São Paulo – The 14th Arab World Film Festival will resume its program next Wednesday (16) at Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil (CCBB) in São Paulo. The festival had a first part in August at CineSesc, and now has a program at CCBB until October 28. Tunisian filmmaker Lofti Achour, who directed “Burning Hope” and “Law of Lamb,” will be in Brazil from next Thursday (17) to Saturday and have an event with the public.
The event is held by the Institute of Arab Culture (Icarabe) and CCBB SP, and is cosponsored by the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce and the Federation of Muslim Associations in Brazil (Fambras), Instituto do Sono and Aliança Francesa. Twenty movies will be screened divided into three themes, namely “Memory and its encounters,” “The Flame of Insurrection” and “From the Limit to the Displacement.”
The festival’s curator and ICArabe cultural director Arthur Jafet says that the productions address the political, social and cultural scenario in the Arab countries. The common thread are the challenges in the region during the refugees’ crisis, terror, post-colonialism, the impacts of the Arab Spring, the clamor for more freedom of speech, but also the return to origins, memory and the analysis of the past against a new scenario that is unfolding.
“Burning Hope” by Achour was never screened in Brazil. The movie is about an unlikely friendship between two young women and a teenager, their disillusionment and hopes amid historical contradictions after the revolution. “Law of Lamb,” also unheard of in Brazil, is a comedy where an old man and his grandson travel along a road in the Tunisian desert to sell their sheep and are stopped by two policemen who offers a unusual deal.
A playwright, theater and cinema producer and director, Lofti Achour will chat with the public next Saturday at 5:30 pm together with International Law professor at Fundação Getulio Vargas, Salem Hikmat Nasser.
Besides the Tunisian director’s movies, this festival edition also features “Ghost Hunting,” “Corps Étranger,” “Of Fathers and Sons,” and “The Reports on Sarah and Saleem.”
The first one is a documentary by Palestinian director Raed Andoni about an eclectic group of former inmates brought together by the filmmaker to build a replica of Al-Moskobiya, the main interrogation center of Israel. The drama “Corps Étranger” by Tunisian filmmaker Raja Amari shows Samia looking for refugee for her brother, a radical Islamist, and finds love in the house of a wealthy widow who she’ll work to.
“Of Fathers and Sons” is a documentary by Syrian director Talal Derki where he retells his return to his homeland where he gains the trust of a radical Islamist family, sharing a rare insight of what it means to grown in an Islamic caliphate. “The Reports on Sarah and Salee” is a drama by Palestinian director Muayad Alayan, where he tells the story of an Israeli woman called Sarah, who runs a café in West Jerusalem, and Saleem a Palestinian man from East Jerusalem that work as a delivery guy. They have an affaire that may break their families.
Brazilian filmmaker Joy Ernanny, who directed “Behind the Veil”, will participate in an event with the audiences on next Friday, October 18, at 7:45 pm after her film is screened at 5:30 pm. It’s a documentary about a new beauty salon in New York that becomes a refuge for Muslim women. Besides her, the chat will feature researcher, linguist and professor at the Department of Eastern Languages of the University of São Paulo, Mona Mohamad Hawi.
Quick facts:
14ª Arab World Film Festival
Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil São Paulo (CCBB SP)
October 16 to 28, 2019
Rua Álvares Penteado, 112 – Centro – São Paulo – SP
Find out more at: mundoarabe2019.icarabe.org
Or call to +55 (11) 3113-3651/3652 or email: ccbbsp@bb.com.br
Tickets: BRL 5-10 (USD 1-2)
Translated by Guilherme Miranda