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Newsletter January 2020

1. IN VITRO honored in Italy
2. ERASED,___ASCENT OF THE INVISIBLE awarded in Vienna and January screeneings
3. WAJIB by Annemarie Jacir screenings in Germany
4. CHRONIC in Ankara
5. new on DVD
6. DVD of the month - THE ONE MAN VILLAGE
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1. IN VITRO honored in Italy

IN VITRO by Larissa Sansour and Soren Lind was awarded in December with a Special Mention at the Festival internazionale Segni della Notte in Italy.

Content
In Vitro is set in the aftermath of an eco-disaster. An abandoned nuclear reactor under the biblical town of Bethlehem has been converted into an enormous orchard. Using heirloom seeds collected in the final days before the apocalypse, a group of scientists are preparing to replant the soil above.
In the hospital wing of the underground compound, the orchard’s ailing founder, 70-year-old Dunia (Hiam Abbas) is lying in her deathbed, as 30-year-old Alia (Maisa Abd Elhadi) comes to visit her. Alia is born underground as part of a comprehensive cloning program and has never seen the town she’s destined to rebuild.
short Sci-fi, Larissa Sansour & Soren Lind, Palestine/Denmark/UK 2019, 28 min, digital, picture ratio 1:2.66, Arabic with English subtitles
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2. ERASED,___ASCENT OF THE INVISIBLE awarded in Vienna and January screeneings

Ghassan Halwani wins the award for the Best Film at the international competition of This Human World Festival in Vienna (Austria). In January the film shows at the Jameel Arts Center in Dubai (UAE) and at Wekalet Behna in Alexandria (Egypt).

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 subtitles
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3. WAJIB by Annemarie Jacir screenings in Germany

Annmarie Jacir's multi-award winning film continues showing at German cinemas. In January the film is presented at Freiburg (Kino im alten Wiehrebahnhof) andFrankfurt-Hoechst (FilmForum). All updated screening dates here

Content
Abu Shadi is a divorced father and a school teacher in his mid-60s living in Nazareth. After his daughter’s wedding in one month he will be living alone. Shadi, his architect son, arrives from Rome after years abroad to help his father in hand delivering the wedding invitations as per local Palestinian custom. As the estranged pair spend the day together, the tense details of their relationship come to a head challenging their fragile and very different lives.
fiction, Annemarie Jacir, Palestine/France/Germany/Colombia/Norway/Qatar/UAE 2017, 96 min, DCP, Arabic with German ST
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4. CHRONIC in Ankara

Mohamed Sabbah's feature fiction is presented at the end of January at the Pink Life QueerFest in Ankara (Turkey).

Content
Beirut is a city where any person can experience loss at any moment . Walid lost his hope for love. May couldn't say goodbye to her lover. He died in the sea. Antoine was about to lose his own life.
Omar a photographer lost his male lover in an explosion. He casts the three and invites them to his studio, and together they express stories of sex, love and trauma in the city of Beirut. Visitor after visitor, chapter after chapter, Omar loses control and provokes danger.
feature fiction, Mohamed Sabbah, Lebanon/Germany 2017, 89min, Arabic with Engl. ST
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5. new on DVD

We are happy to announce that Ghassan Halwani's Erased,___Ascent of the Invisible and Raed Rafei's Eccomi ... Eccoti are now available on DVD at the mec film online shop.
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6. DVD of the month - THE ONE MAN VILLAGE

A wonderful work, in every aspect. (radioeins)
A film full of poetry and simple worldly wisdom. (Berliner Morgenpost)
A film that goes under the skin. (Al-Mustaqbal)
buy DVD | stream with MMedia | stream with realeyz

Content
Semaan is leading a quiet life on his farm in the small village Ain el-Halazoun in the Lebanese mountains. The hamlet was completely emptied and destroyed in combats during the civil war in Lebanon between 1975 and 1990. Today, many years after an official reconciliation, its inhabitants which are all from one family regularly go back to the village to cultivate their plots of land or visit their houses and always leave before sunset.
In his comforting and humorous film Simon El Habre observes the life in his quasi ghost village and tries to reflect on the collective and individual memory in a country that seems to live in a collective amnesia and is vulnerable to a new civil war.
documentary, Simon El Habre, Lebanon 2008, 86 min, color, Arabic with Engl. ST, additional languages available
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