ALFILM – Arab Film Festival Berlin

On 8th April, a podium debate entitled "Jewish Arabs in postcolonial cultural discourse –Who is looking at whom?"will take place. Artistic examinations of the multi-ethnic and multi-religious past of the Arab world are becoming increasingly popular in film, literature and pop culture. Where is this strengthened interest in Jewish-Arab identities and narratives from and how is it expressing itself? Are we talking about isolated cases or is there a trend? What depictions, representations and stereotypes regarding Arab Jews are there and how do they relate to postcolonial and popular identity discourses? Ella Shohat, Kathy Wazana, Nadia Kamel, Jay Weissberg and Hassan Benjelloun will take part in a debate moderated by Irit Neidhardt.ÀPEINE J'OUVRE LES YEUX (As I Open My Eyes, Leyla Bouzid, F/Tunisia/Belgium 2015, 6.4., special guest: Baya Medhaffer) The fun-loving Farah (Baya Medhaffer) has just finished school and sings in a rock band. She dreams of becoming a professional musician although her parents would prefer her to study medicine. Rehearsals and performances are infrequent but lyrics that are increasingly critical of society draw the attention of the secret services. But Farah is in love and feels invincible –she sings in bars, enjoys Tunis' nightlife, while her mother Hayet (Ghalia Benali) would lock her up if possible. It’s summer 2010, the tensions in the country are palpable and Farah is unexpectedly confronted with the consequences of her music.THEY WERE PROMISED THE SEA (Kathy Wazana, Canada/Morocco 2013,
7.4., special guest: Kathy Wazana) When Kathy Wazana was 10, her parents left Morocco with several hundred thousand other Jews. Wazana returned 35 years later to find out what had motivated these people to leave their homes and why some had preferred to stay. She traces different biographies in a road documentary, in which she paints a diverse portrait of Moroccan-Jewish identity that unfolds as a canvas of multiple cultural, religious and social elements. At the same time, she also examines openly the complex political and social problems in Jewish-Arab relations over the past 100 years. THEEB (Naji Abu Nowar, UAE/Qatar/Jordan/GB 2014, 7.4.) The Jordanian desert during the First World War: Britain is fighting against the Ottoman Empire and seeks allies among the Bedouin tribes. A British soldier and his Arab translator need a local guide for a secret mission. Hussein, the oldest son of a Bedouin sheikh, accompanies them and his curious younger brother Theeb (Jacir Eid) follows them secretly. Danger  lurks everywhere in the barren landscape. This feature film debut with mostly amateur actors is a breathtakingly shot western adventure that was nominated for an Oscar. MUCH LOVED (Nabil Ayouch, Morocco/F 2015, 8.4., special guest: Nabil Ayouch) Noha (Loubna Abidar), Randa and Soukaina are prostitutes in Marrakesh –their life entertaining rich Saudis and European tourists is tough. It's daily struggle to protect not only the nice facade but also their dignity. Ayouch's controversial film, which was banned in Morocco, is not afraid of its subject matter and the most terrible aspects, but it concentrates more on the links of friendship between the women living in an emergency situation on the margins of society.IN THIS LAND LAY GRAVES OF MINE (Reine Mitri, Lebanon/F 2014, 9. & 10.4., special guest: Reine Mitri) After her father dies, Reine Mitri sells the family’s summer home in a Christian  mountain village to a Muslim. Land transfer, which is on the up, is finishing what the civil war was not able to do –the creeping subdivision of Lebanon along religious lines. Using her personal story as a basis and impressive archival footage for her film, Mitri talks with different people in the country about the trauma of eviction, violence, minorities and the fears of the other inherited over generations. This cleverly narrated documentary creates a mosaic of the complex political situation in Lebanon and was banned by the authorities there. FORGET BAGHDAD (Samir, Switzerland/G 2002, 9.4 special guests: Samir and Ella Shohat) When the filmmaker Samir set out to find his father's comrades from the Iraqi Communist Party, he stumbled upon a story that was unknown to him of the party’s Jewish members and decided to search for them instead. Four Iraqi intellectuals - Shimon Ballas, an Arabic professor who lives in Israel, Sami Michael, a bestselling writer, Moshe Houri, a real estate dealer and the writer Samir Naqqash who publishes only in Arabic and Ella Shohat, a New York-based professor for film and cultural studies - reflect on their own stories of emigration and eviction, the cultural balancing act as Jewish Arabs in a Eurocentric environment, representation in the media and cultural stereotypes. VERY BIG SHOT (Mir-Jean Bou Chaaya, Lebanon/Qatar 2015, 9.4., special guest Lucien Bou Chaaya) The three brothers Ziad, Joe and Jad run a lucrative drug dealing business out of their pizzeria. But Ziad (Alain Saadeh) has bigger plans and crosses the local drug lord. But how can the drugs that have been acquired in such a way be sold in Syria? Charbel, an unsuccessful filmmaker, unwittingly comes up with the plan: The goods can be transported to Kurdistan by plane in sealed film canisters. Without further ado, Ziad becomes the producer of Charbel's new project, driving the screenplay and cast to  levels of absurdity and becoming Lebanon's new media star with his unusual marketing strategies. THE GATE OF DEPARTURE (Karim Hanafy, Egypt 2014, 9.4.) On the basis of an associative cycle of pictures about past and melancholy, a generational drama about loss and loneliness unfolds in beautifully composed pictures. Hanyfy's visual meditation is one of the most unusual works of Egyptian cinema in recent years. Largely independently funded and produced over three years, it is a courageous aesthetic experiment that has nothing to do with the mainstream. COMA (Sara Fattahi, Syria/Lebanon 