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Festival Overview The Arab Film Festival has been growing for nine years and has now proudly established itself as an integral part of the cultural diversity that shapes the San Francisco Bay Area. This year we expand to show more than thirty films including feature narrative films, shorts and documentaries that reflect the variety of Arab Cinema throughout the world. Our narrative features this year express the theme of crossing over borders of all forms, taking us along into uncharted lands and impossible situations. Our opening night premiers Sabah, a wonderful first feature by director Rubaa Nada, about a Muslim woman who defies her family by falling in love with a Canadian. For The Syrian Bride, border crossing literally determines the fate of a young Druze bride. Exils by Tony Gatlif, Shouf Shouf Habibi! by Albert ter Heerdt, Beb El Web by Merzak Allouache and Tenja by Hassan Legzouli explore second-generation Arab immigrants' search for identity through reverse exoduses that bring the characters face to face with their roots. Terra Incognita, the latest feature by director Ghassan Salhab, follows several characters in Beirut who remain locked into the present, unwilling to cross over to their future, unable to face their past. Yasmine Kassari's The Sleeping Child portrays the life of waiting young women whose husbands are forced to abandon their villages in search of work in Europe. Faced with a similar situation the women in the Algerian film Douar of Women by Mohamed Chouikh take arms against terrorists reclaiming the absent men's role. We are also presenting a program rich with the latest Egyptian films including the epic chronicle of Palestinian history, Door to the Sun by Yousry Nasrallah. We will screen two films by Inas El Deghedy, Diary of A Teenager and Looking For Freedom. I Love Cinema by Oussama Fawzi, Best of Times by Hala Khalil and My Soulmate by Khaled Youssef complete our Egyptian showcase. From Tunisia, I am proud to present three Bay Area premieres, Clay Dolls by Nouri Bouzid, Bab El Arch by Moktar Ladjimi and Ridha Behi's, The Magic Box. In our documentary series, Iraq, Palestine, and Sudan take center stage. With his now famous Liberace of Baghdad awarded at Sundance, Sean McAllister portrays the intimate effects of the current war in Iraq while his prior documentary, Minders depicts life under Saddam. The Dreams of Sparrows, a Haydar Mousa Daffar debut, attempts to make sense of the chaotic situation in Iraq. Waiting for Quds breathes hope into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which is explored by the local filmmakers Jamal Dajani and David Michaelis in their new documentary Occupied Minds. Secret Hebron: the School Run and A Stone's Throw Away show the plight of Palestinian children, while The Concrete Curtain deals with the effects of the wall disrupting Palestinians lives. All About Darfur chronicles a young filmmaker's journey back to Darfur in an attempt to make sense of the violence now plaguing her once peaceful childhood country. When Men Cry reverses the typical tale, exploring the perspective of husbands forced to immigrate to Spain for work. For our Short Films Program, women take over the screen and the camera with Beirut... Coming back to you is not painful directed by sisters Laila and Nadia Hotait, Tahara by Sara Rashad, BerlinBeirut by first time filmmaker Myrna Maakaron, Aadan by Rubaa Nada, The Eternal Dance by Hiam Abbass, Tuesday, February 29th by Gehan El Assr and Your Dark Hair Ihsan by Tala Hadid. Completing the shorts program, Ilyes Salem's award winning short Cousines calls for women's independence in the face of rising fundamentalist pressures and a climate of fear that plagued Algeria in the recent past, while Majdi El Omari's At the Window explores a Palestinian woman's life in exile in Canada. On behalf of all the volunteers that made this festival possible, we hope you will join us to watch some great films and meet the filmmakers! Sonia El Feki Artistic Director |
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