1. Larissa Sansour’s Sci-fi Trilogy with kanopy and with ikono.tv
2. DRY HOT SUMMERS in Belgium, the USA and Sweden
3. HAUNTED – in German cinemas and USA educational distribution
4. IN THE FUTURE THEY ATE FROM THE FINRST PORCELAIN wins in Spain
5. NATION ESTATE at a Berlinale Shorts special at ZEIT online
6. MY NAME IS NOT ALI in Berlin
7. Berlinale
-----------------------------

1. Larissa Sansour’s Sci-fi Trilogy with kanopy and with ikono.tv

We are happy to announce that Larissa Sansour’s Sci-fi trilogy is available for universities at kanopy.com and for individuals at the fine arts streaming channel ikono.tv

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.
------------------------------

2. DRY HOT SUMMERS in Belgium, the USA and Sweden

Sherif Elbendary’s DRY HOT SUMMERS is showing at the international competition of the Mons International Love Film Festival in Belgium this month, in the USA it shows at the Florida State University and in Sweden at the African Film Festival Stockholm.

Content
Two lonely people at opposite chapters of life accidentally meet on a busy summer day in a Cairo taxi. Frail old Shawky and bubbly young Doaa are both caught up in their busy routines as their race through the city evolves into a journey of self-discovery that reconnects them to life.
Egypt/Germany 2015, 30 min, digital, color, Arabic with English or French subtitles
more (incl. trailer)
------------------------------

3. HAUNTED – in German cinemas and USA educational distribution

Liwaa Yazji’s feature length documentary HAUNTED (Maskoon) travels German theatres, both in the feature length version of 112 min and in the 63 min versions for events.
In the USA, Canada and Australia the film is available with Torch Films for institutional use.

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)
---------------------------

4. IN THE FUTURE THEY ATE FROM THE FINRST PORCELAIN wins in Spain

Larissa Sansour’s and Soren Lind’s new Sci-fi IN THE FUTUTRE THEY ATE FROM THE FINEST PORCELAIN won the award for the Best Videoart Work at the MADATAC 08 in Spain.

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)
-------------------------------

5. NATION ESTATE at a Berlinale Shorts special at ZEIT ONLINE

On the occasion of Berlin International Film Festival, Berlinale Shorts in cooperation with ZEIT ONLINE, one of Germany’s leading cultural editorials show a selection of shorts from previous Berlinale editions as well as a small selection of films shown at others festivals. We are proud to announce that  Larissa Sansour’s short Sci-fi NATION ESTATE is part of the selection and will be shown at ZEIT ONLINE from February 16th till March 16th, 2017.

Content
Nation Estate is a 9-minute sci-fi short offering a clinically dystopian, yet humorous approach to the deadlock in the Middle East.
The film explores a vertical solution to Palestinian statehood: One colossal skyscraper housing the entire Palestinian population - now finally living the high life.
Larissa Sansour, Palestine/Denmark 2012, 9 min, digital, no dialogue
more (incl. trailer)
------------------------------

6. MY NAME IS NOT ALI in Berlin

Viola Shafik’s feature documentary MY NAME IS NOT ALI in which the director re- and deconstructs the story of Mohamed El Hedi Ben Salem’s life, the lead actor in Fassbinder’s FEAR EATS SOUL is shown in the Arab Film Series at the Black History Month in Berlin in the presence of the director and Fassbinder’s long year assistant director Renate Leiffer.

Content
His anti-racist film Ali, Fear Eats Soul (1973) gained German director Rainer Werner Fassbinder international acclaim. The protagonist, an Arab foreign worker, was played by Moroccan El Hedi Ben Salem Mﾒbarek Mohammed Mustafa, Fassbinder's lover at that time. While the film itself courageously deals with the racism of post-war German society, its makers reproduced the insensibility and invention of the Other, fantasizing their own 'Salem'. Collage-like, through interviews and archive material, My Name Is Not Ali uncovers the invention of El Hedi Ben Salem by the Fassbinder troupe, an image not revised by most of its members till today.
Viola Shafik, Egypt/Germany 2011, 93 min, German/Arabic/French with English ST
more
----------------------------

7. Berlinale

During the Berlin Film Festival (9.-19.2.2017) the office is not operating on a regular basis. In cases of emergency you reach me on ++49-163-5684073 (no smart phone!)
-----------------------------