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Made in Qatar: The Doha Film Institute's advancement of cinema

From September 17 through October 22, Casa Árabe will be hosting a series of film screenings at its headquarters in Madrid and Cordoba, on this occasion devoted to films promoted by Qatar. Check dates and times and buy your tickets online.

Qatar is one of the smallest countries in the world. Surrounded by the waters of the Persian Gulf, which separate it from Bahrain, it only possesses a land border with Saudi Arabia. It is a desert country with a population of three million inhabitants, of which over two million are foreigners, mainly immigrants from South and Southeast Asia. Qatar is known for its large oil and natural gas reserves, and for being the birthplace of the Al Jazeera satellite television network founded in 1996.

In addition to its natural wealth, Qatar has become a leading center for international sports. Less known to Western audiences, however, is the role played by the Doha Film Institute in promoting cinema in general and Arab and Qatari cinema in particular. The Doha Film Institute was founded in 2010, and over the last decade it has supported more than six hundred audiovisual projects throughout different stages or production: development, pre-production, production and post-production, for both creations by new directors and films by acclaimed, award-winning directors on the international scene. This is the case with The Salesman (2016) by Asghar Farhadi and Capernaum (2018) by Nadine Labaki, both award winners at the Cannes Film Festival, and the latest film by Elia Suleiman, It Must Be Heaven (2019).

In this series on Qatari cinema, we decided to show several premiering films, along with four short-subject films never before seen in Spain, by young Qatari filmmakers under thirty who address issues like interracial and gender relations in The Waiting Room (Hend Fakhroo, 2016) and Amphitheatre (Al Masrah Al Makshouf, 2018); the complexity (and beauty) of the desert, highlighted in Kashta (AlJawhara Al-Thani, 2016) or life near the sea, as shown in Sh’hab (Amal Al-Muftah, 2018), because for centuries the desert and the  sea have been the backbone of the economy of this region, a place dedicated quite recently to fishing, the pearl and date trades and camel breeding.

Each of these short-subject films, most financed by the Qatari Film Fund (a fund dedicated to supporting short-subject and feature films made by Qataris) will be followed by a film that won a grant from the Doha Film Institute. This was the case with Mimosas, by Spanish director Oliver Laxe (Morocco, France, Qatar, 2016), which was awarded with the Grand Prize at the Cannes Critics’ Week that same year, by telling the story of Ahmed, Saïd and Shakib, who travel through Morocco’s Atlas Mountains to give burial to an honored Sufi master. Next, we have selected Mohanad Hayal’s first feature film, Haifa Street. (Iraq, Qatar, 2019). Hayal is a co-founder of the Baghdad Independent Film Center, and his film is about the most dangerous street in the capital during the 2006 civil war, focusing on the story of Ahmed, who returns to the city after spending twenty years living in the United States and is shot by Salma, who lives on the same street. The feature film was presented at many festivals and won the award for Best Film at the Cairo International Film Festival and Busan Film Festival. The film series ends with a comedy featuring dramatic overtones, Man Without a Cellphone (France, Palestine, Israel, Belgium and Qatar, 2010), also the first work by Israeli-Palestinian filmmaker Sameh Zoabi, who decided to tell an autobiographical tale of daily life in a Palestinian village, the desires of young Jawdat, who is mainly concerned with conquering women via mobile phone, and the fears of his father Salem, who thinks that the cell phone signal tower installed by the Israelis will contaminate the entire village.  

This film series provides those members of the public interested in the Arab world/s with a way to delve into this unknown, unrevealed region.
Made in Qatar: The Doha Film Institute's advancement of cinema
Frame from "Mimosas"
  • Film: "Sh'hab" and "Mimosas"
    Photo: "Mimosas"

    Film: "Sh'hab" and "Mimosas"

    September 17, 20217:00 p.m.
    MADRID
    Casa Árabe Auditorium (at Calle Alcalá, 62). 7:00 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 at www.casaarabe.es up to the day of the screening at 12:00 p.m. Those tickets not sold online will be made available for purchase on the day of the screening at Casa Árabe's headquarters, as of one hour before each screening (payment in cash or by debit/credi card). Assigned seats with tickets.
    Films shown in the original language version with subtitles in Spanish.
    On Friday, September 17, cinema will be coming back to Casa Árabe’s headquarters in Madrid. Alejandra Val Cubero, the curator of this new series on Qatar, will be giving a presentation before our film screenings. Tickets are being sold now on our website.
    Sh’hab, by Amal Al-Muftah (Qatar, 2018, 13 min.). Fictional short-subject film.
    Upon hearing a myth about shooting stars, a small girl’s curiosity is aroused, so she decides to take to the sea with the help of her older brother in order to chase these legendary comets.
    Cast: Al Jori Al Darwish, Mohammed Al Hosani, M.A. Lazordi, Abdulrahman - Ahmed Al Hosani.
    Festivals: Ajyal Film Festival (Made in Qatar)
     
