The 7th ARAB Film Festival
Arabian Wave
“Arabian Wave,” a section that takes a close look at the contemporary Arab cinema trends, features a total of nine films this year. In the aftermath of the revolution along with the continuation of conflicts, the Arab society is still going through a period of turbulence, full of never-ending problems. In the meantime, contemporary Arab cinema tends to focus on Arab people’s journey to find their inner selves away from their religious and national identities as well as from the turmoil of the ever-changing society where life and death are closely intertwined in their day-to-day lives. In line with this, this section features outstanding films including: Tramontane that prompts you to think about what it means to find your root and have a family; Until the End of Time about the protagonists who find meaning in their lives when death is near; and Zagros that challenges the meaning of family believed to be a pillar of the Arab society in the traditional sense by showing how family can fall apart. In addition, it is possible to find films on civil wars and refugees which would be the most important and severe issues in the current Arab society. For example, Insyriated focuses on a story of an isolated family trapped in an apartment in Damascus exposed to continuous skirmishes while The Guest follows a tough journey of refugees who left their hometown, Aleppo after a series of bomb attacks and explores their friendship blooming during that journey. The screenings of these films will be a meaningful opportunity to take a peek at the lives of Arab people that we hardly know. This section also showcases a wide range of the latest films both by experienced and skilled directors with worldwide recognition in the international film festival circuit and by emerging young directors willing to explore the aesthetic potential of cinema. Abdulla Al Kaabi, a rookie director from the UAE presents Only Men Go to the Grave with a theme of reconciliation among women in a unique and unexpected way. Installation artist Hala Elkoussy made her directorial debut with Cactus Flower that follows the protagonists on a journey to find their true selves through a special friendship with dreamlike and experimental mise-en-scène. Meanwhile, Razzia, the latest work by a prominent Moroccan director, Nabil Ayouch juxtaposes the images of the ever-changing Moroccan society with those of younger generations. Last but not least, Wajib by a promising Palestine woman director, Annemarie Jacir gives a sophisticated account of the conflict and reconciliation between the generations in the Arab society through a compelling story of father and son. The 2018 edition of “Arabian Wave” will be a fruitful opportunity to understand the current state of Arab cinema that incorporates the emerging tendency to strive for change and sublimates deeply rooted religious and cultural traditions into a new cinematic potential.
HIGHLIGHTS
FILMS
Cactus Flower
- Egypt, Qatar, UAE, Norway
- 2017
- 103min
- DCP
- Color
- Fiction
- Arabic
- 12+
Asian Premiere
2017 Dubai International Film Festival
2017 International Film Festival Rotterdam
Aida is a struggling actress from a provincial background. She finds herself on the streets of Cairo along with her neighbor Samiha, a reclusive bourgeois. With no money and nowhere to go, the two women, aided by Yassin, a streetsavvy youth, embark on a journey to find shelter. Amid the banal and at times disastrous turns their journey takes, they move along parallel journeys of self-discovery. An extraordinary friendship grows among the unlikely trio; a friendship comparable to a delicate flower blooming from a thorny cactus.
Director
Hala Elkoussy
Born in Cairo, Hala Elkoussy is a Cairo and Amsterdam-based photographer and visual artist. In 2004, she co-founded the Contemporary Image Collective(CIC), an independent initiative for photographers and video artists based in Cairo. Her works have been exhibited at numerous museums and biennales across the world including the ones in London, New York, and Amsterdam. In 2010, she won the Abraaj Capital Art Prize designed for talented artists from the Middle East, North Africa, and Asia. Cactus Flower is her first feature film.
| Seoul |
6.3(Sun) 17:30 6.5(Tue) 11:30 |
|---|
| Busan |
6.2(Sat) 16:40 6.5(Tue) 18:10 |
|---|
Insyriated
- Belgium, France, Lebanon
- 2017
- 85min
- DCP
- Color
- Fiction
- Arabic
- 15+
2017 Berlin International Film Festival – Panorama Audience Award
2017 Toronto International Film Festival
Trapped inside her house in a city under siege, Yazan, mother of three, turned her flat into a safe harbor for her family and neighbors, trying to protect them from the war outside. When bombs threaten to destroy the building, when snipers turn the courtyards into deadly zones, and burglars break in to claim their dreadful bounties, maintaining the thin balance of routine inside the walls becomes a matter of life and death.
