Films

Index / Activities / Films / Contemporary Arab Women Directors

Contemporary Arab Women Directors

From March 06, 2019 until April 26, 2019Check dates, schedules and conditions for entry in each city.
MADRID, CORDOBA AND GRANADA
Casa Árabe’s headquarters and the Euro-Arab Foundation. Check dates, schedules and conditions for entry in each city.
Films shown in the original language version with subtitles in Spanish.

Casa Árabe is presenting this series in Madrid, Cordoba and Granada, as part of the  “Cinema by Women” Film Festival. Curated by Alejandra Val Cubero, it can be seen from March 6, through April 26, 2019.

Since the mid-1990s, Arab cinema has seen a notable increase in the number of women filmmakers. Until then, female Arab directors were still just a small minority, the best-known names being those of the three pioneering women from the early film industry in Egypt: Aziza Amir, Assia Dagher and Mary Queeny. They were self-taught, with little formal education, and had to learn how to deal with a majority that did not view the presence of women in cultural circles in a positive light. Timid winds of change arrived in the 1970s when quite a large group of women started working in film. This group, just like the pioneers before them, did not have role models whose example they could follow, but unlike their predecessors, they had studied at university and possessed a special interest in documenting what was happening in their countries. This was the case with Assia Djebar, Farida Ben Lyazid, Nejia Ben Mabrouk, Moufida Tlatli, Selma Baccar, Assia Djebar, Hafsa Zinai-Koudil and Jocelyne Saab, who just recently passed away. Nearly all of them made women the main subjects of their work, and in one way or another they sowed the seeds for a larger wave of women filmmakers to come along later.

The women directors from Arab countries have made a bold entrance into the twenty-first century. It is a young, cosmopolitan generation that has been educated in several countries, able to communicate in more than two languages and very familiar with the Arab world’s situation and troubles, though also those of the Western world, where many of them reside. A more extensive education in filmmaking, coupled with a decrease in the cost of technologies, is giving rise to surprising, very diverse film offerings.

In this series, we have included two very experienced women directors: Annemarie Jacir and Haifaa Al-Mansour. In Mary Shelley (2017), Al Mansour changes countries and languages to film an intimist story about the woman who authored the book Frankenstein. The Saudi director just finished a film for Netflix about a young African-American woman and is currently filming another movie in Saudi Arabia about a woman who decides to run for office in an election. As for Jacir, in the film Wajib (2017), she deals with the generation gap and the clash between two different lifestyles: that of a father and son who deliver wedding invitations in an old Volvo. The former has always lived in Palestine, while the latter comes from abroad and no longer understands the way his father lives. With great subtlety, Jacir shows the diversity of religions and lifestyles in the Arab zone of the city of Nazareth. She chose the film’s two stars to perfection, Mohammad and Saleh Barkri, who are father and son in real life. They were given the award for Best Actors at the Dubai International Film Festival in 2017.

Egypt’s Kawthar Younis is the youngest filmmaker featured in the series. She was educated at the Film Institute of Egypt, and at the age of just 26 she directed A Present from the Past (2015) in English, Arabic and Italian, with a hidden cell phone. Her father, Mokhtar Younis, who is also a filmmaker, is the main character in this optimistic piece in which she uses humor to talk about love and relationships, as well as dreams that never came true, and those that will someday.

The most social film in the series was directed by Meryem Benm’ Barek with her first feature film, titled Sofia (2018), which was bestowed with the award for Best Screenplay in the “Un Certain Regard” section at the Cannes Film Festival that same year. In Morocco, the legal code on family relations, or “Moudawana,” enacted In 2014, introduced significant change for women concerning divorce, child custody and the legal age to enter marriage. However, sex outside of marriage is still a punishable offense under the penal code, with sentences that range from one month to one year in prison. Due to an unwanted pregnancy, this causes Sofia to set off in search of the child’s father with one of her cousins, to avoid dishonor and legal punishment.
Last of all, Venís desde lejos (You Come from Far, 2018) by Amal Ramsis, a director educated at Madrid’s film school, took an interest in the life journey of a couple of parents whose ideology led them to travel throughout half the world. The history of Arab cinema is closely related to emigration and exile, and through this documentary we get to get a glimpse of what uprootedness and loss truly mean, though also what it means to fight for what you think is right.

