São Paulo – The 13th Arab World Film Festival kicked-off this Wednesday (08) evening with the screening of Wajib, by Palestinian director Annemarie Jacir, at Cinesesc, São Paulo. The festival runs until August 27 and will screen 23 productions. The Institute of Arab Culture (ICARABE) organized the film festival and the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce is a co-sponsor.
“Culture really brings peoples closer together and the spread of culture helps business. The Arab Chamber believes in this,” said the organization’s president, Rubens Hannun, in an interview before the festival’s opening ceremony. “More and more, the festival’s screenings are always to full capacity, and the Arab Chamber, if it’s able, will continue to support it,” he added. The organization supports the festival since its first edition, 13 years ago.
In a speech at the opening ceremony of the Arab World Film Festival (picture above), Hannun said that the Arab Chamber “is very proud of participating and supporting” the festival. “The Arab Chamber firmly believes in the importance of culture for integration and – why not – for trade,” he remarked. To him, from the cultural exchange results the lasting relations in other sectors, such as the economic and social.
ICARABE’s president, Mohamed Habib, said that the institute’s mission is the spread of the Arab culture and the promotion of the cultural dialogue between the Arab world and Brazil. “This year we have 23 movies that portrait the present reality of the Arab world, which has everything to do with the present reality of Brazil and Latin America,” he remarked.
“Cultural integration between peoples has never been so important as of today, in our current scenario. Cultural dialogue is the only door still open to save cultural harmony and humanism between the peoples,” said Habib. “This festival aims to reestablish a culture of peace,” he concluded.
The Rio Grande do Sul director of the documentary A Palestina Brasileira (The Brazilian Palestine), one of the films of the festival, Omar Barros Filho, said to ANBA that “the festival is crucial for people in Brazil to get a clearer picture of this culture, which is different from ours.” He added that cinema opens a door that helps the viewer in getting to know the Arab world, and Palestine in particular, and that the movies from the region present “an ever-increasing quality.”
Barros – who doesn’t have Arab origins, despite of his name Omar – told that the idea to shoot the documentary came from a trip that he took to Andalusia, Spain. “I understood the importance of the Arab legacy to our lives and came back to Brazil determined to find a theme to shoot,” he said.
He recalled that the found the theme to his documentary when reading, in ANBA, a news story that showed that Rio Grande do Sul gathers the largest community of Palestinians and descendants in Brazil. The production was shot in Brazil and Palestine and is centered around this community. This Thursday (09), the director will talk with the audience at Cinesesc, at 7 pm.
The Arab World Film Festival’s opening ceremony also had a tribute to business owner and political scientist José Farhat, a director at ICARABE and member of the Arab Chamber’s Management Council who passed away in May at 91 years old. The tribute was paid to his daughter, Sabrina Farhat, and one of his grandchildren.
Wajib
The film that opened the festival was Wajib, a story of a father and son that leave Nazareth, a mostly Arab city, to personally hand out hundreds of invitations to the wedding of their daughter/sister Amal, a local tradition. It reminds a little of Brazil, but here those delivering the wedding invitations are the bride and groom themselves.
In the backdrop, the movie shows Israel’s largest Arab city – for centuries the center of massive Christian pilgrimage –, the strongly entrenched habits of the local society in contrast to a more cosmopolitan lifestyle – the son lives in Italy –, the Palestine’s occupation, the political activism, family relations and the day-to-day of a crowded city in the Middle East. All this shows that life over there is not that different from life here, as it may seem.
But the movie focus on the relations between father and son, which is something universal. The two of them disagree in nearly everything, resulting in comic, nostalgic and sad situations. It’s impossible not to feel a déjà-vu sensation. The movie will be screened again on Saturday (11), at 7 pm, at Cinesesc. Watch below the trailer of Wajib (the text continues after the trailer).
All the films in the Arab World Film Festival’s programme will be screened at Cinesesc (until August 15) and Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil (during the entire festival), except for one single screening of the movie Good Luck Algeria, scheduled for August 26, at 9:30 am at Reserva Cultural, in Avenida Paulista.
Quick info
13th Arab World Film Festival
Daily, until August 27
Click here for the full programme and further information
Cinesesc
Until August 15
Tickets: BRL 12 (full), BRL 6 (half) and BRL 3.5 (workers of the goods, services and tourism retail industry members of SESC and direct family)
Address: Rua Augusta, 2,075, Cerqueira César, São Paulo, SP
Phone: 55 11 3087-0500
Website: www.sescsp.org.br
Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil
From August 9 to 27
Tickets: BRL 10 (full) and BRL 5 (half)
Address: Rua Álvares Penteado, 112, Centro, São Paulo, SP
Phone: 55 11 3113-3651 and 3113-3652
Website: www.bb.com.br/cultura
Reserva Cultural
Date: August 26
Tickets: BRL 8 (full), advance purchase
Address: Av. Paulista, 900, Bela Vista, São Paulo, SP
Phone: 55 11 3287-3529
Website: www.reservacultural.com.br
Translated by Sérgio Kakitani
