 |
|||||||||
|
|||||||||
 |
|||||||||
   |
|
|
 Clapper by Ammar Al-Beik |
                       |
In a thoughtful, dreamlike montage, the Beirut-based video artist examines archival photos, from portraits of Bedouins in the desert to the bomb-rent sky over the Lebanese capital. The imagery moves from an idyllic rural past, when the central conflict was between camel and car, to the strife-ridden present of propaganda and urban alienation. From his perch at the editing station, where he assembles these layers of history, Zaatari wonders what truths are ultimately captured in these photographs? In Arabic and English with English subtitles.
New York Premiere
In a remote Moroccan village, the only telephone is a mobile placed high on a hilltop, so heavily pregnant Aicha rarely gets to speak to her absent husband, Said. He works for a pittance in a café in Casablanca, sending money home to support his family. Asli’s assured debut feature employs poetic flourishes and a strong non-professional cast, as well as an authentic Moroccan soundtrack, to create this tragicomic tale about economic migrants’ longings and dreams of fulfillment. In Arabic and Berber with English subtitles.
As the sun sets in the east, a woman dreams of a man. As the explosions erupt and the fires burn, she dreams of a soldier.
A hopeless man constructs his weapon, afraid to sleep unarmed. Equipped with stones, the man is convinced he can create a greater weapon for defense.
A ghostly, eloquent portrait of an abandoned steam-engine plant and the men who labored there for four decades. In Arabic with English subtitles.
Deir Mar Moussa, Syria: Who are the inhabitants of this isolated monastery near the Iraqi border, and what has brought them here? Documentarian Ammar Al-Beik investigates, revealing a polyglot community that’s simple yet surprisingly social and connected to the world. Alongside the monks’ discussions of daily rituals, globalization and Islamic-Christian dialogue, Al-Beik makes explicit the dialogue between camera and subject, and the filmmaker’s own rituals and sacred objects. The result is a canny, often funny exploration of faith and devotion in the modern world. In Arabic, French and Italian with English subtitles.
This oblique travel diary, recounting four Armenians’ visit to eastern Turkey in 2003, covers not their daily itinerary and the big sights, but the spaces in between: the awkward translations, the mystifying exchanges, the unspoken tensions that still linger across a closed border. A graceful, nuanced treatment of the filmmakers’ ambivalent relationship to their historic homeland. In English, Armenian, Turkish, Arabic and French with English subtitles.
A lonely abused woman warily lets a paroled convict into her life when he promises to help get her brother’s death sentence commuted. Director Farhadi (Dancing in the Dust) presents one of the more frank and realistic portrayals of young love in contemporary Iranian cinema in counterpoint to the grim quest of a murder victim’s father for eye-for-an-eye justice. The award-winning star of I am Taraneh, 15, shines in a nuanced performance as the sister trapped in a marriage of convenience to a disreputable middle-aged peddler but increasingly drawn to the ex-con who is her brother’s best friend. In Persian with English subtitles. Description courtesy of the Gene Siskel Film Center.
How does a Turkish cleaning woman get 100,000 Euros? Why does Ralph win a million? And why will his Vietnamese neighbor be arrested? The stars, timing and a good deed align to affect their destinies. In German with English subtitles.
The films included in this special program have been chosen amongst many documentaries that were made about the Bam earthquake during the past year. The aim was to choose a wide variety of films documenting this tragedy in their own unique way. Each film examines this human tragedy from a different angle. They show the pain, hope, devastation, perseverance and vulnerability of our human nature. $5 Admission
In this engaging, often hilarious documentary exploration of the contradictions and conflicts in modern-day Egypt, there is little the four women of the title—socialist Amina, Muslim politician Shahenda, Christian Wedad and Muslim journalist Shahenda—agree on, but nothing they won’t discuss. Despite their wildly divergent backgrounds, these vivacious, articulate women maintain a deep and committed friendship, arguing openly but with tolerance for their differences.
Brilliantly adapted from one of the most influential novels in contemporary Iranian literature, The River’s End is a film unlike any other in post-revolutionary cinema, employing the 60s avant-garde style to create a mesmerizing art piece. The story unfolds from the subjective viewpoint of its troubled twenty-something protagonist, haunted by memories of his dead father and their relationship to the river Zayandehrood. Even when he leaves his hometown, architecturally splendid Isfahan, for the modern anonymity of Tehran, his disturbing dreams, bringing him back to the mysterious river, persist. In Persian with English subtitles.
Tuesday in small-town Syria in 1969 means only one thing: gathering at the local bigwig’s house to hear the popular radio show “At Our Listeners’ Request.” To a nostalgic soundtrack of classic Arabic ballads, the film’s cast of oddball characters pursue their dreams and romances, but the radio soon brings more than they bargained for: news of the Apollo moon landing, reports of bombings on the border with Israel. And when the town’s young hero is drafted, the radio’s songs are more poignant still. In Arabic with English subtitles.
This rapid-fire allegory retells the history of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict as that of an innocent baby, pushed out from the safe environment of his mother's womb.