Three feature films, two documentaries and five women directors with different voices, some new directors, and others with several feature films already behind them, as well as numerous national and international awards. These directors are already creating a buzz, and we must keep track of their careers, as they are sure to be heard from again.

Alejandra Val Cubero
Professor of Communication, Zayed University of Dubai

 
Contemporary Arab Women Directors
  • Mary Shelley, by Haifaa Al Mansour

    March 06, 20196:00 p.m.
    GRANADA
    Euro-Arab Foundation for Higher Studies (Calle San Jerónimo, 27). 6:00 p.m. Free entrance until the cinema’s capacity is reached.
    Films shown in the original language version with subtitles in Spanish.
    First screening in the film series “Contemporary Arab Women Directors” in Granada. The film tells the story of young Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin and her passionate, stormy relationship with Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley.
    Both fall in love at first sight when they meet, but because Mary’s family is opposed to their courtship, the couple decides to abscond, in the company of her stepsister, Claire. The ups and downs in their relationship grow more severe while they are staying at Lord Byron’s home in Geneva, where Mary comes up with the idea of Frankenstein, and, as a game, it is proposed that all the guests write a ghost story. Mary is forced to challenge many prejudices to protect her work and forge her own identity.

    Mary Shelley, by Haifaa Al Mansour (USA, 2017, 120 min.) Fiction
  • Mary Shelley, by Haifaa Al Mansour

    March 08, 20197:30 p.m. . (Duration: 120 minutes).
    MADRID
    Casa Árabe Auditorium (at Calle Alcalá, 62). 7:30 p.m. . (Duration: 120 minutes). 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. Sales in advance on this website up to the day of the screening at 12:00 p.m. 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 (cash payment only). Assigned seats with tickets.
    Films shown in the original language version with subtitles in Spanish.
    A new film series begins in Madrid, this time devoted to contemporary Arab women directors. At the first session, we will be watching a fictional feature film directed by Haifaa Al Mansour in the United States in 2017.
    The film tells the story of young Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin and her passionate, stormy relationship with Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. Both fall in love at first sight when they meet, but because Mary’s family is opposed to their courtship, the couple decides to abscond, in the company of her stepsister, Claire. The ups and downs in their relationship grow more severe while they are staying at Lord Byron’s home in Geneva, where Mary comes up with the idea of Frankenstein, and, as a game, it is proposed that all the guests write a ghost story. Mary is forced to challenge many prejudices to protect her work and forge her own identity.
     
  • A Present from the Past, by Kawthar Younis

    March 13, 20196:00 p.m.
    GRANADA
    Euro-Arab Foundation for Higher Studies (Calle San Jerónimo, 27). 6:00 p.m. Free entrance until the cinema’s capacity is reached.
    Films shown in the original language version with subtitles in Spanish.
    Kawthar Younis directed this documentary film, which we will be screening in Granada as part of our film series “Contemporary Arab Women Directors.”
    A Present from the Past, by Kawthar Younis (Egypt, 2015, 80 min.) Documentary

    Mokhtar, a professor of cinema, receives an unexpected gift for his 75th birthday from his daughter Kawthar, who is also a filmmaker. With two plane tickets to Rome, her father will get a second chance to look for an old flame, Patrizia, an Italian woman whom he left 33 years earlier, promising to search for her again someday. Kawthar filmed the experience with a hidden camera to capture the true essence of their father/daughter relationship, which had its ups-and-downs throughout their trip.
  • Mary Shelley, by Haifaa Al Mansour  

    March 15, 20198:00 p.m.
    CORDOBA
    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.
    Our film series devoted to Contemporary Arab Women Directors is now reaching Cordoba, with this screening of a fictional film by Haifaa Al Mansour.
    Mary Shelley, (USA, 2017, 120 min.) Fiction