    Mimosas, by Oliver Laxe (Spain, Qatar, France, Morocco, 2016, 96 min., original language version with Spanish subtitles) Fiction.
    A caravan crosses the Atlas Mountains of Morocco with the mission of driving a dying patriarch to the town where he was born, the place where he hopes to find his final resting place. The trip is filled with unknowns, but Ahmed and Saïd, two young hustlers, assure that they know the way. In another place, and perhaps another time, Shakib, a jokester who works as a taxi driver, is recruited to carry out the task of watching over the caravan and making sure that the patriarch’s widow complies with the tribe’s promise. They grow disoriented but have to survive a snowstorm, being chased, attacks and kidnapping. In a plot twist reminiscent of Don Quixote, Shakib “makes donkeys fly” to cross the treacherous mountains, using his faith to change the expeditioners’ fate.
    Cast: Ahmed Hammoud, Shakib Ben Omar, Said Aagli, Ikram Anzouli, Ahmed El Othemani, Hamid Fardjad, Margarita Albores.
    Awards and Festivals: Grand Prix Semaine de la Critique (Cannes Film Festival, 2016), Special Jury Prize (Seville Film Festival, 2016), Best Film (Cairo International Film Festival, 2016), Best Actor (Cairo International Film Festival, 2016).
  • Film: "Sh'hab" and "Mimosas"<h1 class="titulo" lang="es"></h1>
    Frame from "Sh'hab"

    Film: "Sh'hab" and "Mimosas"

    September 24, 20217:30 p.m.
    CORDOBA
    Casa Árabe Auditorium (at Calle Samuel de los Santos y Gener, 9) 7:30 p.m. 4 euros: general tickets at the box office.
    3 euros: tickets purchased online, the officially unemployed, Casa Árabe Language Center students and Youth Card holders. Sold on our website or at Casa Árabe’s headquarters in Cordoba (in cash or by credit/debit card).
    Films shown in the original language version with subtitles in Spanish.
    Taking place in Cordoba on September 24 will be the first screening in the film series we have devoted to the cinema of Qatar. Each session will include a short subject film and feature film. Buy your tickets online now.
    Sh’hab, by Amal Al-Muftah (Qatar, 2018, 13 min.). Fictional short-subject film.
    Upon hearing a myth about shooting stars, a small girl’s curiosity is aroused, so she decides to take to the sea with the help of her older brother in order to chase these legendary comets.
    Cast: Al Jori Al Darwish, Mohammed Al Hosani, M.A. Lazordi, Abdulrahman - Ahmed Al Hosani.
    Festivals: Ajyal Film Festival (Made in Qatar)
     
    Mimosas, by Oliver Laxe (Spain, Qatar, France, Morocco, 2016, 96 min., original language version with Spanish subtitles) Fiction.
    A caravan crosses the Atlas Mountains of Morocco with the mission of driving a dying patriarch to the town where he was born, the place where he hopes to find his final resting place. The trip is filled with unknowns, but Ahmed and Saïd, two young hustlers, assure that they know the way. In another place, and perhaps another time, Shakib, a jokester who works as a taxi driver, is recruited to carry out the task of watching over the caravan and making sure that the patriarch’s widow complies with the tribe’s promise. They grow disoriented but have to survive a snowstorm, being chased, attacks and kidnapping. In a plot twist reminiscent of Don Quixote, Shakib “makes donkeys fly” to cross the treacherous mountains, using his faith to change the expeditioners’ fate.
    Cast: Ahmed Hammoud, Shakib Ben Omar, Said Aagli, Ikram Anzouli, Ahmed El Othemani, Hamid Fardjad, Margarita Albores.
    Awards and Festivals: Grand Prix Semaine de la Critique (Cannes Film Festival, 2016), Special Jury Prize (Seville Film Festival, 2016), Best Film (Cairo International Film Festival, 2016), Best Actor (Cairo International Film Festival, 2016).
  • Film: “The Waiting Room” and “Haifa Street” 
    Frame from "Haifa Street"

    Film: “The Waiting Room” and “Haifa Street” 

