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Women in Arab cinema

From March 09, 2018 until May 04, 2018Madrid: 7:30 p.m. Cordoba: 8:00 p.m.
MADRID AND CóRDOBA
Casa Árabe Auditoriums Madrid: 7:30 p.m. Cordoba: 8:00 p.m. See conditions for entry.
Films shown in the original language version with subtitles in Spanish.

Casa Árabe is continuing its work to increase awareness about Arab cinema, devoting the programming of this new series to films made by Arab women who are movie directors.

The schedule includes two fictional feature films and two documentaries which all received many awards at prestigious international festivals. Cactus Flower is the first feature film by Egyptian director Hala Elkoussy. The film, written and directed by Elkoussy in 2017, tells the story of three unrelated individuals who find themselves forced to wander the streets of Cairo, a story inspired by the resilience of the cactus. Despite growing in a harsh environment, it is able to produce delicate flowers every spring.

Queens of Syria was created on the basis of a play for the theater, in which a group of Syrian women in exile stage their own version of a tragedy by Euripides. In this unique and moving documentary, Yasmin Fedda, the director, shows us the parallels between the Trojan War and the reality that these women have had the misfortune of living through. Despite it all, they manage to find some sort of meaning in their own tragedy through the spoken word.

When I Saw You,  by Palestinian director Annemarie Jacir, a pioneering woman in Arab film, takes us back to a refugee camp in the sixties from the curious vantage point of Tarek, a Palestinian boy who can’t find the answer to a simple question: “Why can’t we go back home?”The film represented Palestine at the 85th edition of the Oscars, and, among other awards, it received a prize at the 63rd Berlin Film Festival.

Those Who Remain, by young Lebanese filmmaker Eliane Raheb, allows us to witness the personal story of Haykal Mikhael, a peasant farmer who decides to stay on his land. This fresh, excellent documentary mainly deals with the land and the stubborn will of a single man. Eliane Raheb is an active professional linked to various audiovisual projects carried out in Lebanon.

Film series information sheet in Madrid
Women in Arab cinema
  • Cactus Flower [Zahret Al Sabar] 

    March 09, 20187:30 p.m.
    MADRID
    Casa Árabe Auditorium (at Calle Alcalá, 62). 7:30 p.m. 5 euros: general tickets at the box office.
    4 euros: tickets purchased online, the officially unemployed, Casa Árabe Language Center students and Youth Card holders, by showing the proper documentation.
    You may only receive one discount. Advance sales at www.casaarabe.es. Those tickets not sold online will be put on sale the day of the screening at the Casa Árabe headquarters as of one hour before each film is shown. Assigned seats with tickets.
    Films shown in the original language version with subtitles in Spanish.
    We are officially opening this new film series devoted to Arab women directors with the screening of a fiction film by Egyptian filmmaker Hala Elkoussy.
    Aida, a struggling actress from the provinces, and her neighbor Samiha, a lonely old bourgeois lady, are forced to leave their homes and wander the streets of Cairo with no money and nowhere to go. The two women, with the help of Yassin, a young man with street smarts, set off on a journey to find shelter. Amid banal, sometimes disastrous situations they get into on the way, they experience a process of self-discovery at the same time. An amazing friendship grows in this unbelievable threesome, like a delicate flower born from a spiny cactus.

    Production: (Egypt, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Norway, 2017, 103 min.).

    Film series information sheet in Madrid
  • Cactus Flower [Zahret Al Sabar] 

    March 16, 20188:00 p.m.
    CóRDOBA
    Casa Árabe Auditorium (at Calle Samuel de los Santos Gener, 9). 8:00 p.m. Free entry until the event’s capacity is reached.
    Films shown in the original language version with subtitles in Spanish.
    First session in Cordoba of the film series which Casa Árabe has devoted to Arab women, with a fiction film by Hala Elkoussy.
    Aida, a struggling actress from the provinces, and her neighbor Samiha, a lonely old bourgeois lady, are forced to leave their homes and wander the streets of Cairo with no money and nowhere to go. The two women, with the help of Yassin, a young man with street smarts, set off on a journey to find shelter. Amid banal, sometimes disastrous situations they get into on the way, they experience a process of self-discovery at the same time. An amazing friendship grows in this unbelievable threesome, like a delicate flower born from a spiny cactus.

    Production: (Egypt, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Norway, 2017, 103 min. Fiction
  • Queens of Syria 

    March 16, 20187:30 p.m.
    MADRID
    Casa Árabe Auditorium (at Calle Alcalá, 62). 7:30 p.m. 5 euros: general tickets at the box office.
    4 euros: tickets purchased online, the officially unemployed, Casa Árabe Language Center students and Youth Card holders, by showing the proper documentation.
    You may only receive one discount. Advance sales at www.casaarabe.es. Those tickets not sold online will be put on sale the day of the screening at the Casa Árabe headquarters as of one hour before each film is shown. Assigned seats with tickets. 
    Films shown in the original language version with subtitles in Spanish.
    Yasmin Fedda directed this documentary, whose main characters are fifty women from Syria who have forcibly gone into exile in Jordan.
    Fifty women from Syria, all forced into exile in Jordan, meet in the fall of 2013 to create and produce their own version of “The Trojan Women,” a Greek tragedy by Euripides that deals with the difficult situation for women in the war. None of them had ever acted before. What happened after that was an extraordinary intercultural moment spanning different eras, in which women born in twentieth-century Syria found a living mirror for their own experiences in the stories of a queen, princesses and ordinary women like them, all uprooted, enslaved and unprotected as a result of the Trojan War. A whole process filled with emotion and many challenges.