Director
Philippe Van Leeuw
Philippe Van Leeuw studied at INSAS before moving to Los Angeles, where he studied cinematography at the American Film Institute. Upon his return to Europe, he took on the role as director of photography for feature documentaries and advertising. It was during these collaborations that he came to meet director Bruno Dumont, who would direct La vie de Jésus(1997), his feature film debut as cinematographer. His dedication to social and poetic films has lead him to his directorial debut, The Day God Walked Away (2009). Insyriated is his second feature film.
| Seoul |
6.2(Sat) 11:30 6.6(Wed) 20:00 |
|---|
| Busan |
6.2(Sat) 14:50 6.4(Mon) 18:40 |
|---|
Only Men Go to the Grave
- UAE
- 2016
- 80min
- DCP
- Color
- Fiction
- Arabic
- 12+
Asian Premiere
2016 Dubai International Film Festival – Best Muhr Emirati Feature
2017 Malmö Arab Film Festival
After the war ended in 1988, a blind mother welcomes her estranged daughters to tell them a secret. Unfortunately, she accidentally dies while professing it. During the funeral, the daughters try to deal with their mother’s sudden death while at the same time; they work together to unveil her secret by looking for clues from visitors. Throughout, their own lives continue to unravel, giving room for buried family tensions to gradually surface while struggling to deal with their own secrets and deep-rooted guilt. All of a sudden, the daughters start to question everything about their mother’s life after a peculiar encounter with a woman, to the shock of the family.
Director
Abdulla Al Kaabi
Abdulla Al Kaabi is an Emirati filmmaker. While pursuing his university studies, Abdulla became a lead presenter on Dubai TV in 2004. He continued in this post for the next four years gaining valuable hands-on experience in the field of production. Knowing that he always wanted to be in the Director’s seat, he pursued a Master’s Degree in Filmmaking at the École Internationale de Création Audiovisuelle et de Réalisation. In 2011, he directed his first award-winning short film, The Philosopher, starring famed French actor Jean Reno. His second short film Koshk won two awards at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival in 2014. Only Men Go to the Grave is his first feature film and won the Best Muhr Emirati Feature at Dubai International Film Festival.
| Seoul |
6.3(Sun) 14:00 6.5(Tue) 14:00 |
|---|
| Busan |
6.2(Sat) 18:50 6.5(Tue) 14:30 |
|---|
Razzia
- Morocco, France, Belgium
- 2017
- 119min
- DCP
- Color
- Fiction
- Arabic, Amazigh, French
- 15+
Asian Premiere
2017 Dubai International Film Festival
2017 Toronto International Film Festival
Casablanca. Vibrant and rough, inviting yet unforgiving. Four souls in search of truth. Hakim, living in the conservative medina, dreams of being a rock star. Salima, struggles to free herself from a society that wants to define her. Joe, a Jewish restaurant owner, chooses to live in the Casablanca he fantasizes about, blurring his reality. Inès is torn between tradition and modernity as she deals with her sexual awakening. More than three decades earlier, a passionate teacher in the Atlas Mountains is put to silence. Through the echo of his shattered dreams, their disillusions embody the sparks that will light the city in flames.
