1. ERASED,___ASCENT OF THE INVISIBLE in Chile, Czech Republic, France and Germany
2. PANOPTIC awarded in Argentina, showing in France, Germany, Mexico and Switzerland
3. DREAMS OF THE CITY in Portugal
4. COUNTING TILES in Switzerland
5. AND AN IMAGE WAS BORN in Germany, Italy, Palestine and the USA
6. ON A MONDAY at Tashweesh Festival
7. SOLOMON’S STONE in Qatar
8. event
9. DVD of the month: THE DREAM (AL MANAM)
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1. ERASED,___ASCENT OF THE INVISIBLE in Chile, Czech Republic, France and Germany

Ghassan Halwani's essay documentary celebrated its German premiere at Filmfest Hamburg where the film is presented in the section VETO! earlier this month in the presence of the director. In October the film shows also at FIC Valdivia (Chile) where it is presented by the director, at the program of the Arab Film Festival Tuebingen (Germany), at Cinemed Montpellier, in the framework of the conference Revisiting Archive in the Aftermath of Revolution at the House of World Cultures in Berlin (Germany) as well as at Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival in Czech Republic.

Content
Thirty-five years ago, I witnessed the kidnapping of a man I know.
He has disappeared since.
Ten years ago, I caught a glimpse of his face while walking in the street, but I wasn’t sure it was him.
Parts of his face were torn off, but his features had remained unchanged since the incident. Yet something was different, as if he wasn’t the same man.
essay-documentary, Lebanon 2018, color and black & white, 76 min, Arabic and English with English or French subtitles
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2. PANOPTIC awarded in Argentina, showing in France, Germany, Mexico and Switzerland

We are proud to announce that Panoptic by Rana Eid won the award for the Best Feature Film at the Cinemigrante Festival in Buenos Aires (Argentina).
In October the film shows at the Festival Films Mediterranées in Marseilles (France) where it is presented by the director, at DocsMX in Mexico City (Mexico), at the Festival l'Aube in Basel (Switzerland), the Arab Film Festival Tuebingen (Germany) as well as at the program of Allerweltskino at OFF Broadway in Cologne (Germany).

Content
Panoptic is a letter from a daughter to her deceased father in an attempt to reconcile with her country’s turbulent past.
Panoptic delves into Beirut’s underground to explore Lebanon’s schizophrenia: a nation that thrives for modernity while ironically ignoring the vices that obstruct achieving this modernity.
While the Lebanese population has chosen to turn a blind eye to these vices, Rana Eid, an ordinary citizen, explores the nation’s paradoxes through sound, iconic monuments and secret hidings.
documentary, Rana Eid, Lebanon 2017, 69 min, Arabic with Engl. or French ST
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3. DREAMS OF THE CITY in Portugal

Mohamad Malas’ classic Dreams of the City shows in the Focus: Sailing the Euphrates, travelling the time of the world at DocLisboa (Portugal). In 2013 the film was among the top 10 of the “100 Greatest Arab Films List”, which film professionals from the Arab World and associates of Dubai International Film Festival voted for.

Content
When his father dies, Dib, his younger brother and their mother (Yasmine Khlat) move away from their hometown Quneitra to Damascus. The mother’s despotic father reluctantly takes them in and tries to force the mother to remarry. Overwhelmed by the magic of the city, Dib wants to discover everything and is full of dreams. His daily life is shaped by insults and punishments however. Dib grows up against a backdrop of the political upheavals of the 1950s (the end of the military dictatorship in Syria and the nationalization of the Suez Canal, Nasser’s taking of power in Cairo, Egyptian and Syrian unification in 1958) and loses his childish illusions in the face of such violence and brutality. The dreams of the city prove to be a nightmare. Mohammad Malas’ partly autobiographical debut film marked the transition to auteur cinema in Syria.
fiction, Mohamad Malas, Syria 1984, 130 min, color, Arabic with Engl. or French ST
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4. COUNTING TILES in Switzerland

Cynthia Choucair’s COUNTING TILES is presented at the l'Aube Film Festival in Basel (Switzerland) between October 18th and 27th 2018.

Content
In February 2016, a group of clowns travel to the Greek island of Lesvos on a mission to bring laughter to the waves of refugees crossing the sea to escape from war and enter Europe. Unwittingly, the clowns find themselves greeted with closed gates witnessing the effects of new policies enacted by the European Union towards the refugees.
Cynthia, the sister of one of the clowns, joins them on their journey which slowly becomes a reflection on the sisters’ own tale of displacement during the Lebanese civil war.
Moments of humor and joyful laughter bring the clowns back to their original mission, ironically playing with reality to a point where the lines between their clown personalities and their real selves are blurred.
documentary, Cynthia Choucair, Lebanon 2018, 87 min, Arabic with Engl. ST
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5. AND AN IMAGE WAS BORN in Germany, Italy, Palestine and the USA

Firas Khoury showed on October 3rd the short shows at the DC Palestinian Film and Art Festival in Washington DC (USA), between the 5th and 13th of October it is presented at the Arab Film Festival Tübingen (Germany), from 10th to 12th October at the Nazra Short Film Festival in Venice (Italy), starting the 17th of the month it is participating at the Days of Cinema in Ramallah (Palestine) and beginning October 19th And an Image was Born is presented at the Boston Palestine Film Festival (USA).

Content
Palestinian two years old Razi loves to hear the story of The Monster. The story is an allegory of the Palestinian problem but he is too young to comprehend the political association, he just wants to imagine and live through its details over and over again. The narrator has his own film in his head.
short film, Firas Khoury, Palestine 2017, 9 min, Arabic with English or French ST
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6. ON A MONDAY at Tashweesh Festival

Tamer El Said’s 2004 8 minute short is travelling in October and November as part of the Tashweesh Festival on feminism in the Middle East, North Africa and Europe to Brussels, Tunis, Cairo and Beirut.

Content
Love emerges in the details in this innovatively simple day-in-the-life story of a married couple who one random Monday discover each other anew due to a change in routine.
short film, Egypt 2004, 8 min, Video, Arabic with Engl. or with French ST
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7. SOLOMON’S STONE in Qatar

Ramzi Maqdisi black comedy short shows in October at the Doha Palestine Film Festival in Qatar.

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 from the novel Blue Light by Hussein Barghouty.
short film, Ramzi Maqdisi, Palestine/Spain 2015, 25 min, color, digital, Arabic with Engl. or French ST
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8. event

Friday the 19th  of October, 12:00-13:00 at Dar Jacir, Bethlehem, Palestine
PFM Case Study on Co-production│A Look behind the scenes of PLO-GDR cooperation in film-making
Irit Neidhart (Distributor and producer, mec film)
Using the example of the cooperation in filmmaking between the ceased German Democratic Republic (1949-1990) and the Palestine Liberation Organization that started in 1975, Irit Neidhardt’s talk gives an insight to the first co-production agreement between the GDR’s DEFA and the PLO’s Department for Culture and Information as well as the films made on its basis and is looking at the role the cooperation played for each partner’s political and diplomatic strategies. As most official co-production agreements follow similar patterns, this case study will provide a better understanding of these cross borders collaborations nowadays. 
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9. DVD of the month: THE DREAM (AL MANAM)

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.

documentary, Mohamad Malas, Syria 1987, 45 min, Arabic with Engl., German or French ST

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