2015, 9.4.) Three generations of women - grandmother, mother and daughter - are pent up day in day day out in their apartment in beleaguered Damascus. The two older women are haunted by the demons of their past, while the younger director finds terse images between intimacy and resolution that are structured by the return of the same - coffee, TV, Q'ran, cigarettes - to depict the internal and external standstill of life in Syria. Sara Fattahi's feature-length debut was awarded a prize at the documentary film festival in Nyon. Shorts program (NO) ESCAPE – Breaking out (DIASPORA, THE PURPLE FIELD, WAVES '98, SPRING BUDS, DRY HOT SUMMERS, 9.4.) Escaping the present, breaking away from routine, crossing boundaries. The protagonists of these films share a longing to escape the reality of their lives. But can they break their bonds? ROSHMIA (Salim Abu Jabal, Palestine/Qatar/UAE/Syria 2014, 10.4.) Yousef and Amna have lived in Roshmia, the last natural valley in Haifa, in a small remote hut since 1956. They face eviction because the local authorities want to develop a road construction project through their home. A family friend tries to obtain compensation at the least, but Yousef does not want to be evicted a second time and the tensions between the three increase palpably. The noise of the construction and the constant visits by journalists also bring further disturbances. FIÈVRES (Fevers, Hicham Ayouch, F/UAE/Qatar/Morocco 2014, 10.4.) Benjamin (Didier Michon) is 13 years old and at war - with life, with adults and with himself. To escape his home, he decides to move in with his unknown father, who quickly fobs him off to the grandparents in the Paris banlieue. Benjamin's anger collides with the sad apathy of relatives whom he does not know - they too are forced to face their situation and past. THE ROOFTOPS (Merzak Allouache, Algeria/F 2013, 10.4.) Formally restricted to a single day, given rhythm by the five calls to prayer, Alloauche, an old master of the cinema, unfolds a panorama of his protagonists' daily slumps from the perspective of Algiers' lively rooftops. Five episodic narrative strands highlight the fates of very different people: A young band rehearses, an old woman fights to not be evicted from her illegal squat and gets help from unexpected quarters, an alcoholic rents out "his" part of a roof to a sheikh who practices exorcism. In his drama, Allouache plays masterfully with the contradictions of Algerian society. THE GULF WAR …WHAT NEXT? (Borhane Alaouie, Nouri Bouzid, Mustapha Darkaoui, Nejia Ben Mabrouk, Elia Suleiman, Tunisia/Italy/GB/F 1993, 10.4.) The role of the Gulf War (1990-1991) in collective Arab memory was a fundamental turning point in the self-perception of Arab nationalism and a moment of deep historical and existential uncertainty. Five Arab directors examine the events from very personal perspectives.  

WHERE ARE YOU GOING, MOSHÉ?Hassan Benjelloun, Morocco/Canada 2007, 11.4., special guest: Hassan Benjelloun) Boujad, a small town in the Atlas mountains not long after Moroccan independence in 1956: With the help of Zionist agents, the local rabbi plans his community's exodus to Israel. The conservative Islamic authorities are pleased. If there are no more non-Muslims left, the only bar in town will have to close. The owner Mustapha (Abdelkader Lotfi) fights desperately to keep his bar. Fundamental questions regarding identity and belonging and also about the existence of the new nation state are reflected in the behavior of the Jewish and Muslim characters. A PRESENT FROM THE PAST (Kawthar Younis, Egypt 2015, 11.4., special guest: Kawthar Younis) What begins as a road trip documentary develops into an amusing and intimate portrait of a father and daughter. The director gives her father Mokhtar, an aging but very agile professor, two tickets to Rome to help him   trace a former Italian lover. While his wife generously allows the trip to happen, the old man initially has doubts about the enterprise that he and his daughter are about to embark upon. MOTHER OF THE UNBORN (Nadine Salib, Egypt/UAE 2014, 12.4., special guest: Nadine Salib) Hanan could be a happy woman. But although she has a loving husband, they do not have a child as they have tried in vain to conceive one for 12 years. None of Hanan's several operations nor any magic ritual conducted in her village in Upper Egypt has helped her to become pregnant. Salib's respectful approach to her protagonist captures the silent struggle to fulfill an existential wish with astonishing openness and provides a rare insight into village structures and lifestyles.    ALEXANDRIA …WHY? (Youssef Chahine, Egypt/Algeria 1979, 12.4.) Alexandria during the Second World War: A Jewish beauty (Naglaa Fathy) is in love with a Muslim and breaks off with her family: an Egyptian aristocrat murders British soldiers until he falls in love with one. A schoolboy named Yehia, whose passion is Hollywood cinema and who dreams of becoming an actor, takes center stage. Chahine's portrait of Alexandria is a brutally honest examination of the political and societal upheavals of the time. Shorts program Beyond Control (PÈRE, OMNIA, THE SOCIETY, THE GREAT SAFAE, SOLOMON'S STONE, 13.4.) Do you really have control over your own life? Can you change your fate? These shorts invite viewers to explore personal struggles against all-powerful control mechanisms. EL GUSTO (Safinez Bousbia, Algeria/UAE/Ireland/F 2011, 13.4.) Chaabi music was born on the streets of Algiers. The filmmaker discovered a photo dating back to the 1940s of the first Chaabi class of the Conservatoire of Algiers and decided to track down any remaining members. Aged between 70 and 100 years old today, each one of their lives was closely linked with the country's history. The amazingly lively band of Muslim and Jewish musicians gathered in Marseille for a reunification concert. (cj) The special screenings SPOTLIGHT Cousins. Jewish-Arab identities are supported by the Capital Culture Fund.