Director
Nabil Ayouch
Nabil Ayouch is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (the Oscars), the French Film Academy (Les Cesar), and sits on the board of the Arab Film Academy. In 1997, he directed his first feature film, Mektoub. Between 2005 and 2010, he produced 40 genre films as part of the Film Industry, Made in Morocco project. In 2011, he released his first feature-length documentary, My Land, which was filmed the Middle East and also finished Horses of God, the film adaptation of Mahi Binebine’s novel The Stars of Sidi Moumen, inspired by the May 16th, 2003 suicide bombings in Casablanca. In 2015, his film Much Loved was chosen for the Directors’ Fortnight at the Cannes.
| Seoul |
6.1(Fri) 17:30 6.5(Tue) 19:30
|
|---|
| Busan |
6.1(Fri) 20:10 6.6(Wed) 14:00 |
|---|
The Guest
- Jordan, Turkey
- 2017
- 83min
- DCP
- Color
- Fiction
- Arabic
- 15+
Asian Premiere
2017 Malmö Arab Film Festival
2017 Antalya International Film Festival – Audience Award
Lena is a ten-year-old girl who has lost her family in the war. She finds herself forced to make her way to Turkey with her baby sister and their neighbor Meryem, along with the other refugees. What Lena really wants is to return home, while Meryem’s hope is to reach Europe. They arrive in Istanbul only to face new challenges. Their efforts to survive in the big city with all its cruelty and coldness, give us hope nonetheless. What if war break out in your country tomorrow? What would you do? While showing Meryem and Lena overcoming the hurdles of a big city in a foreign country and becoming heroines of their story, this movie will enable people to have a better understanding of Syrian refugees’ feelings and the harsh reality they face every day.
Director
Andaç Haznedaroğlu
Andaç Haznedaroğlu attended GITIS Acting Stage Management Workshop in Moscow. Her master degree is in Dramaturgy at Anadolu University. During her television and cinema career over twenty years, she has directed many TV series in Turkey. Haznedaroğlu is an author of several hit TV dramas like June Night, From Lips to Heart, Samanyolu and etc. She made her feature film debut in the romantic comedy Everything for Love (2016). In 2004, Andaç Haznedaroğlu founded her own production company Andac Film Productions. She is also a lecturer on Directing For Talent at Istanbul Bilgi University and Yeditepe University.
| Seoul |
6.3(Sun) 20:00 6.6(Wed) 14:00
|
|---|
| Busan |
6.1(Fri) 18:20 6.6(Wed) 16:20 |
|---|
Tramontane
- Lebanon, France, Qatar, UAE
- 2016
- 105min
- DCP
- Color
- Fiction
- Arabic
- 12+
Korean Premiere
2016 Dubai International Film Festival – Best Actress
2016 Cannes Film Festival – Grand Golden Rail Award
Rabih, a young blind man, lives in a small village in Lebanon. He sings in a choir and edits Braille documents for an income. His life unravels when he tries to apply for a passport and discovers that his identification card, which he has carried his entire life, is a forgery. Traveling across rural Lebanon in search of a record of his own birth, he meets people on the far fringes of society who tell their own stories, open further questions and give Rabih minor clues about his true identity. Descending into a void at the heart of his existence, Rabih encounters a nation incapable of telling his or its own narrative.
Director
Vatche Boulghourjian
Vatche Boulghourjian is a Lebanese filmmaker. He holds an MFA from New York University’s Graduate Film Program. Before attending NYU, Boulghourjian worked throughout the Middle East on documentaries for television while also independently making shorts, experimental films, and documentaries. Fifth Column, his thesis film, received a production grant from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and in 2010 premiered at the Cannes, as part of the Cinéfondation’s Selection, where it was awarded Third Prize. Boulghourjian’s first feature Tramontane was selected to premiere in the feature film competition of the Critic’s Week in the Cannes 2016.
| Seoul |
6.2(Sat) 20:00 6.6(Wed) 11:30 |
|---|
| Busan |
6.4(Mon) 14:30 6.6(Wed) 18:10 |
|---|
Until the End of Time
- Algeria
- 2017
- 94min
- DCP
- Color
- Fiction
- Arabic
- 12+
Asian Premiere
2017 Dubai International Film Festival
2017 Cairo International Women Film Festival
At Sidi Boulekbour, the marabout watching over the dead souls, life goes on. The faithfuls wait for the Ziara, time of the year during which the families come to visit their dead ones. For Ali, the seventy-year-old self-effaced gravedigger, this Ziara was not supposed to be different from any other, but this time Joher arrives to visit her sister’s grave. Wanting to rest beside her sister, Joher, decides to organize her own funeral alone before her death. During her three days of pilgrimage, Ali and Joher learn to discover each other timidly. But Joher is reluctant to let herself go to this new feeling at her age. The cemetery becomes the theater of a platonic love story; bringing life to this place of death.
