{"id":416402,"date":"2026-08-28T15:50:41","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T18:50:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/?p=416402"},"modified":"2026-08-28T15:50:51","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T18:50:51","slug":"21st-arab-world-film-festival-opens-in-sao-paulo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/21st-arab-world-film-festival-opens-in-sao-paulo\/","title":{"rendered":"21st Arab World Film Festival opens in S\u00e3o Paulo"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

S\u00e3o Paulo \u2013 The 21st<\/sup> Arab World Film Festival opens on Wednesday (2), organized by the Arab Culture Institute (ICArabe) in partnership with the S\u00e3o Paulo Social Service of Commerce (SESC-SP), with sponsorship from the Arab-Brazilian Chamber of Commerce<\/strong> (ABCC<\/a>) and Casa \u00c1rabe. Running through September 8, the festival will feature nine films, seven of them making their Brazilian debut. All screenings will take place at CineSesc in S\u00e3o Paulo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The opening screening will feature Calle M\u00e1laga<\/em> (2025), a feature film by Maryam Touzani. Starring Carmen Maura, it tells the story of a Spanish woman living in Tangier, Morocco, until her daughter decides to sell the apartment where she lives. She then struggles to remain in the city and keep her home, embarking on a journey that also brings new discoveries.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\u201cHijra\u201d
\u201cHijra\u201d explores how three women from the same family and different generations relate to tradition<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The festival\u2019s curator and Arab Chamber director Arthur Jafet said the goal was to seek films that portray Arab societies \u201cin motion,\u201d avoiding a single or simplified view of the Arab world. The selected features address family, territories and memories. Jafet said the selection sought to broaden the perspective not only on themes, but also on storytelling by a young generation seeking to imagine a different future. \u201cIn these films, the past does not simply appear as nostalgia, but as living material that cinema recovers, questions and reinvents,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The festival\u2019s curator and ABCC board member Arthur Jafet said the goal was to seek films that portray Arab societies \u201cin motion,\u201d avoiding a single or simplified view of the Arab world. The selected features address family, territories and memories. Jafet said the selection sought to broaden the perspective not only on themes, but also on storytelling by a young generation seeking to imagine a different future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn these films, the past does not simply appear as nostalgia, but as living material that cinema recovers, questions and reinvents,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jafet also highlighted Calle M\u00e1laga<\/em>, as well as Cotton Queen<\/em> (2025), by Suzannah Mirghani, which portrays economic and social changes following British colonial rule in Sudan, and Hijra<\/em> (2025), by Shahad Ameen. Hijra<\/em> tells, through three women from the same family, how each generation relates to tradition in Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe director herself describes the film as a reflection on these different generations of Saudi women and their distinct perceptions of freedom,\u201d Jafet noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The curator also drew attention to Where the Wind Comes From<\/em> (2025), by Amel Guellaty, which humorously explores the fate of two young people traveling across Tunisia to take part in a competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jafet said another goal of the festival is to show audiences that there is not just one \u201cArab world,\u201d but a diversity of countries and peoples with very different realities, including Morocco, Sudan, Tunisia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and Iraq. Founded 21 years ago, the Arab World Film Festival, Jafet said, remains true to its mission: allowing Brazilian audiences to learn about Arab societies \u201cbeyond simplistic images.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOver these 21 editions, the festival has also witnessed a major transformation in Arab cinema itself, with new generations of filmmakers, greater female representation, films from countries that had previously received little international exposure, and a growing diversity of languages and subjects,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 21st<\/sup> Arab World Film Festival is co-sponsored by Nasser Advogados and supported by Instituto do Sono and the Edward Said Chair of Contemporary Studies at the Office of the Provost for Graduate Studies and Research at the University of S\u00e3o Paulo (USP).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More information and the full schedule are available here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read also<\/em>:
Book features Middle Eastern short stories<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Translated by Guilherme Miranda<\/strong><\/p>\n

Supplied<\/div>
Supplied<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A selection of films from the Middle East and North Africa will be screened from September 2 to 8 at CineSesc.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2316,"featured_media":416396,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[89],"tags":[48399,48478,9535,34388,10506,27517,9558,52748,1854],"class_list":{"0":"post-416402","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-culture","8":"tag-arab-2","9":"tag-arab-brazilian-chamber-of-commerce-2","10":"tag-cinema-en","11":"tag-cinesesc-en-2","12":"tag-festival-en","13":"tag-icarabe-en-2","14":"tag-morocco-en","15":"tag-societies","16":"tag-sudan"},"wps_subtitle":"A selection of films from the Middle East and North Africa will be screened from September 2 to 8 at CineSesc.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2316"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=416402"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416402\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":416414,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416402\/revisions\/416414"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/416396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=416402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=416402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=416402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}