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Tales from Yemen

From September 25, 2020 until October 23, 2020Check dates, times and entry conditions for each screening.
MADRID AND CORDOBA
Casa Árabe’s headquarters in both cities. Check dates, times and entry conditions for each screening.
The decision to hold these activities in person will depend upon the health situation at the time. Thank you for your understanding.
Films shown in the original language version with subtitles in Spanish.

This fall, Casa Árabe is showing a film series devoted to Yemeni cinema, to be screened at the same time as the photography exhibitions “Displacements: Yemen Diasporas” and “Arabian Arcadia.”

From 2011 to 2019, the Republic of Yemen has seen the streets of large urban centers fill with people clamoring for revolutionary social and political change, followed by a period of transition that wavered towards armed conflict, degenerating into the civil war that has been raging in the country from the end of 2014 to today. This timeline is what the various Yemeni directors in this film series have reflected, questioned and documented through their work. From revolution to war, the Yemeni film that has developed within this context invites us to reflect not only upon the history and politics of that country, but also on the role that contemporary artists and filmmakers play in its writing, archives and documentation.

The films to have been included in this series were selected by Anahi Alviso, an expert on Yemen’s society, politics and culture. The film series is being screened at the same time as the exhibitions “Displacements: Yemen Diasporas” by photographers Shaima Al-Tamani and Thana Faroq, both natives of Yemen, and “Arabian Arcadia” by Jordi Esteva, which includes a series of photographs taken on the island of Soqotra. The two exhibitions can be seen at the Casa Árabe headquarters in Madrid this autumn.

Information sheet on the film series in Madrid

Information sheet on the film series in Cordoba

Tales from Yemen
  • Video Poems and Soqotra, la isla de los genios (Soqotra, Island of the Djinns) 

    September 25, 20207:30 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 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. Limited attendance.

    The decision to hold this activity in person will depend upon the health situation at the time. Thank you for your understanding.
    Films shown in the original language version with subtitles in Spanish.
    We have begun a film series devoted to Yemen, with the screening of four video poems, in collaboration with the Liverpool Arab Arts Festival (LAAF) and the documentary “Soqotra, the Island of the Djinns,” by artist and photographer Jordi Esteva.
    Casa Árabe, with the cooperation of the Liverpool Arab Arts Festival (LAAF), is presenting four video works which combine both poetry and film. These video poems were created in 2019 on the basis of original poems by contemporary Yemeni poets, created as part of the project “Yemen in Conflict: Popular literary heritage as an expression of conflict and a tool for its resolution,” the goal of which is to protect and preserve traditional and contemporary Yemeni popular literature despite the current conflict. These poems have, in turn, been reinterpreted by visual artists and filmmakers, thus taking on a new dimension while becoming part of a “living archive” that bears witness to the experiences of Yemenis in the diaspora currently residing in Britain. The video poems are:

    - No Words, by Mariam Al-Dhubhani
    (poem by Ahmed Abdul Raqeeb Alkhulaidi)
    (2019, 5 min.)

    - The Streets Will Walk Me Home, by Olivia Furber
    (poem by Amina Atiq)
    (2019, 3 min.)

    - He Grew Old, by Diyala Muir
    (poem by Hamdan Dammag)
    (2019, 2 min.)

    - Two Coloured House, by Noor Palette
    (poem by Dr. Abdul Hakim Al-Qazi)
    (2019, 2 min.)


    We will also be screening the documentary Soqotra: Island of the Djinns, by Jordi Esteva (Spain, 2016, 65’).
    This is the first film ever recorded entirely in Soqotri, the South Arabian language related to that of the ancient Kingdom of Sheba. It portrays life on the remote island of Soqotra, lost in the Indian Ocean between the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, but currently forming part of Yemen. During the monsoon, the island remains isolated, which has contributed to preserving a unique ecosystem in the world. Myrrh and incense trees grow wild in many places there, as does the mystical “draco,” the tree of dragon’s blood. For Herodotus, it was the island of the Phoenix, and for the Arabs that of the giant bird Roc from the tales of Sindbad. The screening of this film will be complementing the exhibition “Arcadia Arabiga” by the same author. You can see it in one of the exhibition halls at Casa Árabe’s headquarters in Madrid.