Director
Yasmine Chouikh
Born in 1982 in Algiers, Yasmine Chouikh worked as a cultural journalist in a daily newspaper l’Autentique in 2004 and in 2005 she joined the Algerian National television, EPTV hosting a program about cinema. She directed two short films, The Door in 2006 and the Djinn in 2010 and a TV series Studio 27 in 2015. She produced a set of 8 short films Once upon a time, the Casbah directed by Yamina Bachir. She was the art director of the Taghit International Short Film Festival(Algeria) from 2009 to 2012. She was in charge of short films at the International Arab Film Festival of Oran, Algeria from 2008 to 2011. Until the End of Time is her first feature film.
| Seoul |
6.1(Fri) 11:30 6.4(Mon) 17:30 |
|---|
| Busan |
6.1(Fri) 14:30 6.6(Wed) 20:20 |
|---|
Wajib
- Palestine, France, Germany, Colombia, Norway, Qatar, UAE
- 2017
- 96min
- DCP
- Color
- Fiction
- Arabic
- 12+
2017 Dubai International Film Festival – Best Muhr Feature, Best Actor
2017 Toronto International Film Festival
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 to each guest as per local Palestinian custom. As the estranged pair spends the day together, the tense details of their relationship come to a head challenging their fragile and very different lives.
Director
Annemarie Jacir
Palestinian filmmaker Annemarie Jacir has written, directed and produced over sixteen films. Her short film Like Twenty Impossibles (2003) was the first Arab short film in history to be an official selection of the Cannes. Her second work to debut in Cannes, the critically acclaimed Salt of this Sea (2008), garnered fourteen international awards. It was the first feature film directed by a Palestinian woman. When I Saw You (2012) won, among other awards, Best Asian Film at the 63rd Berlin International Film Festival and Best Arab Film in Abu Dhabi Film Festival. The film’s production was entirely Arab financed with all Palestinian producers. Wajib is her third feature film.
| Seoul |
6.1(Fri) 20:00 6.4(Mon) 14:00 |
|---|
| Busan |
6.3(Sun) 19:50 6.5(Tue) 20:20 |
|---|
Zagros
- Belgium, The Netherlands
- 2017
- 95min
- DCP
- Color
- Fiction
- Kurdish, Dutch
- 15+
2017 Dubai International Film Festival
2017 International Film Festival Rotterdam
Zagros is a young shepherd who lives in a Kurdish village with his pregnant wife Havin and their daughter. His father tells him that people gossip about Havin: There are rumours of her having an affair. Zagros brushes his father’s concerns away as he trusts his wife. Later, Zagros learns that his family have accused Havin of adultery and locked her up. He returns to his village but finds his wife and daughter gone. Havin has fled to Belgium with their daughter. Convinced of her innocence and confident that they can build a new life together, Zagros smuggles himself to the West to join them. But the poisonous seeds of doubt regarding Zagros’ grow beyond his control.
Director
Sahim Omar Kalifa
Kurdish director Sahim Omar Kalifa studied film in Brussels. His graduation film Nan(2008) won a wild card contest, enabling him to write and direct the professional short Land of the Heroes (2010), which earned him a jury award at the Berlinale in 2011(Generation Kplus). Both his subsequent shorts Baghdad Messi (2012) and Bad Hunter (2014) were festival darlings as well and ended up being short-listed for the Academy Awards. Sahim’s shorts were selected for 250 festivals and took home a total of 97 international festival awards. Zagros is his first feature length project.
| Seoul |
6.2(Sat) 17:30 6.4(Mon) 11:30 |
|---|
| Busan |
6.2(Sat) 20:30 6.4(Mon) 16:40 |
|---|