    The film tells the story of young Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin and her passionate, stormy relationship with Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. Both fall in love at first sight when they meet, but because Mary’s family is opposed to their courtship, the couple decides to abscond, in the company of her stepsister, Claire. The ups and downs in their relationship grow more severe while they are staying at Lord Byron’s home in Geneva, where Mary comes up with the idea of Frankenstein, and, as a game, it is proposed that all the guests write a ghost story. Mary is forced to challenge many prejudices to protect her work and forge her own identity.
  • A Present from the Past, by Kawthar Younis

    March 15, 20197:30 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. Sales in advance on this website up to the day of the screening at 12:00 p.m. 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 (cash payment only). Assigned seats with tickets.
    Films shown in the original language version with subtitles in Spanish.
    Films shown in the original language version with subtitles in Spanish.
    Second screening in Madrid within the film series devoted to Contemporary Arab Women Directors. At today’s session, we will get the chance to see a documentary filmed with a hidden camera on a mobile phone, in English, Arabic and Italian.
    A Present from the Past, by Kawthar Younis (Egypt, 2015, 80 min.) Documentary

    Mokhtar, a professor of cinema, receives an unexpected gift for his 75th birthday from his daughter Kawthar, who is also a filmmaker. With two plane tickets to Rome, her father will get a second chance to look for an old flame, Patrizia, an Italian woman whom he left 33 years earlier, promising to search for her again someday. Kawthar filmed the experience with a hidden camera to capture the true essence of their father/daughter relationship, which had its ups-and-downs throughout their trip.
  • Wajib (Wedding Invitation), by Annemarie Jacir 

    March 20, 20196:00 p.m.
    GRANADA
    Euro-Arab Foundation for Higher Studies (Calle San Jerónimo, 27). 6:00 p.m. Free entrance until the cinema’s capacity is reached.
    Films shown in the original language version with subtitles in Spanish.
    Experienced director Annemarie Jacir directed this fictional feature film in which she deals with the generation gap and two different lifestyles: those of a father and his son.
    Wajib (Wedding Invitation), by Annemarie Jacir
    (Palestine, 2017, 96 min.) Fiction

    Abu Shadi, who is 60 years old, lives in Nazareth. He is a divorced father and a schoolteacher. His daughter is about to get married, and Abu has to live alone until his son, an architect who has lived in Rome for many years, comes back to help him with the wedding preparations. As required by local Palestinian tradition, they must hand-deliver the invitations to each guest personally. While father and son, practically strangers, spend a few days together, their fragile relationship gets put to the test.
  • Wajib (Wedding Invitation), by Annemarie Jacir 

    March 22, 20197:30 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. Sales in advance on this website up to the day of the screening at 12:00 p.m. 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 (cash payment only). Assigned seats with tickets.
    Films shown in the original language version with subtitles in Spanish.
    In the film which we are showing today, we get to see the clash between two generations and two different lifestyles. It stars Mohammad and Saleh Barkri, father and son in this fictional story and in real life, as well. They were given awards for Best Actors at the Dubai International Film Festival in 2017.
    Wajib (Wedding Invitation), by Annemarie Jacir (Palestine, 2017, 96’) Fiction

    Abu Shadi, who is 60 years old, lives in Nazareth. He is a divorced father and a schoolteacher. His daughter is about to get married, and Abu has to live alone until his son, an architect who has lived in Rome for many years, comes back to help him with the wedding preparations. As required by local Palestinian tradition, they must hand-deliver the invitations to each guest personally. While father and son, practically strangers, spend a few days together, their fragile relationship gets put to the test.
  • A Present from the Past, by Kawthar Younis

    March 22, 20198:00 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.
    Second screening in Cordoba within the film series which Casa Árabe has dedicated to Contemporary Arab Women Directors during the months of March and April, with a documentary film by Egyptian filmmaker Kawthar Younis.
    A Present from the Past, by Kawthar Younis (Egypt, 2015, 80 min.) Documentary

