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Newsletter March 2017

1. Larissa Sansour’s Sci-fi Trilogy in Abu Dhabi
2. HAUNTED – in German cinemas and in Madrid
3. IN THE FUTURE THEY ATE FROM THE FINRST PORCELAIN in Ann Arbor, Bucharest and Paris
4. AND ON A DIFFERENT NOTE in Paris
5. SOLOMON’S STONE in Ann Arbor and Paris
6. ECCOMI … ECCOTI new and in Beirut
7. DREAMS OF THE CITY in Hamburg
8. events
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1. Larissa Sansour’s Sci-fi Trilogy in Abu Dhabi

This month Larissa Sansour’s Sci-fi trilogy is showing in Abu Dhabi at the Imagine Science Festival. For the spotlight on Sansour’s work an interview is published here labocine.com/spotlight/65

Larissa Sansour – Sci-fi Trilogy
In the Future They Ate from the Finest Porcelain (2016) completes Larissa Sansour’s science fiction trilogy along with A Space Exodus (2008) and Nation Estate (2012). Under the common themes of loss, belonging, heritage and national identity, the three films each explore different aspects of the political turmoil the Middle East. While A Space Exodus envisions the final uprootedness of the Palestinian experience and takes the current political predicament to its extra-terrestrial extreme by landing the first Palestinian on the moon, Nation Estate reveals a sinister account of an entire population restricted to a single skyscraper, with each Palestinian city confined to a single floor. In the trilogy’s final instalment, In the Future They Ate from the Finest Porcelain, a narrative resistance leader engages in archaeological warfare in a desperate attempt to secure the future of her people. Using the language of sci-fi and glossy production, Sansour’s trilogy presents a dystopian vision of a Middle East on the brink of the apocalypse.
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2. HAUNTED – in German cinemas and in Madrid

Liwaa Yazji’s feature length documentary HAUNTED (Maskoon) is shown in Heidelberg and Landshut art house cinemas in Germany this month. In addition the film is part of "No shelter. Images of contemporary exile" at the Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid.

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. IN THE FUTURE THEY ATE FROM THE FINRST PORCELAIN in Ann Arbor, Bucharest and Paris

Larissa Sansour’s and Soren Lind’s new Sci-fi IN THE FUTUTRE THEY ATE FROM THE FINEST PORCELAIN shows this month at the Ann Arbor Palestine Film Festival, the Bucharest International Experimental Film Festival and the Rencontres International 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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4. AND ON A DIFFERENT NOTE in Paris

Mohammad Shawky Hassan’s AND ON A DIFFERENT NOTE shows at the Rencontres International Paris edition in March 2017. 

Content
Today in this house nothing happens, nor does it in the homes of others. Time and place stand on parallel lines, refuting the coordinates of existence. The chronology of events is obscured, subversive noise is obliterated, elucidation impossible and language futile. All that remains is a soundscape perpetually occupied by self-proclaimed patriots, and scattered spaces carved by the rhythm of everyday life, all conspiring to maintain the status quo while hiding the humming background noise of the world.
And on a Different Note is a navigation of an attempt to carve out a personal space amid an inescapable sonic shield created primarily by prime time political talk shows with their indistinguishable, absurd and at times undecipherable rhetoric/ noises. Equally repulsive and addictive, these noises travel across geographies gradually constituting an integral part of a self-created map of exile.
Egypt 2015, 24 min, color, Arabic/ English with English/Arabic Subtitles
more (incl. trailer)
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5. SOLOMON’S STONE in Ann Arbor and Paris

Ramzi Maqdisi‘s short film SOLOMON’S STONE continues travelling the world with stops in Ann Arbor’s Palestine Film Festival and Paris’ What Can Cinema Do? (in the presence of the director) this month.

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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6. ECCOMI … ECCOTI new and in Beirut

Raed Rafei’s new feature documentary has its world premiere at the Ayam Beirut Festival in the coming week.

Content
Two men. Two realities. And a quest for a common future in a world beset with real and imaginary boundaries.
Eccomi ... Eccoti unfolds as a virtual road trip navigating between Italy and Lebanon. Conditioned to live in a long-distance relationship with his partner because of strict European visa regulations, the director patches together the moments shared together in an attempt to create a possible day-to-day reality for their couple.
He questions his partner, Sandro, about his youth and the striving of a generation of gays to assert their homosexuality in a hostile environment. Back in his homeland, the director grapples with his own difficult relationship with his father and a society that regards homosexuality as an aberration. Stuck in limbo between Europe, a promise land for homosexuals but that remains inaccessible, and the Arab reality, that rejects his nature, the director seeks solace in the warmth of the couple.
Lebanon 2017, 68 min, color, Arabic with Engl. subtitles
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7. DREAMS OF THE CITY in Hamburg

Mohamad Malas’ classic Dreams of the City is showing in Hamburg’s B-Movie theatre. mec film is serving as agent to the films of renown Syrian film-maker. Together with Dunia Film in Damascus we make copies available or connect you to the distributor for your territory.
Mohamad Malas’ Œuvre, short and feature length, documentary and fiction, forms a deep chronicle of Syria in the 20th and early 21st century. We are happy to help organizing retrospectives of Mohamad Malas’ work. For more see the catalogue
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8. events

Irit Neidhardt (mec film) held the opening lecture of the Palestinian Film Week in Linz/Austria about the history of Palestinian film-making.
At the end of the month she will speak in Kuwait about the presence of Arab films in German cinemas and conditions of co-production.
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