Arab Shorts – Day II

1- Noor, M. Shakarchi, Lebanon, 2011, 13’
A 10 year old Palestinian refugee dreams of a normal childhood, but is forced into child labor by her adopted mother.

2- The Shooter, Ihab Jadallah, Palestine, 2008, 8’
The film questions the Palestinian resistance struggle and its decadence, as it reaches a point of actual chaos and an absolute lack of control. Palestine is occupied by the international media and is the stage for sensational news stories; Palestinians have become “performers” of dramatic international evening newscasts. The Shooter is an attempt to subvert this staged representation by rebelling against the image it is made into – the performer becomes active, diverting from his script, slowly breaking out of character.

3- Ayan Ken (Anyone), Ridha Tlili, Tunesia, 2007, 20’
A man discovers that his civil status papers pronounce him dead. He looks for a sign of life, or death. Aesthetically radical, politically engaged, Ayan Ken is a strong début for a filmmaker whose concern with cinematic form is obvious. Ayan Ken explores the deconstruction of narrative as a form but also as a metaphor for the path of its main character. A gloomy depressed gaze combines with a promising formal quest.

4- The Maid, Heidi Samaan, Egypt, 2008, 19’
The Maid, a short fictional film, examines the moment in which we are forced to understand that other people are real in the same way that we are. Rasha is an Egyptian housemaid, who is not so skilled at her job. When her suspicions about her employer are confirmed, Rasha has to rethink her perceptions of trust, duty, and her place within the family household.

5- Arafat and I, by Mahdi Fliefil, 2007, 15’
A comedy about Marwan, a Palestinian in love, and Lisa, the girl he’s going to marry. He thinks everything about her is perfect – she was even born on the same day as Chairman Arafat! But how will he make Lisa understand the significance of this coincidence?

6- A Film, Hisham Bizri, Lebanon, 2010, 8’
This is a film poem about love. A Lebanese-American filmmaker photographs a woman in Paris: as a trapeze artist, a model, a lover, and a child. The film attempts to capture that moment between wakefulness and dream. It carries within it melancholy and loneliness, sadness and joy, adulthood and childhood. It evolves out of the metaphor that life is a circular journey whose end is “to arrive where we started / And know that place for the first time” (T. S. Eliot, Little Gidding)

Special Feature:Ticket Price: 5,000 L.L.