    Mokhtar, a professor of cinema, receives an unexpected gift for his 75th birthday from his daughter Kawthar, who is also a filmmaker. With two plane tickets to Rome, her father will get a second chance to look for an old flame, Patrizia, an Italian woman whom he left 33 years earlier, promising to search for her again someday. Kawthar filmed the experience with a hidden camera to capture the true essence of their father/daughter relationship, which had its ups-and-downs throughout their trip.
  • Sofia, by Meryem Benm’ Barek 

    March 27, 20196:00 p.m.
    GRANADA
    Euro-Arab Foundation for Higher Studies (Calle San Jerónimo, 27). 6:00 p.m. Free entrance until the cinema’s capacity is reached.
    Films shown in the original language version with subtitles in Spanish.
    In this fictional feature film, Meryem Benm’ Barek deals with the consequences of non-marital sex in Morocco.
    Sofia, by Meryem Benm’ Barek (France, Qatar, 2018, 85 min.) Fiction

    Sofia, a young 20-year-old woman, lives with her parents in Casablanca. After an unwanted pregnancy, she is committing an illegal act by giving birth to a baby outside of marriage. The hospital gives her 24 hours to reveal the identity of the girl’s father before reporting her to the authorities…
  • Sofia, by Meryem Benm’ Barek

    March 28, 20197:30 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. Sales in advance on this website up to the day of the screening at 12:00 p.m. 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 (cash payment only). Assigned seats with tickets.
    Films shown in the original language version with subtitles in Spanish.
    Today we are showing this fictional feature film by director Meryem Benm’ Barek, who will be taking part in a colloquium with the audience after the film is over. 
    Sofia, by Meryem Benm’ Barek (France, Qatar, 2018, 85 min.) Fiction

    Sofia, a young 20-year-old woman, lives with her parents in Casablanca. After an unwanted pregnancy, she is committing an illegal act by giving birth to a baby outside of marriage. The hospital gives her 24 hours to reveal the identity of the girl’s father before reporting her to the authorities…

    Meryem Benm’ Barek was born in Rabat in 1984. She studied at the National Institute of Eastern Languages and Civilizations in Paris before joining the directing department at the Higher Institute of Art (INSAS) in Brussels in 2010. She directed five short-subject films while there, the most notable of which were Nor (2013) and Jennah (2014), selected at many different international film festivals and considered as a candidate to represent Morocco at the Oscars in 2015. Benm’ Barek is also a sound design artist, and her works have been exhibited at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. Sofia, her first feature film, earned her the Gan Foundation Award and a fellowship at the Doha Film Institute.

    Meryem Benm’ Barek will also be participating in the round table discussion,  ”How Did You Get Here?: Case studies on women film directors,” taking place on Friday, March 29 at 6:30 p.m. in the Events Hall of the Espacio Fundación Telefónica (at Calle Fuencarral, 3, Madrid). Free entry. Further information at: http://www.festivalcinepormujeres.com
  • You Come From Far, by Amal Ramsis

    March 29, 20197:30 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. Sales in advance on this website up to the day of the screening at 12:00 p.m. 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 (cash payment only). Assigned seats with tickets.
    Films shown in the original language version with subtitles in Spanish.
    Director Amal Ramsis will be taking part in a colloquium with the audience, held after the screening of her documentary.
    You Come From Far, by Amal Ramsis
     (Egypt, Lebanon, Spain and Qatar, 2018, 85 min.) Documentary

    Imagine your father is a Palestinian Arab who decided to fight against Franco in the Spanish Civil War. Then imagine you have brothers and sisters with whom you are unable to communicate, because you do not speak the same language. Finally, imagine you have family but grew up without your parents… “You come from far,” goes the extraordinary lore of a Palestinian family. The family got spread out as a result of events which took place a century ago, from the Spanish Civil War and World War II, to the Nakba of Palestine and Lebanon’s civil war.