    Awards and Festivals: Visions du Réel Festival (Nyon, Switzerland, 2016); International Full Frame Festival (United States, 2016); Ethnocineca, International Documentary Film Festival of Vienna (Austria, 2016); BFI Film Festival of London (UK, 2016); International Film Festival of Nancy (France, 2016); Documenta Madrid, 2016; Malaga Film Festival, 2016.
  • “Karama Has No Walls” and “The Mulberry House” 

    September 25, 20208:00 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.
    The decision to hold this activity in person will depend upon the health situation at the time. Thank you for your patience.
    Films shown in the original language version with subtitles in Spanish.
    Films are returning to Casa Árabe’s movie screen in Cordoba. Throughout the fall, we will be getting the chance to enjoy a film series devoted to Yemen. At the first session, we will be showing two documentaries by filmmaker Sarah Ishaq.
    Karama Has No Walls by Sarah Ishaq
    (United Arab Emirates, 2012, 25 min.) Short-subject documentary

    Karama Has No Walls is the riveting eyewitness account of the tragic day that changed the course of the revolution in Yemen, when pro-government snipers opened fire on a peaceful gathering of protesters, causing national outrage and ultimately leading to the end of 33 years of autocratic rule.
    Preview

    The Mulberry House, by Sarah Ishaq
    (Yemen, United Kingdom, Syria, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, 2013, 64 min.) Documentary
    Sarah was born in Yemen 30 years ago, to a Yemeni father and a Scottish mother. During her teenage years, she begins to feel ill at ease with the world around her, so at the age of 17, she decides to run off to Scotland to live with her mother. Her father says she can only leave if she will promise not to give up her Yemeni roots. Sarah says she will not, but in the end she breaks her promise. Ten years later, in 2011, Sara returns to Yemen, having turned into another person. She is determined to face her past and wants to rediscover her roots in the place she was born. She unexpectedly returns to a country about to live through a revolution, as part of the movement of Arab Springs.

    Awards and Festivals: Amsterdam International Documentary Film Festival, 2013; Dubai International Film Festival (UAE, 2013; Human Watch Rights International Festival (United Kingdom, 2014); DokFestival Munich /Germany, 2014); Jury Award (Human World Festival, Austria, 2014).
  • Double feature movie session: “Karama Has No Walls” and “The Mulberry House”

    Double feature movie session: “Karama Has No Walls” and “The Mulberry House”

    October 02, 20207:30 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 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. Limited attendance.

    The decision to hold this activity in person will depend upon the health situation at the time. Thank you for your patience.
    Films shown in the original language version with subtitles in Spanish
    We continue our film screenings within the series “Tales of Yemen.” This week in Madrid, we will be showing two documentaries by filmmaker Sarah Ishaq.
    Karama Has No Walls, by Sarah Ishaq
    (United Arab Emirates, 2012, 25 min.) Short-subject documentary
     
    Karama Has No Walls is the riveting eyewitness account of the tragic day that changed the course of the revolution in Yemen, when pro-government snipers opened fire on a peaceful gathering of protesters, causing national outrage and ultimately leading to the end of 33 years of autocratic rule.
    Preview

    The Mulberry House, by Sarah Ishaq (Yemen, United Kingdom, Syria, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, 2013, 64 min.) Documentary
    Sarah was born in Yemen 30 years ago, to a Yemeni father and a Scottish mother. During her teenage years, she begins to feel ill at ease with the world around her, so at the age of 17, she decides to run off to Scotland to live with her mother. Her father allows her to leave as long as she promises never to give up her Yemeni roots. Sarah says she will not, but in the end she breaks her promise. Ten years later, in 2011, Sara returns to Yemen, having turned into another person. She is determined to face her past and wants to rediscover her roots.
    She unexpectedly returns to a country about to live through a revolution, as part of the movement of Arab Springs.
    Preview
  • “The Tales of Ali” and “Ten Days Before the Wedding”

    “The Tales of Ali” and “Ten Days Before the Wedding”

    October 09, 20207:30 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 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. Limited attendance.

    The decision to hold these activities in person will depend upon the health situation at the time. Thank you for your patience
    Films shown in the original language version with subtitles in Spanish.
    The film series Tales of Yemen continues at our Madrid headquarters, with a double feature session that includes a short subject documentary film and a fictional feature film.
    The Tales of Ali, by Rahman Taha
    (2019, 11 min.) Short subject documentary

    In this film, Rahman Taha explores the history and culture of Yemen through the experiences of an elderly man who has spent most of his life working on its coffee plantations. Through the experiences of Ali, who has lived through the main conflicts in Yemen over the last century, viewers will be able to get a different look at Yemen, placing the nation’s events in the background to highlight Ali’s humorous, mundane and sometimes incomprehensible perceptions of reality.

