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Current Arab cinema

From May 06, 2016 until July 01, 2016 7:30 p.m.
MADRID
Casa Árabe Auditorium (at Calle Alcalá, 62). 7:30 p.m. 5 euros: general tickets at the box office.
Films shown in the original language version with subtitles in Spanish.

Casa Árabe is presenting a new series of films which reflect the complex reality of Arab society. 

For several years now, cinema in the Arab world has proven to have a great ability to reflect Arab societies’ complex reality. The work by these directors, many of whom are exceptional documentary film makers, has provided privileged testimony to these years of important social and political transformations. However, Arab film also continues to produce fictional productions with a heavy dosage of creativity and sophistication. Casa Árabe is devoting its film schedule in May and June to four recent works which highlight this facet among many directors. In some cases, the films will take us back to Arab cinema’s years of splendor. This is the specific case with Décor, an homage to the classical films of Egyptian cinema directed by Ahmad Abdalla, some of whose most successful films (like Microphone or Heliopolis) have been included in the film series shown at Casa Árabe. 

This series also includes the latest major Jordanian production, Wolf (Theeb), Naji Abu Nowar’s debut as a director. His adventure film, set in the era and landscapes of Lawrence of Arabia, was nominated for best foreign film at the Oscar Awards of 2016. Palestine’s interesting and prolific world of film production has brought us The Wanted 18, co-directed by Palestinian Amer Shomali and Canadian Paul Cowan, an original work which mixes animated drawings and stop-motion animation with historical archive footage and interviews with main role-players in Palestinian civil society during the first Intifada. Last of all, we deal with a hot topic of the day, the arrival of refugees in Europe, in all its complexity (and often with great irony), with the Norwegian feature Letter to the King, by a director of Iraqi Kurdish origin, Hicham Zaman. Bearing witness to the acknowledgment and quality of the four films which make up this series is the fact that all of them have received awards at international festivals over the last two years. 
Current Arab cinema
  • The Wanted 18

    May 06, 20167:30 p.m.
    MADRID
    Casa Árabe Auditorium (at Calle Alcalá, 62). 7:30 p.m. 5 euros: general tickets at the box office.
    Films shown in the original language version with subtitles in Spanish.
    We begin this new film series with a documentary by Amer Shomali and Paul Cowan (Palestine, France, Canada, 2014, 75 minutes).
    Animated documentary, with archival footage and interviews which remind us of a unique moment in Palestinian civil resistance during the times of the first Intifada. The town of Beit Sahour, very close to Bethlehem, is the site where several local producers began an initiative to start up a dairy production business that would make it possible to break the monopoly of milk distribution amongst the Palestinian population held by Israeli companies. This creative documentary was named after the 18 cows which played a main role in this episode of contemporary Palestinian history. 
  • Wolf (Theeb)

    May 13, 20167:30 p.m.
    MADRID
    Casa Árabe Auditorium (at Calle Alcalá, 62). 7:30 p.m. 5 euros: general tickets at the box office.
    Films shown in the original language version with subtitles in Spanish.
    Screening of the film by director Naji Abu Nowar, nominated for the Oscars of 2016 under the category of Best non-English language film
    In the desert of Wadi Rum, Jordan, in 1916, as the war rages on in the Ottoman Empire, Hussein brings up Wolf, his nearly teenage brother, in an isolated, traditional Bedouin community. One night, their peaceful existence is interrupted by the arrival of an officer from the British army and his guide, who ask Hussein to lead them on a mysterious trip to a well. Wolf decides to follow along, and they all soon face the harsh reality of a lonesome journey. 
    Directed by: Naji Abu Nowar (Jordan, United Kingdom, Unite Arab Emirates, Qatar, 2014, 100 min.)
  • Décor

    May 20, 20167:30 p.m.
    MADRID
    Casa Árabe Auditorium (at Calle Alcalá, 62). 7:30 p.m. 5 euros: general tickets at the box office.
    Films shown in the original language version with subtitles in Spanish.
    Screening of the film by Egyptian director Ahmad Abadia about the difficulty in distinguishing between reality and fiction. 
    Maha has always been a movie lover, and in her work as an artistic director she becomes an expert in creating a world of images. The pressure at her job is on the rise. Maha can imagine another life, so she ends up caught between two realities: the first resembles the movie sets she designs, and the other her supposed real life. As she begins to mistake one world with the other more and more, the line between imagination and reality starts to grow blurry, and for the first time ever she must decide what she truly wants to do.