    Amal Ramsis (Cairo, 1972) is a Spanish filmmaker of Egyptian origin. With a bachelor’s degree in Law from the University of Ain Shams in Cairo (1993), she was a practicing lawyer for some time. In 2002, she was given a scholarship from the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs to study Film Directing at the Séptima Ars Film School in Madrid. In 2008, she created “Entre Cineastas,” the Cairo International Women’s Film Festival, the first annual festival for cinema made by women in the Arab world. In 2009, she was the chair of the Arts and Cultures Professorship at the Euro-Arab Foundation in Granada. She has been a member of the jury at several festivals and has directed 55 “One-Minute Workshops” in which she trains non-professional women on the basics of cinematography and short film directing. She has organized 40 Caravans of Arab and Latin American Women’s Films held in different cities and countries all over the Arab world and Latin America. Her documentaries Only Dreams (2005), Forbidden (2011), The Trace of the Butterfly (2015) and You Come From Far (2018) have received many awards and have been shown at numerous international film festivals.
  • Wajib (Wedding Invitation), by Annemarie Jacir  

    March 29, 20198:00 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.
    The time has come for a fictional film at this latest cinema session devoted to Contemporary Arab Women Directors. This time it is the third screening which you can see in Cordoba as part of this film series.
    Wajib (Wedding Invitation), by Annemarie Jacir
    (Palestine, 2017, 96 min.) Fiction

    Abu Shadi, who is 60 years old, lives in Nazareth. He is a divorced father and a schoolteacher. His daughter is about to get married, and Abu has to live alone until his son, an architect who has lived in Rome for many years, comes back to help him with the wedding preparations. As required by local Palestinian tradition, they must hand-deliver the invitations to each guest personally. While father and son, practically strangers, spend a few days together, their fragile relationship gets put to the test.
  • You Come From Far, by Amal Ramsis

    April 01, 20196:00 p.m.
    GRANADA
    Euro-Arab Foundation for Higher Studies (Calle San Jerónimo, 27). 6:00 p.m. Free entrance until the cinema’s capacity is reached.
    Films shown in the original language version with subtitles in Spanish.
    Director Amal Ramsis will be holding a colloquium with the audience after the screening of this documentary film has come to end, as part of the series which Casa Árabe has dedicated to Contemporary Arab Women Directors.
    You Come From Far, by Amal Ramsis
    (Egypt, Lebanon, Spain and Qatar, 2018, 85 min.) Documentary

    Imagine your father is a Palestinian Arab who decided to fight against Franco in the Spanish Civil War. Then imagine you have brothers and sisters with whom you are unable to communicate, because you do not speak the same language. Finally, imagine you have family but grew up without your parents… “You come from far,” goes the extraordinary lore of a Palestinian family. The family got spread out as a result of events which took place a century ago, from the Spanish Civil War and World War II, to the Nakba of Palestine and Lebanon’s civil war.

    Amal Ramsis (Cairo, 1972) is a Spanish filmmaker of Egyptian origin. With a bachelor’s degree in Law from the University of Ain Shams in Cairo (1993), she was a practicing lawyer for some time. In 2002, she was given a scholarship from the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs to study Film Directing at the Séptima Ars Film School in Madrid. In 2008, she created “Entre Cineastas,” the Cairo International Women’s Film Festival, the first annual festival for cinema made by women in the Arab world. In 2009, she was the chair of the Arts and Cultures Professorship at the Euro-Arab Foundation in Granada. She has been a member of the jury at several festivals and has directed 55 “One-Minute Workshops” in which she trains non-professional women on the basics of cinematography and short film directing. She has organized 40 Caravans of Arab and Latin American Women’s Films held in different cities and countries all over the Arab world and Latin America. Her documentaries Only Dreams (2005), Forbidden (2011), The Trace of the Butterfly (2015) and You Come From Far (2018) have received many awards and have been shown at numerous international film festivals.
  • A Present from the Past, by Kawthar Younis

    April 05, 20197:30 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. Sales in advance on this website up to the day of the screening at 12:00 p.m. 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 (cash payment only). Assigned seats with tickets.
    Films shown in the original language version with subtitles in Spanish.
    This is the last chance in Madrid to see this documentary by Egyptian filmmaker Kawthar Younis, as part of the film series on Contemporary Arab Women Directors.
    A Present from the Past, by Kawthar Younis (Egypt, 2015, 80 min.) Documentary
    Mokhtar, a professor of cinema, receives an unexpected gift for his 75th birthday from his daughter Kawthar, who is also a filmmaker. With two plane tickets to Rome, her father will get a second chance to look for an old flame, Patrizia, an Italian woman whom he left 33 years earlier, promising to search for her again someday. Kawthar filmed the experience with a hidden camera to capture the true essence of their father/daughter relationship, which varied throughout their trip.
  • Sofia, by Meryem Benm’ Barek 

