1. New! PANOPTIC by Rana Eid
2. Tribute to Mohamad Malas in Vesoul, screenings in Alexandria
3. RANA’S WEDDING in Bern
4. BIRDS OF SEPTEMBER online with realeyz
5. mec film during Berlinale
6. DVD of the Month: SOLOMON’S STONE
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1. New! PANOPTIC by Rana Eid

mec film is proud to announce the international distribution and sales of feature documentary Panoptic which premiered at the Locarno International Film Festival in 2017.

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.
Rana Eid, Lebanon 2017, 69 min, Arabic with Engl. or French ST
read more, watch trailer
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2. Tribute to Mohamad Malas in Vesoul, screenings in Alexandria

The 24th International Festival of Asian Cinema tok place in Vesoul (France) from January 30th till February 6th, 2018. It honored prominent Syrian film-maker Mohamad Malas with a retrospective in the presence of the director. See selected articles here.
At the end of this month the Bibliotheca Alexandrina Art Center (Egypt) shows two of Mohamad Malas’ feature fiction films: The Night from 1992 and Ladder to Damascus from 2013.

THE NIGHT
In the destroyed city of Quneitra is the grave of a resistance fighter for Palestine. His son, the director, tries to restore the dead man’s history by mixing echoes of his mother’s memory and his desire to give his father a more honorable death. Through the daily lives, dreams, fears and hopes of its citizens, Malas chronicles his hometown Quneitra in the Golan Heights between 1936, the year of the first revolts against the British and Zionists in Palestine untill the year of the city’s destruction. He seeks to exorcise a feeling of shame and humiliation that long accompanied the image of his father and also his town, occupied by Israelis in 1967.
Mohamad Malas, Syria 1992, color, wide screen, 116 min, Arabic with English or French subtitles
more

LADDER TO DAMASCUS
Ghalia is possessed by Zeina’s spirit. Haunted by the life of a girl, who drowned the day she was born, Ghalia travels to Damascus, where she studies acting. There, she meets Fouad, an aspiring film-maker who becomes fascinated by Ghalia's duality. He takes her under his wing and helps her find a place to live. Fouad's love for Ghalia and Zeina blossoms, while the tumultuous events in Syria start unfolding in the streets around them and gradually encroaches on their idyllic isolation.
Mohamad Malas, Syria/Lebanon/Qatar 2013, Arabic with English subtitles, Colour, 97 minutes
more
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3. RANA’S WEDDING in Bern

REX Kino Bern (Switzerland) shows Hany Abu Assad’s RANA’S WEDDING in a program on Palestinian film-making running throughout the month of February.

Content
Rana wakes up one morning to an ultimatum delivered by her father: She must either choose a husband from a pre-selected list of eligible men, or she must accompany her father abroad. Rana's Wedding is a romantic drama about a Palestinian girl who wants to get married to the man of her own choice. With only ten hours to find her boyfriend in occupied Jerusalem, Rana sneaks out of her father's house at daybreak to find her forbidden love, Khalil. Facing barriers and occupation which have become an everyday reality, Rana overcomes her fears and doubts, deciding not to let anyone control her life.
feature fiction, Hany Abu-Assad, Palestine 2002, 90 min, 35mm, Arabisch with German subtitles
more
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4. BIRDS OF SEPTEMBER online with realeyz

Sarah Francis’ feature documentary is now online for VOD with the mec film channel at realeyz.

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 French subtitles
go to realeyz
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5. mec film during Berlinale

During Berlinale (15-24 February) the office is not open on a regular basis. Emails are not read en route.
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6. DVD of the Month: SOLOMON’S STONE

Ramzi Maqdisi’s adaption of Hussein Barghouty Blue Light.

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.
Ramsi Maqdisi, Palestine 2015, short film, fiction, 25 min, Arabic
Subtitles: English
DVD PAL, region free
Subjects
Jerusalem, Myth, Oppression, Archaeology, Palestine
Award
Audience Award for the Best Short Film at the Mizna Arab Film Festival
Institutional rights
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view online at realeyz
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