1. THE DREAM in Barcelona
2. IN VITRO awarded in France and shows in Italy
3. ERASED,___ASCENT OF THE INVIISBLE in the USA
4. DIARY OF A MALE WHORE in Germany
5. 1982 NINETEEN-EIGHTY-TWO in Germany
6. WAJIB in Germany
7. TEXT: The Mystery of Tycoon Michel Baida in Old Arab Berlin
8. DVD/ of the month - ERASED,___ASCENT OF THE INVISIBLE
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1. THE DREAM in Barcelona

Mohamad Malas' classic of Arab documentary cinema is showing in October at the Autonomous University in Barcelona (Catalania/Spain).

Content
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
more

You can purchase a multi-language DVD here.
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2. IN VITRO awarded in France and shows 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.

short Sci-fi, Larissa Sansour & Soren Lind, Palestine/Denmark/UK 2019, 28 min, Arabic with English subtitles
more | trailer
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3. ERASED,___ASCENT OF THE INVISIBLE in the USA

On 1 October 2022 Ghassan Halwany presented and discussed his essay documentary at Columbia University in New York (USA).

Halwani's exemplary structural intelligence and moral sophistication allows him to avoid the pratfalls of cinematic archivality: every minute counts. (Cinema Scope)
Erased is a powerful, thoughtful film on death, trauma, and nationhood. (Scene Creek)

Content
Thirty-five years ago, I witnessed the kidnapping of a man I know.
He has disappeared since.


Director Ghassan Halawani takes the viewer on a forensic paper chase, uncovering, layer by layer, the darkest chapters of Lebanese history on walls, in documents, and urban architecture.
essay-documentary, Lebanon 2018, color and black & white, 76 min, Arabic and English with English subtitles
more | trailer
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4. DIARY OF A MALE WHORE in Germany

Tawfik Abu Wael's short film classic showed on 4 October 2022 at the Athar Queer Film Festival in Berlin (Germany).

Content
Esam, a young Arab war refugee who lives in Tel Aviv, makes his living as a male prostitute. His physical pleasure, that make him forget his hunger, remind him constantly of his childhood memories in his home village.
Inspired by the novel For Bread Alone by Mohammad Shukry.
short film, Tawfik Abu Wael, Palestine 2001, 14 min, colour, Arabic with English subtitles
more | clip
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5. 1982 NINETEEN-EIGHTY-TWO in Germany

Oualid Mouaness' multi-award winning feature is presented in the framework of the School Cinema Days 2022 at Moviemento Berlin on 20 October 2022.The distributor will be present for discussion with the pupils after the screening.

Content
In June of 1982, Israel invaded Lebanon, a country just north of its border was already reeling from its ongoing fractious war.  In this feature debut, director Oualid Mouaness revisits this cataclysmic moment in Lebanese history through a different lens: a kid's point-of-view at a quaker school on the outskirts of Beirut.  As the geopolitical conflict inches closer and closer, 11-year-old Wissam (Mohamad Dalli) is more intent on finding the courage to tell his classmate that he loves her.  For a dreamer like Wissam, who is more likely to be drawing than playing football, it's hard to comprehend the gravity of the impending violence.  But for his teachers, Yesmine (Nadine Labaki) and Joseph (Rodrigue Sleiman), the jets in the sky signal something far more dangerous.  As they try to mask their growing fears for the sake of the students, they also attempt to hide the fractures in their relationship. They fall on different sides of the political divide and look a way to reconcile a relationship that seems irreconcilable due the nature of the war besieging the country they love.
Fiction, Oualid Mouaness, Libanon/USA/Qatar/Norwey 2019, 100 min, Arabic with German subtitles
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6. WAJIB in Germany

Content

fiction, Annemarie Jacir, Palestine/France/Germany/Colombia/Norway/Qatar/UAE 2017, 96 min, Arabic with German ST
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7. TEXT: The Mystery of Tycoon Michel Baida in Old Arab Berlin

In the framework of The Markaz Review's focus WHY BERLIN? (edited by Viola Shafik), Irit Neidhardt (mec film) published the text The Mystery of Tycoon Michel Baida in Old Arab Berlin.

The Mystery of Tycoon Michel Baida in Old Arab Berlin


continue
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8. DVD/VoD of the month - ERASED,___ASCENT OF THE INVISIBLE

Erased is a powerful, thoughtful film on death, trauma, and nationhood. (Scene Creek)
Halwani's exemplary structural intelligence and moral sophistication allows him to avoid the pratfalls of cinematic archivality: every minute counts. (Cinema Scope)

Content
Thirty-five years ago, I witnessed the kidnapping of a man I know.
He has disappeared since.



Ghassan Halwani, essay-documentary, Lebanon 2018, color and black & white, 76 min, Arabic and English
subtitles: English, French, Italian, Spanish
PAL, no regional code

Awards
Special Mention, First Feature - 71 Locarno Festival

Bronze Tanit for the best long documentary - Carthage Film Festival

Best Film - Laceno d'Oro
Special Mention, International Competition - Transcinema
Special Mention - LatinArab Film Festival
Best Documentary - Gabes Cinema Fen
Best Documentary - Malmo Arab Film Festival
Ogawa Shinsuke Prize - Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival
Best Film, International Competition - This Human World

subjects
Lebanon, civil war, kidnapped, memory, post war order

Institutional rights
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