    April 12, 20197:30 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. Sales in advance on this website up to the day of the screening at 12:00 p.m. 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 (cash payment only). Assigned seats with tickets.
    Films shown in the original language version with subtitles in Spanish.
    The film we are showing today was awarded with the prize for Best Screenplay in the “Un Certain Regard” section at the Cannes Film Festival in 2018. It is the first feature film by director Meryem Benm’ Barek.
    Sofia, by Meryem Benm’ Barek (France, Qatar, 2018, 85 min.) Fiction

    Sofia, a young 20-year-old woman, lives with her parents in Casablanca. After an unwanted pregnancy, she is committing an illegal act by giving birth to a baby outside of marriage. The hospital gives her 24 hours to reveal the identity of the girl’s father before reporting her to the authorities…
  • You Come From Far, by Amal Ramsis

    April 12, 20198:00 p.m.
    CÓRDOBA
    Casa Árabe Auditorium (at Calle Samuel de los Santos Gener, 9). 8:00 p.m. Free entrance until the cinema’s capacity is reached.
    Films shown in the original language version with subtitles in Spanish.
    At today’s screening in Cordoba, you get the opportunity to enjoy this documentary film by Spanish-Egyptian director Amal Ramsis, in which she tells the extraordinary story of a Palestinian family.
    You Come From Far, by Amal Ramsis
    (Egypt, Lebanon, Spain, Qatar, 2018, 85 min.) Documentary

    Imagine your father is a Palestinian Arab who decided to fight against Franco in the Spanish Civil War. Then imagine you have brothers and sisters with whom you are unable to communicate, because you do not speak the same language. Finally, imagine you have family but grew up without your parents… “You come from far,” goes the extraordinary lore of a Palestinian family. The family got spread out as a result of events which took place a century ago, from the Spanish Civil War and World War II, to the Nakba of Palestine and Lebanon’s civil war.
  • You Come From Far, by Amal Ramsis

    April 26, 20197:30 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. Sales in advance on this website up to the day of the screening at 12:00 p.m. 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 (cash payment only). Assigned seats with tickets.
    Films shown in the original language version with subtitles in Spanish.
    The screening brings to an end the film series  which Casa Árabe has held on Contemporary Arab Women Directors throughout the months of March and April.
    You Come From Far, by Amal Ramsis
     (Egypt, Lebanon, Spain and Qatar, 2018, 85 min.) Documentary

    Imagine your father is a Palestinian Arab who decided to fight against Franco in the Spanish Civil War. Then imagine you have brothers and sisters with whom you are unable to communicate, because you do not speak the same language. Finally, imagine you have family but grew up without your parents… “You come from far,” goes the extraordinary lore of a Palestinian family. The family got spread out as a result of events which took place a century ago, from the Spanish Civil War and World War II, to the Nakba of Palestine and Lebanon’s civil war.
  • Sofia, by Meryem Benm’ Barek 

    April 26, 20198:00 p.m.
    CÓRDOBA
    Casa Árabe Auditorium (at Calle Samuel de los Santos Gener, 9). 8:00 p.m. Free entrance until the cinema’s capacity is reached.
    Films shown in the original language version with subtitles in Spanish.
    Last screening in Cordoba in the film series which Casa Árabe has held on Contemporary Arab Women Directors throughout the months of March and April.
    Sofia, by Meryem Benm’ Barek (France, Qatar, 2018, 85 min.) Fiction

    Sofia, a young 20-year-old woman, lives with her parents in Casablanca. After an unwanted pregnancy, she is committing an illegal act by giving birth to a baby outside of marriage. The hospital gives her 24 hours to reveal the identity of the girl’s father before reporting her to the authorities…


The Embassy of the Kingdom of Morocco in Spain