    Production: United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates, 2014, 70 min. Documentary

    Film series information sheet in Madrid

    Collaborates: With the cooperation of: The British Council
  • When I Saw You [Lamma shoftak] 

    March 23, 20187:30 p.m.
    MADRID
    Casa Árabe Auditorium (at Calle Alcalá, 62). 7:30 p.m. 5 euros: general tickets at the box office.
    4 euros: tickets purchased online, the officially unemployed, Casa Árabe Language Center students and Youth Card holders, by showing the proper documentation.
    You may only receive one discount. Advance sales at www.casaarabe.es. Those tickets not sold online will be put on sale the day of the screening at the Casa Árabe headquarters as of one hour before each film is shown. Assigned seats with tickets.
    Films shown in the original language version with subtitles in Spanish.
    Annemarie Jacir directed this fiction film starring Tarek, an 11-year-old boy who has to leave Palestine in 1967, to go to a refugee camp.
    Jordan, 1967. Thousands of Palestinian refugees cross the border with Palestine. Separated from his father by the chaos of war, Tarek, just 11 years old, and his mother Ghaydaa are among the last waves of refugees and get housed in a temporary refugee camp while they way to be reunited with their father and husband. Tarek, with his free spirit and curious nature, explores the area, leading him to a group of fighters on a journey that will change their lives.

    Production: Palestine, Jordan, 2012, 93 min. Fiction

    Film series information sheet in Madrid
  • Those Who Remain [Mayyel Ya Ghzayyel] 

    April 06, 20187:30 p.m.
    MADRID
    Casa Árabe Auditorium (at Calle Alcalá, 62). 7:30 p.m. 5 euros: general tickets at the box office.
    4 euros: tickets purchased online, the officially unemployed, Casa Árabe Language Center students and Youth Card holders, by showing the proper documentation.
    You may only receive one discount. Advance sales at www.casaarabe.es. Those tickets not sold online will be put on sale the day of the screening at the Casa Árabe headquarters as of one hour before each film is shown. Assigned seats with tickets.
    Films shown in the original language version with subtitles in Spanish.
    A new documentary is coming to the screens of Casa Árabe in Madrid, this time in a film directed by Eliane Raheb.
    Al Shambouk is one of the highest mountain regions in Lebanon, located in the Akkar Heights, just a few kilometers from Syria. It is the birth land of Haykal, a 60-year-old Christian farmer. In this complex area, where borders crisscross, Haykal decides to take up residence and build a farm and restaurant. Haykal has to deal with the neighboring quarries, the stagnation of agriculture in the region, and the sectarian tensions and political and economic repercussions caused by the Syrian crisis.

    Production: Lebanon, United Arab Emirates, 2016, 95 min. Documentary

    Film series information sheet in Madrid
  • Queens of Syria

    April 06, 20188:00 p.m.
    CóRDOBA
    Casa Árabe Auditorium (at Calle Samuel de los Santos Gener, 9). 8:00 p.m. Free entry until the event’s capacity is reached.
    Films shown in the original language version with subtitles in Spanish.
    A documentary filmed in 2014, directed by Yasmin Fedda, and inspired by Euripides’ tragedy “The Trojan Women.”
    Fifty women from Syria, all forced into exile in Jordan, meet in the fall of 2013 to create and produce their own version of “The Trojan Women,” a Greek tragedy by Euripides that deals with the difficult situation for women in the war. None of them had ever acted before. What happened after that was an extraordinary intercultural moment across different eras, in which the women born in twentieth-century Syria found a living mirror for their own experiences in the stories of a queen, princesses and ordinary women like them, all uprooted, enslaved and unprotected due to the Trojan War. A whole process filled with emotion and many challenges. 
     
    Production: United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates, 2014, 70 min. Documentary

    Collaborates: With the cooperation of: The British Council
  • Queens of Syria 

    April 07, 20187:30 p.m.
    MADRID
    Casa Árabe Auditorium (at Calle Alcalá, 62). 7:30 p.m. 5 euros: general tickets at the box office.
    4 euros: tickets purchased online, the officially unemployed, Casa Árabe Language Center students and Youth Card holders, by showing the proper documentation.
    You may only receive one discount. Advance sales at www.casaarabe.es. Those tickets not sold online will be put on sale the day of the screening at the Casa Árabe headquarters as of one hour before each film is shown. Assigned seats with tickets.
    Films shown in the original language version with subtitles in Spanish.
    Casa Árabe is screening this documentary film directed by Yasmin Fedda as part of The Night of Theaters.
    Fifty women from Syria, all forced into exile in Jordan, meet in the fall of 2013 to create and produce their own version of “The Trojan Women,” a Greek tragedy by Euripides that deals with the difficult situation for women in the war. None of them had ever acted before. What happened after that was an extraordinary intercultural moment spanning different eras, in which women born in twentieth-century Syria found a living mirror for their own experiences in the stories of a queen, princesses and ordinary women like them, all uprooted, enslaved and unprotected as a result of the Trojan War. A whole process filled with emotion and many challenges. 
     
