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Newsletter October 2015

1. NATION ESTATE in Rouen, Sharjah and Dortmund
2. HAUNTED in San Francisco, Marseille, Lisbon, Duisburg, Oberhausen and Ramallah
3. DARIES OF A FLYING DOG in San Francisco and Malmo
4. BIRDS OF SEPTEMBER in Cerbère/Portbou
5. FREE RANGE in Malmo and Helsinki
6. SOLOMON’S STONE in Boston and Buenos Aires
7. FIDAI in Berlin and Ramallah
8. Events
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1. NATION ESTATE in Rouen and Sharjah

Also in its fourth year Larissa Sansour’s sci-fi short NATION ESTATE is travelling. This month to a screening of the Palestine Solidarity Group in Rouen/France, the Sharjah Art Foundation Sci-fi program in the UAE and Huna/k Arab Culture program in Dortmund/Germany.

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, no dialogue
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2. HAUNTED in San Francisco, Marseille, Lisbon, Duisburg, Oberhausen and Ramallah

Liwaa Yazji’s HAUNTED is showing this month at the Arab Film Festival in San Francisco in the presence of the director. Additionally the Festival Films Femmes Méditerranée in Marseilles/France and the DocLisboa International Documentary Film Festival in Lisbon/Portugal are showing the film, ciné-clubs Duisburg and Oberhausen in German programmed it and the Cinema Days Ramallah will present HAUNTED at the second edition of their festival.
Institutions can order the film for special screenings and events. We have English as well as French subtitles available.

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 or French subtitles
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3. DARIES OF A FLYING DOG in San Francisco and Malmo

Bassem Fayad’s feature documentary is showing in two international competitions in October: at the Arab Film Festivals in San Francisco/USA and in Malmo/Sweden.

Content
Time has no beginning and no end, if it spins in a circle. Each point can be a start or a finish, or simply an abstract point. We can chose to begin and end, or we can chose to be.
A family of four generations in their house in the Lebanese mountains. A dog.
What does it mean to live in war that constantly changes features and never ends? What does it mean to care for a family in such a situation? Which values do you teach your children? What is society in a civil war? Or the nation? Can one heal before peace?
Using the example of his biography - from the first year of the civil war in 1975 till the early weeks of the Islamic State in summer 2014 - Bassem Fayad lovingly and courageously examines how life moves on while war rotates in and around it.
Bassem Fayad, 75 min, Libanon/UAE, Arabic with English ST
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4. BIRDS OF SEPTEMBER in Cerbère/Portbou

Sarah Francis’ profound portrait of Beirut’s population, BIRDS OF SEPTEMBER, is showing at the Film Festival in Cebère/Portbou at the French-Spanish border in the presence of the director.

Content
A glassed van roams the streets of Beirut, home to a camera that explores the city behind the glass. Along the way, several people are invited to share a personal moment in this moving confessional. Each one comes as a face, a body, a posture, a voice, an attitude, an emotion, a point of view, a memory. Their confessions are true, blunt, and intimate. However, soon enough, the van empties again, and roams Beirut; restlessly looking for something, for someone.
Sarah Francis, Lebanon/Qatar 2013, 99 min, digital, Arabic with English or with French subtitles
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5. FREE RANGE in Malmo and Helsinki

Bass Bréche’s award-winning FREE RANGE is part of the short film competition at the Arab Film Festival Malmo/Sweden and is showing at the Middle East Film and Arts Festival in Helsinki/Finland this month.

Content
Based on actual events, Free Range is the story of a cow that crosses the border from Israel to Lebanon and meets with 16 year old Malakeh and her family. A  Lebanese Spaghetti-Western that talks about borders and power between people, religions, cows and UN interventions.
Lebanon/Germany 2014, 16 min, digital, cinescope, Arabic with English subtitles
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6. SOLOMON’S STONE in Boston and Buenos Aires

Ramzi Maqdisi’s bitter-comic SOLOMON’S STONE is part of the official selection of the Boston Palestine Film Festival which takes place in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston /USA  and show at the 11° Festival de Cine Inusual de Buenos Aires/Argentina this month.

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 by the novel Blue Light by Hussein Barghouty.
Palestine/Spain 2015, 25 min, color, digital, Arabic with English, or French, or Spanish  subtitles
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7. FIDAI in Berlin and Ramallah

mec film co-production FIDAI, Damien Ounouri’s quest about the role of his great uncle in the Algerian revolution in the late 1950s and early 1960s is presented in the series Beyond Spring in Berlin’s Werkstatt der Kulturen and presented by Goethe Institute and World Cinema Fund at the Cinema Days in Ramallah.

Content
During the Algerian revolution, my great-uncle joined his sister in France and integrated a secret FLN armed group. Settling of scores, attempted murder, hiding, imprisonment and finally expulsion in 1962, his personal journey tells the story of countless ex-fighters for Algerian independence, and echoes the current effervescence of the Arab World. Today, at the age of seventy, El Hadi reveals this dark part of his life.
Damien Ounouri, Algeria/France/China/Qatar/Kuwait/Germany 2012, 83 min
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8. Events

Irit Neidhardt (mec film) is invited for a talk about German-Arab cinematic cooperation at the Huna/k program in Dortmund / Germany on October 3rd and will be a panelist at the session ‘re-producer archive’ at the Cinema Days in Ramallah on October 14th.
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