    Ten Days Before the Wedding, by Amr Gamal
    (Yemen, 2018, 120 min.) Fiction

    In 2015, Rasha and Mamoon, a young couple from the port city of Aden in Yemen, had planned to celebrate their wedding, but the war cuts their plans short. Three years later, they try to hold it again, but just ten days before the wedding, new obstacles begin to unfold. Will there story have a happy ending? Or will the scars from war, economic crisis and other life circumstances keep them apart? This is the first film in the last decade to come out commercially in Yemen, and it is the first fully Yemeni production ever.

    Preview
  • Film: Video Poems and “Soqotra, Island of the Djinns”

    Film: Video Poems and “Soqotra, Island of the Djinns”

    October 09, 20208:00 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.
    The decision to hold this activity in person will depend upon the health situation at the time. Thank you for your patience.
    Films shown in the original language version with subtitles in Spanish.
    A new screening of the Tales of Yemen film series, now in Cordoba. We will be offering four video poems, in collaboration with the Liverpool Arab Arts Festival (LAAF), and the documentary “Soqotra, the Island of the Djinns,” by Jordi Esteva.
    Casa Árabe, with the cooperation of the Liverpool Arab Arts Festival (LAAF), is presenting four video works which combine poetry and film. These video poems were created in 2019 on the basis of original poems by contemporary Yemeni poets, created as part of the project “Yemen in Conflict: Popular literary heritage as an expression of conflict and a tool for its resolution,” the goal of which is to protect and preserve traditional and contemporary Yemeni popular literature despite the current conflict. These poems have, in turn, been reinterpreted by visual artists and filmmakers, thus taking on a new dimension while becoming part of a “living archive” that bears witness to the experiences of Yemenis in the diaspora currently residing in Britain. The video poems are:

    - No Words, by Mariam Al-Dhubhani
    (poem by Ahmed Abdul Raqeeb Alkhulaidi)
    (2019, 5 min.)

    - The Streets Will Walk Me Home, by Olivia Furber
    (poem by Amina Atiq)
    (2019, 3 min.)

    - He Grew Old, by Diyala Muir
    (poem by Hamdan Dammag)
    (2019, 2 min.)

    - Two Coloured House, by Noor Palette
    (poem by Dr. Abdul Hakim Al-Qazi)
    (2019, 2 min.)

    With the cooperation of: LAAF, University of Liverpool and University of Leeds


    Soqotra, the Island of the Djinns, by Jordi Esteva
    Spain, 2016, 65’. Documentary


    This is the first film ever recorded entirely in Soqotri, the South Arabian language related to that of the ancient Kingdom of Sheba. It portrays life on the remote island of Soqotra, lost in the Indian Ocean between the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, but currently forming part of Yemen. During the monsoon, the island remains isolated, which has contributed to preserving a unique ecosystem in the world. Myrrh and incense trees grow wild in many places there, as does the mystical “draco,” the tree of dragon’s blood. For Herodotus, it was the island of the Phoenix, and for the Arabs that of the giant bird Roc from the tales of Sindbad. The screening of this film is meant to complement the exhibition “Arcadia Arabiga” by the same author. You can see it in one of the exhibition halls at Casa Árabe’s headquarters in Madrid.

    Preview
     
  • Last session in our Tales of Yemen film series in Cordoba

    Last session in our Tales of Yemen film series in Cordoba

    October 23, 20208:00 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.
    The decision to hold this activity in person will depend upon the health situation at the time. Thank you for your patience.
    Films shown in the original language version with subtitles in Spanish.
    Our film series Tales of Yemen will be ending at our Andalusian headquarters on September 23, with the screening of a short subject documentary and a fictional feature film.
    The Tales of Ali, by Rahman Taha
    (2019, 11 min.) Short subject documentary

    In this film, Rahman Taha explores the history and culture of Yemen through the experiences of an elderly man who has spent most of his life working on its coffee plantations. Through the experiences of Ali, who has lived through the main conflicts in Yemen over the last century, viewers will be able to get a different look at Yemen, placing the nation’s events in the background to highlight Ali’s humorous, mundane and sometimes incomprehensible perceptions of reality.

    Ten Days Before the Wedding, by Amr Gamal
    (Yemen, 2018, 120 min.) Fiction

    In 2015, Rasha and Mamoon, a young couple from the port city of Aden in Yemen, had planned to celebrate their wedding, but the war cuts their plans short. Three years later, they try to hold it again, but just ten days before the wedding, new obstacles begin to unfold. Will there story have a happy ending? Or will the scars from war, economic crisis and other life circumstances keep them apart? This is the first film in the last decade to come out commercially in Yemen, and it is the first fully Yemeni production ever.
    Preview