São Paulo – Five films about the Arab world are in the program of the 14th Rio de Janeiro International Film Festival, featuring 400 movies from 60 different countries, up until October 11th, in several theaters in Rio de Janeiro.
The Arab Spring provides the backdrop to The Reluctant Revolutionary, which tells the story of tourist guide Kais, who joins people from different tribes to fight for the overthrowing of Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh.
In Zaytoun, the Palestinian boy Fahed, who lives in a refugee camp in Lebanon, joins the Israeli pilot Yoni, who had been taken hostage after his plane crashed, so that together, Fahed may return to Palestine, and Yoni to Israel.
The Suffering Grasses: When Elephants Fight, It Is the Grass That Suffers portrays the suffering of children amidst the conflicts between Bashar Al Assad’s government forces and the rebels fighting to topple him. The film also shows how a large portion of the world population is unaware of the Syrian situation.
The Algerian struggle against French domination is depicted in Here We Drown Algerians. In 1961, thousands of Algerian citizens marched in Paris and were targeted by violent repression from the French police, at a toll of 500 missing and dead people, many of whom drown in the Seine River.
Words of witness tells the story of the young Heba Afify, who starts working for the "Al-Masry Al-Youm" newspaper months before the then-Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak stepped down. While covering the protests on Tahrir Square, she is divided between conveying the clamour from the streets of Cairo, and the criticism from her conservative mother.
Aside from the films, the festival features debates with leading names in Brazilian and world cinema. The attendance of actor Jeremy Irons and directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, who starred in Little Miss Sunshine, have been confirmed.
The festival features screenings of the productions outside movie theaters, in locations such as Copacabana Beach, Complexo do Alemão, Vila Cruzeiro, Cidade de Deus and Madureira Park.
The full festival program and venue addresses are available at www.festivaldorio.com.br.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