    September 24, 20217:30 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 at www.casaarabe.es up to the day of the screening at 12:00 p.m. Those tickets not sold online will be made available for purchase on the day of the screening at Casa Árabe’s headquarters, as of one hour before each screening (payment in cash or by debit/credit card). Assigned seats with tickets.
    Films shown in the original language version with subtitles in Spanish.
    Second film session on Qatar at Casa Árabe's headquarters in Madrid, on 24 September. Don’t miss your chance, and buy your tickets online now.
    The Waiting Room, by Hend Fakhroo (Qatar, 2016, 25 min, original language version with Spanish subtitles). Fictional short-subject film.
    The moving story of two young women from diverse cultural backgrounds who are brought together by the fact that their fathers are each in the intensive care unit.
    Festivals: Ajyal Youth Film Festival (Made in Qatar 2016), Dubai International Film Festival 2016, Muhr Short.

    Haifa Street, by Mohanad Hayal (Iraq, Qatar, 2018, 79 min, original language version with Spanish subtitles). Fiction.
    Set in Baghdad in 2006, Haifa Street is one of the most dangerous places in the city, where civil war and violence are experienced as a harsh reality. When Ahmed arrives there in a taxi on his way to his beloved Suad’s house to ask for her hand in marriage, he is shot by Salam, a sniper living his own personal hell on the roof of a building. Suad desperately tries to save Ahmed, but Salam prevents anyone from approaching him by threatening to shoot them. When his daughter Nadia asks her clever neighbor Dalal for help, all hell breaks loose under the ominous presence of the U.S. occupation. The film is a close-up snapshot of characters on the edge, at moments of extreme complexity.
    Cast: Ali Thamir, Asad Abdulmajeed, Yumna Marwan, Iman Abdulhassan, Ali Alkarkhy, Rudhab Ahmed.
    Awards and Festivals: Best Film Award (Busan International Film Festival), Best Film (Cairo International Film Festival), Best Performance (Cairo International Film Festival), Laser Film Award and Distribution Award (Carthage Film Festival), Screen Lab Award (Asia Pacific Academy Awards), Market Award (Tribeca International Film Festival), Development and Post-Production Grant (Doha Film Institute).
  • Film: "Kashta", "Amphitheatre" and "Man without a Cell Phone"

    October 02, 20217:30 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 at www.casaarabe.es up to the day before the screening (October 1) at 12:00 p.m. Those tickets not sold online will be made available for purchase on the day of the screening at Casa Árabe’s headquarters, as of one hour before each screening (payment in cash or by debit/credit card). Assigned seats with tickets.
    Films shown in the original language version with subtitles in Spanish.
    A Saturday of film at Casa Árabe on October 2, with a new session in our film series on Qatar. Don’t miss your chance, and buy your tickets online now.
    Kashta, by A. J. Al-Thani (Qatar, 2016, 12 min., original language version with Spanish subtitles). Fictional short-subject film.
    Amid the beautiful peace and quite of windswept dunes, a man teaches his young sons the traditional desert skills of tracking and hunting. Frustration leads to a seemingly harmless fight between the two brothers, and one careless move causes sudden disaster.
    Awards: Ajyal Youth Film Festival (Made in Qatar, 2016).

    Amphitheatre, by Al Masrah Al Makshouf (Qatar, 2018, 16 min., original language version with Spanish subtitles). Fictional short-subject film.
    A professional photographer from Qatar is surprised by a rebelliousness teenage girl from a conservative family who takes pictures of murals in the street.

    Man Without a Cell Phone, by Sameh Zoabi (Palestine, France, Belgium, Qatar, 2010, 80 min,. original language version with Spanish subtitles). Fictional feature film.
    A sharp-tongued, humorous view of daily life in Iksal, a Palestinian village in Israel, not far from Nazareth. Jawdat, a restless young man who has dropped out of university and works with his cousin in the cement business, finds himself in a relentless search for love, trying to conquer girls with his cell phone. Salem, his irritable father, is convinced that the new mobile phone repeater installed by the authorities in the middle of the village is going to contaminate them with radiation and tries to get the villagers mobilized to have it removed. Zoabi’s first feature film is a biting comedy about the injustice and absurdity of daily life for Palestinians living in the Israeli-occupied territory.
    Cast: Razi Shawahdeh, Bassem Loulou, Louai Nofi, Naela Zarqawy, Ayman Nahas, Amer Hlehel.
    Awards and Festivals: Golden Antigone Award (Montpellier Film Festival, France), Audience Award (Mons International Film Festival, Belgium), Special Mention by the Jury (twenty-second African, Asian and Latin American Film Festival of Milan), Dubai Film Connection winner; Doha Film Institute post-production grant.
  • Film: "Sh'hab" and "Mimosas"
    Frame from "Mimosas"

