1. ERASED,___ASCENT OF THE INVISIBLE in France, India, Korea and Morocco
2. BIRDS OF SEPTEMBER in Paris
3. NATION ESTATE in Costa Rica and in France
4. AND AN IMAGE WAS BORN in Paris
5. THR DREAM (al-Manam) in Paris
6. WAJIB in German cinemas
7. DVD of the Months - The Dream (al-Manam)
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1. ERASED,___ASCENT OF THE INVISIBLE in France, India, Korea and Morocco

Ghassan Halwani's feature documentary is showing in June in the framework of "Thursdays Cinema and Human Rights" of the Moroccan Association of Mediterranean Meetings for Cinema and Human Rights in seven Moroccan cities. More over the film is presented at the Arab Film Festival Korea in Busan and Seoul, at the International Film Festival in Kerala (India) and at the Forum des Images in Paris (France).

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
more about the film
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2. BIRDS OF SEPTEMBER in Paris

Sarah Francis' city symphony is showing on June, 30th 2019 at the cinéma Lincoln in Paris (France).

Each element is only partially graspable – it’s possible to focus on the words, the face or the city behind them, but usually never all at once. At times it feels like tapping into Beirut’s unconscious, the streets and sky merging with anxieties about work, relationships and religion. (Movie Morlocks)

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.
documentary, Sarah Francis, Lebanon/Qatar 2013, 99 min, digital, Arabic with English or French subtitles
more
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3. NATION ESTATE in France

Larissa Sansour's short Sci-Fi is showing in June at the Festival Ciné-Palestine in Paris and at the diep~haven festival, also in France.

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.
short Sci-fi, Larissa Sansour, Palestine/Denmark 2012, 9 min, digital, no dialogue
more about the film
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4. AND AN IMAGE WAS BORN in Paris

Firas Khoury's short film is part of the short film selection of the Festival Ciné-Palestine in Paris (France) whic is running till June 10th.

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
more about the film
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5. THE DREAM (al-Manam) in Paris

Mohamad Malas' THE DREAM, a classic of Arab documentary cinema, is showing in June in a doubble feature with Omar Amiralay's Un Plat des Sardines at the Festival Ciné-Palestine in Paris (France).

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
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6. WAJIB in German cinemas

On Septmber 19th, 2019 Annemarie Jacir's multi-award winning WAJIB will open at German cinemas with all PR material being published in German and Arabic.

A whip-smart, moving comedy of family and community. (CineVue)

Big ideas and the everyday frictions of family elide in this sensitive, impressive Palestinian drama. (Time Out)

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
more in English | more in German/Arabic
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7. DVD of the Month - The Dream (al-Manam)

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

The director about the film
I think I managed to formulate a view that differs totally from other Arab and foreign contemplations. The difference is mainly that I adopted the position of a neighbor, thus and Arab, and not that of a Palestinian. This lead to me focusing rather on our mutual relations than on the conflict with Israel. The viewer might realize how I emphasized those nightmares which the Arabs caused in the lives of the Palestinians. My concern is to show how the Arab world is addressing the Palestinian cause: first one wanted to use the Palestinian issue and when this was not possible anymore, one tried to harm it. […] The fight between Israelis and Palestinians is as licit as public, yet the Arab-Palestinian conflict remains an internal affair, it happens in secret.
(11th International Documentary Film Festival Munich 1996)
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