1. mec film turned 15
2. Picture Palestine: mec film at International Film Festival Rotterdam
3. The Sci-Fi Trilogy by Larissa Sansour at Ibraaz till today
4. HAUNTED – German cinemas and international screenings
5. DRY HOT SUMMERS in France, Germany, Sudan and Switzerland
6. GATE #5 in Hannover
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1. mec film turned 15

On January 2nd 2017 mec film turned 15. We want to thank all those who walked with us along the way or parts of it and look forward to the encounters of the next 15 years.
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2. Picture Palestine: mec film at International Film Festival Rotterdam

Picture Palestine is a special program at this year’s IFFR curated by Nat Muller. Larissa Sansour’s & Soren Lind’s In the Future They Ate From the Finest Porcelain (PAL/UK/DK/Qatar 2015) is showing in the program as well as Annemarie Jacir’s short film classic Like Twenty Impossibles (Palestine 2003).
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3. The Sci-Fi Trilogy by Larissa Sansour at Ibraaz till today

Online magazine Ibraaz – Contemporary Art and Culture in North Africa and the Middle East dedicated a holiday special to Larissa Sansour’s Sci-fi trilogy from December 22nd till today, January 5th. Till tonight you can watch the three short films at the Ibraaz channel

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 (2009) 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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4. HAUNTED – German cinemas and international screenings

Liwaa Yazji’s feature length documentary HAUNTED (Maskoon) was theatrically released in German cinemas in November 2016. This month it is showing at the Werkstatt Kino in Munich and at Kino im Kuenstlerhaus in Hannover (in the presence of the director).
Internationally the film is showing at Zawya in Cairo and at Rethink Rebuild Society in Manchester.

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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5. DRY HOT SUMMERS in France, Germany, Sudan and Switzerland

Sherif Elbendary’s DRY HOT SUMMERS still travels the world. In January the film is showing at the Independent Film Festival Sudan, CinemAfrica Film Festival in Sweden, Festival Courtoujours in France as well as in Klubkino Dresden in Germany.

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)
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6. GATE #5 in Hannover

Simon El Habre’s feature documentary Gate #5 is showing at the Kino im Kuenstlerhaus in Hannover in an Arab film program in cooperation with the International Theatre Encounters Hannover.

A fascinating look at the lives of those working at one of Beirut's busy ports (Rolling Stone Middle East)

Content
They were young, loved adventures and had choices. In the 1960s and 70s thousands of young Lebanese left their villages and searched for a new life in the city - as countless like-minded people around the globe. The port of Beirut, the cityﾒs economic lung and central urban district, provided work for truck drivers - a job that stressed masculinity and became a lifestyle. The income allowed the young men to participate in the vibrant urban life, to enjoy their time at the always busy Burj Square with its many cinemas and restaurants as well as to start families.
During the years of the civil war (1975-90) the drivers were needed to maintain the supply of food, goods, and sometime weapons between the divided sectors of country. Some were humble, others were heroic, yet all were adventuresomeness and felt free.
After the war ended the once popular Burj Square, the city’s centre, was demolished, privatized and rebuild for the affluent. Lebanese economy was reorganized, thus globalized. Today fancy restaurants in the new downtown charge in Dollar and sometimes in Euro.
The truck drivers’ universe shrunk to the port where they offer their skills as day laborers now. Yet mostly they kill time and take long journeys in memory. One of them, Najm El Habre, is too sick to join his friends. He found a different way to carry on.
Simon El Habre, Lebanon/UAE 2011, 84 min, color, Arabic with English subtitles
more (incl. trailer)
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