    Production: United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates, 2014, 70 min. Documentary

    Film series information sheet in Madrid

    Collaborates: With the cooperation of: The British Council
  • Cactus Flower [Zahret Al Sabar]

    April 13, 20187:30 p.m.
    MADRID
    Casa Árabe Auditorium (at Calle Alcalá, 62). 7:30 p.m. 5 euros: general tickets at the box office.
    4 euros: tickets purchased online, the officially unemployed, Casa Árabe Language Center students and Youth Card holders, by showing the proper documentation.
    You may only receive one discount. Advance sales at www.casaarabe.es. Those tickets not sold online will be put on sale the day of the screening at the Casa Árabe headquarters as of one hour before each film is shown. Assigned seats with tickets.
    Films shown in the original language version with subtitles in Spanish.
    Hala Elkoussy is the director of this fiction film being screened today at the Casa Árabe headquarters in Madrid.
    Aida, a struggling actress from the provinces, and her neighbor Samiha, a lonely old bourgeois lady, are forced to leave their homes and wander the streets of Cairo with no money and nowhere to go. The two women, with the help of Yassin, a young man with street smarts, set off on a journey to find shelter. Amid banal, sometimes disastrous situations they get into on the way, they experience a process of self-discovery at the same time. An amazing friendship grows in this unbelievable threesome, like a delicate flower born from a spiny cactus.

    Production: (Egypt, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Norway, 2017, 103 min. Fiction

    Film series information sheet in Madrid
  • When I Saw You [Lamma shoftak] 

    April 20, 20188:00 p.m.
    CóRDOBA
    Casa Árabe Auditorium (at Calle Samuel de los Santos Gener, 9). 8:00 p.m. Free entry until the event’s capacity is reached.
    Films shown in the original language version with subtitles in Spanish.
    Third screening in Cordoba in the film series which Casa Árabe has devoted to Arab women directors, with this fiction film by Annemarie Jacir.
    Jordan, 1967. Thousands of Palestinian refugees cross the border with Palestine. Separated from his father by the chaos of war, Tarek, just 11 years old, and his mother Ghaydaa are among the last waves of refugees and get housed in a temporary refugee camp while they way to be reunited with their father and husband. Tarek, with his free spirit and curious nature, explores the area, leading him to a group of fighters on a journey that will change their lives.

    Production: Palestine, Jordan, 2012, 93 min. Fiction
  • When I Saw You [Lamma shoftak] 

    April 27, 20187:30 p.m.
    MADRID
    Casa Árabe Auditorium (at Calle Alcalá, 62). 7:30 p.m. 5 euros: general tickets at the box office.
    4 euros: tickets purchased online, the officially unemployed, Casa Árabe Language Center students and Youth Card holders, by showing the proper documentation.
    You may only receive one discount. Advance sales at www.casaarabe.es. Those tickets not sold online will be put on sale the day of the screening at the Casa Árabe headquarters as of one hour before each film is shown. Assigned seats with tickets.
    Films shown in the original language version with subtitles in Spanish.
    This is your last chance to see this film directed by Annemarie Jacir in Madrid, as part of the film series which Casa Árabe has devoted to Arab women directors.
    Jordan, 1967. Thousands of Palestinian refugees cross the border with Palestine. Separated from his father by the chaos of war, Tarek, just 11 years old, and his mother Ghaydaa are among the last waves of refugees and get housed in a temporary refugee camp while they way to be reunited with their father and husband. Tarek, with his free spirit and curious nature, explores the area, leading him to a group of fighters on a journey that will change their lives.

    Production: Palestine, Jordan, 2012, 93 min. Fiction

    Film series information sheet in Madrid
  • Those Who Remain [Mayyel Ya Ghzayyel] 

    May 04, 20188:00 p.m.
    CóRDOBA
    Casa Árabe Auditorium (at Calle Samuel de los Santos Gener, 9) 8:00 p.m. Free entry until the event’s capacity is reached.
    Films shown in the original language version with subtitles in Spanish.
    Last Cordoba screening in the film series devoted to Arab women directors, with a documentary film directed by filmmaker Eliane Raheb.
    Al Shambouk is one of the highest mountain regions in Lebanon, located in the Akkar Heights, just a few kilometers from Syria. It is the birth land of Haykal, a 60-year-old Christian farmer. In this complex area, where borders crisscross, Haykal decides to take up residence and build a farm and restaurant. Haykal has to deal with the neighboring quarries, the stagnation of agriculture in the region, and the sectarian tensions and political and economic repercussions caused by the Syrian crisis.

    Production: Lebanon, United Arab Emirates, 2016, 95 min. Documentary