    Film: "Sh'hab" and "Mimosas"

    October 08, 20217:30 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 at www.casaarabe.es up to the day of the screening at 12:00 p.m. Those tickets not sold online will be made available for purchase on the day of the screening at Casa Árabe’s headquarters, as of one hour before each screening (payment in cash or by debit/credit card). Assigned seats with tickets.
    Films shown in the original language version with subtitles in Spanish.
    On Friday, October 8, a new screening will be taking place at our headquarters in Cordoba, as part of our film series about Qatar. Buy your ticket on our website and enjoy two short-subject films and a feature film that will surely surprise you.
    Sh’hab, by Amal Al-Muftah (Qatar, 2018, 13 min.). Fictional short-subject film.
    Upon hearing a myth about shooting stars, a small girl’s curiosity is aroused, so she decides to take to the sea with the help of her older brother in order to chase these legendary comets.
    Cast: Al Jori Al Darwish, Mohammed Al Hosani, M.A. Lazordi, Abdulrahman - Ahmed Al Hosani.
    Festivals: Ajyal Film Festival (Made in Qatar)
     
    Mimosas, by Oliver Laxe (Spain, Qatar, France, Morocco, 2016, 96 min., original language version with Spanish subtitles) Fiction.
    A caravan crosses the Atlas Mountains of Morocco with the mission of driving a dying patriarch to the town where he was born, the place where he hopes to find his final resting place. The trip is filled with unknowns, but Ahmed and Saïd, two young hustlers, assure that they know the way. In another place, and perhaps another time, Shakib, a jokester who works as a taxi driver, is recruited to carry out the task of watching over the caravan and making sure that the patriarch’s widow complies with the tribe’s promise. They grow disoriented but have to survive a snowstorm, being chased, attacks and kidnapping. In a plot twist reminiscent of Don Quixote, Shakib “makes donkeys fly” to cross the treacherous mountains, using his faith to change the expeditioners’ fate.
    Cast: Ahmed Hammoud, Shakib Ben Omar, Said Aagli, Ikram Anzouli, Ahmed El Othemani, Hamid Fardjad, Margarita Albores.
    Awards and Festivals: Grand Prix Semaine de la Critique (Cannes Film Festival, 2016), Special Jury Prize (Seville Film Festival, 2016), Best Film (Cairo International Film Festival, 2016), Best Actor (Cairo International Film Festival, 2016).
  • Film: "Kashta", "Amphitheatre" and "Man without a Cell Phone"

    October 08, 20217:30 p.m.
    CORDOBA
    Casa Árabe Auditorium (at Calle Samuel de los Santos y Gener, 9) 7:30 p.m. 4 euros: general tickets at the box office.
    3 euros: tickets purchased online, the officially unemployed, Casa Árabe Language Center students and Youth Card holders. Sold on our website or at Casa Árabe’s headquarters in Cordoba (in cash or by credit/debit card).
    Films shown in the original language version with subtitles in Spanish.
    On Friday, October 8, a new screening will be taking place at our headquarters in Cordoba, as part of our film series about Qatar. Buy your ticket on our website and enjoy two short-subject films and a feature film that will surely surprise you.
    Kashta, by A. J. Al-Thani (Qatar, 2016, 12 min., original language version with Spanish subtitles). Fictional short-subject film.
    Amid the beautiful peace and quite of windswept dunes, a man teaches his young sons the traditional desert skills of tracking and hunting. Frustration leads to a seemingly harmless fight between the two brothers, and one careless move causes sudden disaster.
    Awards: Ajyal Youth Film Festival (Made in Qatar, 2016).

    Amphitheatre, by Al Masrah Al Makshouf (Qatar, 2018, 16 min., original language version with Spanish subtitles). Fictional short-subject film.
    A professional photographer from Qatar is surprised by a rebelliousness teenage girl from a conservative family who takes pictures of murals in the street.

