Here is a sneak peak at only a couple of the films that will screen at this year's Arab Film Festival which will take place on October 11 - 21, 2012 in San Francisco, Berkeley, San Jose, Los Angeles.
The Virgin, The Copts and Me (Documentary)
Namir is a French filmmaker whose Coptic Christian parents moved to France in 1973. One day he watches a video of the Virgin Mary's apparition with his mother who, like millions of other Copts, sees the Virgin while he sees nothing. Skeptical, Namir travels to Egypt, interviewing Christian and Muslim witnesses claiming to see the 1968 apparition. Comedic moments abound from his French producer's exasperation as Namir veers from the prescribed documentary about inter-faith violence, to wrangling with his mother, a skeptic herself about his ability to not produce another failure, "just like your last." Best Arab Documentary 2011 Doha Tribeca Film Festival.
Rough Hands (Narrative Feature)
The Virgin, The Copts and Me (Documentary)
Namir is a French filmmaker whose Coptic Christian parents moved to France in 1973. One day he watches a video of the Virgin Mary's apparition with his mother who, like millions of other Copts, sees the Virgin while he sees nothing. Skeptical, Namir travels to Egypt, interviewing Christian and Muslim witnesses claiming to see the 1968 apparition. Comedic moments abound from his French producer's exasperation as Namir veers from the prescribed documentary about inter-faith violence, to wrangling with his mother, a skeptic herself about his ability to not produce another failure, "just like your last." Best Arab Documentary 2011 Doha Tribeca Film Festival.
Rough Hands (Narrative Feature)
Mustapha is a forty-year-old barber in Casablanca. His clients are retired high-ranking government officials and power brokers. On the side, Mustapha has an underground business "facilitating" paperwork, using his privileged access to grease the wheels of bureaucracy. Zakia is a thirty-year-old schoolteacher whose fiancé has immigrated to Spain. Longing to join him, she asks Mustapha to forge her papers and an unexpected destiny awaits. Populated by characters who must bend the system to get by, Mohamed Asli's follow-up to his acclaimed debut In Casablanca, Angels Don't Fly is a bold indictment of the type of society produced by a corrupt police state.
Here is the trailer for this film:
Here is the trailer for this film:
The Suffering Grasses (Documentary)
Against the backdrop of the Arab Spring and the complicated politics of the region, this documentary seeks to explore the Syrian conflict through the humanity of the civilians who have been killed, abused, and displaced to refugee camps. While focusing on the plight of those caught in the crossfire of the hegemons, this film explores the motivations of its actors-the Ba'athist regime of Bashar al-Assad, the Free Syrian Army and other geopolitical players like the US, Israel, Russia, China, Iran, Lebanon, Turkey, the Gulf countries... When elephants go to war, it is the grass that suffers. West Coast Premiere.
Here is the trailer for this film:
Against the backdrop of the Arab Spring and the complicated politics of the region, this documentary seeks to explore the Syrian conflict through the humanity of the civilians who have been killed, abused, and displaced to refugee camps. While focusing on the plight of those caught in the crossfire of the hegemons, this film explores the motivations of its actors-the Ba'athist regime of Bashar al-Assad, the Free Syrian Army and other geopolitical players like the US, Israel, Russia, China, Iran, Lebanon, Turkey, the Gulf countries... When elephants go to war, it is the grass that suffers. West Coast Premiere.
Here is the trailer for this film:
