São Paulo – This Saturday (6), Instituto Tomie Ohtake starts screening movies from the contemporary Arab world as part of the photo exhibition Taswir – contemporary Arab photography, which can be seen there until April 28. The institute is in São Paulo and will feature eight movies this weekend and the next and are free to enter.
The titles are from Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Egypt, Iraq, France and Israel. The first five of these countries are Arabs. Whereas France has a tradition of making cinema about the region and filming there. The country participates in the show with only one movie coproduced by Moroccans. The Israeli movie, which is not an Arab country but is at the Middle East, is about Palestine.
This Saturday at 7pm the Tunisian movie “As I Open My Eyes” by Leyla Bouzid may be seen. It tells the story of a girl that before the revolution joins a politicized rock band and discover alcohol, love and protests, while being watched by the political regime. In the same day at 9pm “Yema” from Algeria by the director Djamila Sahraoui will be screed; it is about a father that suspects that his militiaman son has killed his other son.
On Sunday (7), at 6pm, the Moroccan-French drama “Fièvres,” directed by Hicham Avouch, will be screened. It is about a teenager called Benjamin who is at war with his life, the adults and himself. With his mother arrested, he will live with his father, a broke man who lives at Paris outskirts. Also on Sunday at 8pm, the movie presented will be the Egyptian “The Virgin, the Copts and Me,” a documentary by Namir Abdel Messeeh. It narrates a trip Namir made Egypt to make a movie about miraculous appearances at the Christian Copt community.
On day 13 at 7 and 9pm, two movies will be shown, the French documentary “Burn the Sea” and the Iraqi drama “My Sweet Pepper Land” (photo above), respectively. The first brings stories of Tunisian young people after the revolution, and the latter the routine of a cop who tries to be fair and a teacher who challenges customs at the border between Iraq, Iran and Turkey. On day 14, the movies are “Five Broken Cameras,” from Israel, at 6pm, about a filming of the Palestinian resistance, and “Challat of Tunis” from Tunisia at 8pm, about a man who cuts women whom he considers inappropriately dressed.
According to information released by Instituto Tomie Ohtake, the movie show is supported by the France General Consulate in Brazil and the Institut Français, and depicts the political, social and cultural reality of the countries of the Arab world. The institute says the productions are not just about political and religious issues related to the local conflicts but also look at the daily life of the characters to better understand their culture. The curatorship is by Núcleo de Pesquisa e Curadoria of Instituto Tomie Ohtake.
The photo exhibit launched on March 28 to celebrate March 25th – which is National Arab Community Day in Brazil – and the Arab League’s 74th anniversary. It’s held by the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce in partnership with the Arab World Institute (AWI) in Paris. It features images by 14 photographers in 12 Arab and European countries, in a reissue of previous AWI exhibits.
Quick facts
Arab Contemporary World Film Showing
April 6, 7, 13 and 14, 2019
Saturday from 7pm-9pm, Sunday from 6pm-8pm
Instituto Tomie Ohtake
Avenida Faria Lima, 201 – Complexo Aché Cultural
(Entrance on Rua Coropés, 88) – Pinheiros – São Paulo – São Paulo
To find out more please call +55 11 2245 1900 or click here
Free admission
Translated by Guilherme Miranda & Gabriel Pomerancblum