    Directed by: Ahmad Abadia (Egypt 2014, 116 min.) Fiction. 
  • Letter to the King

    May 27, 20167:30 p.m.
    MADRID
    Casa Árabe Auditorium (at Calle Alcalá, 62). 7:30 p.m. 5 euros: general tickets at the box office.
    Films shown in the original language version with subtitles in Spanish.
    A Norwegian film that tells us about the experiences of five refugees living in Norway 
    Letter to the King tells us about the experiences of five refugees living in Norway across the span of one day. During that day, the five are taken to visit the capital city, Oslo, where events take place which produce a sudden change in their monotonous lives. They soon realize that each and every one of them has his or her own goals to achieve on their journey. The five of them must reach important decisions that day, as they face the emotions of happiness, humiliation, love and vengeance. The five stories are linked by a letter written by elderly Mirza, an Iraqi Kurd who has been living in the country for ten years. He is willing to do anything to deliver his letter to the king personally. 

    Directed by: Hisham Zaman (Norway, 2014, 73 min.) Fiction
  • The Wanted 18 

    June 10, 20167:30 p.m.
    MADRID
    Casa Árabe Auditorium (at Calle Alcalá, 62). 7:30 p.m. 5 euros: general tickets at the box office.
    Films shown in the original language version with subtitles in Spanish.
    Second screening of  this animated documentary by Amer Shomali and Paul Cowan. (Palestine, Canada, France, 2014, 75 min.).
    Animated documentary, with archival footage and interviews which remind us of a unique moment in Palestinian civil resistance during the times of the first Intifada. The town of Beit Sahour, very close to Bethlehem, is the site where several local producers began an initiative to start up a dairy production business that would make it possible to break the monopoly of milk distribution amongst the Palestinian population held by Israeli companies. This creative documentary was named after the 18 cows which played a main role in this episode of contemporary Palestinian history. 
  • Theeb 

    June 17, 20167:30 p.m.
    MADRID
    Casa Árabe Auditorium (at Calle Alcalá, 62). 7:30 p.m. 5 euros: general tickets at the box office.
    Films shown in the original language version with subtitles in Spanish.
    Second screening of the film nominated for the Oscars of 2016 under the category of Best non-English language film.
    In the desert of Wadi Rum, Jordan, in 1916, as the war rages on in the Ottoman Empire, Hussein brings up Wolf, his nearly teenage brother, in an isolated, traditional Bedouin community. One night, their peaceful existence is interrupted by the arrival of an officer from the British army and his guide, who ask Hussein to lead them on a mysterious trip to a well. Wolf decides to follow along, and they all soon face the harsh reality of a lonesome journey. 

    Directed by: Naji Abu Nowar (Jordan, United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, 2014, 100 min.)
  • Décor 

    June 24, 20167:30 p.m.
    MADRID
    Casa Árabe Auditorium (at Calle Alcalá, 62). 7:30 p.m. 5 euros: general tickets at the box office.
    Films shown in the original language version with subtitles in Spanish.
    Second screening of this Egyptian film 
    Maha has always been a movie lover, and in her work as an artistic director she becomes an expert in creating a world of images. The pressure at her job is on the rise. Maha can imagine another life, so she ends up caught between two realities: the first resembles the movie sets she designs, and the other her supposed real life. As she begins to mistake one world with the other more and more, the line between imagination and reality starts to grow blurry, and for the first time ever she must decide what she truly wants to do.

    Directed by: Ahmad Abadia (Egypt, 2014, 116 min.) Fiction. 
  • Letter to the King 

    July 01, 20167:30 p.m.
    MADRID
    Casa Árabe Auditorium (at Calle Alcalá, 62). 7:30 p.m. 5 euros: general tickets at the box office.
    Films shown in the original language version with subtitles in Spanish.
    The last screening in this series of films will be a movie on refugees 
    Letter to the King tells us about the experiences of five refugees living in Norway across the span of one day. During that day, the five are taken to visit the capital city, Oslo, where events take place which produce a sudden change in their monotonous lives. They soon realize that each and every one of them has his or her own goals to achieve on their journey. The five of them must reach important decisions that day, as they face the emotions of happiness, humiliation, love and vengeance. The five stories are linked by a letter written by elderly Mirza, an Iraqi Kurd who has been living in the country for ten years. He is willing to do anything to deliver his letter to the king personally. 

    Directed by: Hisham Zaman (Norway, 2014, 73 min.) Fiction