly inamo: “End of the Dream: the Cinema of Peace gives way to a Shopping Mall”. The text takes a closer look at the relation of the international project partners with the private owners of the cinema, to which Marcus Vetter’s documentary “Cinema Jenin. The Story of a Dream” gives a deep insight.
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