    Man Without a Cellphone, by Sameh Zoabi (Palestine, France, Belgium, Qatar, 2010, 80 min,. original language version with Spanish subtitles). Fictional feature film.
    A sharp-tongued, humorous view of daily life in Iksal, a Palestinian village in Israel, not far from Nazareth. Jawdat, a restless young man who has dropped out of university and works with his cousin in the cement business, finds himself in a relentless search for love, trying to conquer girls with his cell phone. Salem, his irritable father, is convinced that the new mobile phone repeater installed by the authorities in the middle of the village is going to contaminate them with radiation and tries to get the villagers mobilized to have it removed. Zoabi’s first feature film is a biting comedy about the injustice and absurdity of daily life for Palestinians living in the Israeli-occupied territory.
    Cast: Razi Shawahdeh, Bassem Loulou, Louai Nofi, Naela Zarqawy, Ayman Nahas, Amer Hlehel.
    Awards and Festivals: Golden Antigone Award (Montpellier Film Festival, France), Audience Award (Mons International Film Festival, Belgium), Special Mention by the Jury (twenty-second African, Asian and Latin American Film Festival of Milan), Dubai Film Connection winner; Doha Film Institute post-production grant.
  • Film: "The Waiting Room" and "Haifa Street"
    Frame from "Haifa Street"

    Film: "The Waiting Room" and "Haifa Street"

    October 15, 20217:30 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 at www.casaarabe.es up to the day of the screening at 12:00 p.m. Those tickets not sold online will be made available for purchase on the day of the screening at Casa Árabe’s headquarters, as of one hour before each screening (payment in cash or by debit/credit card). Assigned seats with tickets.
    Films shown in the original language version with subtitles in Spanish.
    It is your final opportunity to watch these two films produced with Qatari participation, at Casa Árabe’s headquarters in Madrid, on October 15. Tickets are now being sold online. 
    The Waiting Room, by Hend Fakhroo (Qatar, 2016, 25 min, original language version with Spanish subtitles). Fictional short-subject film.
    The moving story of two young women from diverse cultural backgrounds who are brought together by the fact that their fathers are each in the intensive care unit.
    Festivals: Ajyal Youth Film Festival (Made in Qatar 2016), Dubai International Film Festival 2016, Muhr Short.

    Haifa Street, by Mohanad Hayal (Iraq, Qatar, 2018, 79 min, original language version with Spanish subtitles). Fiction.
    Set in Baghdad in 2006, Haifa Street is one of the most dangerous places in the city, where civil war and violence are experienced as a harsh reality. When Ahmed arrives there in a taxi on his way to his beloved Suad’s house to ask for her hand in marriage, he is shot by Salam, a sniper living his own personal hell on the roof of a building. Suad desperately tries to save Ahmed, but Salam prevents anyone from approaching him by threatening to shoot them. When his daughter Nadia asks her clever neighbor Dalal for help, all hell breaks loose under the ominous presence of the U.S. occupation. The film is a close-up snapshot of characters on the edge, at moments of extreme complexity.
    Cast: Ali Thamir, Asad Abdulmajeed, Yumna Marwan, Iman Abdulhassan, Ali Alkarkhy, Rudhab Ahmed.
    Awards and Festivals: Best Film Award (Busan International Film Festival), Best Film (Cairo International Film Festival), Best Performance (Cairo International Film Festival), Laser Film Award and Distribution Award (Carthage Film Festival), Screen Lab Award (Asia Pacific Academy Awards), Market Award (Tribeca International Film Festival), Development and Post-Production Grant (Doha Film Institute).
  • Film: "The Waiting Room" and "Haifa Street"
    Frame from "Haifa Street"

    Film: "The Waiting Room" and "Haifa Street"

    October 22, 20217:30
    CORDOBA
    Casa Árabe Auditorium (at Calle Samuel de los Santos y Gener, 9) 7:30 4 euros: general tickets at the box office.
    3 euros: tickets purchased online, the officially unemployed, Casa Árabe Language Center students and Youth Card holders. Sold on our website or at Casa Árabe’s headquarters in Cordoba (in cash or by credit/debit card).
    Films shown in the original language version with subtitles in Spanish.
    On October 22, we will be screening these two films in Cordoba, a short and a feature film, as part of our film series dedicated to Qatar. Buy your ticket now on our website. 
    The Waiting Room, by Hend Fakhroo (Qatar, 2016, 25 min, original language version with Spanish subtitles). Fictional short-subject film.
    The moving story of two young women from diverse cultural backgrounds who are brought together by the fact that their fathers are each in the intensive care unit.
    Festivals: Ajyal Youth Film Festival (Made in Qatar 2016), Dubai International Film Festival 2016, Muhr Short.

    Haifa Street, by Mohanad Hayal (Iraq, Qatar, 2018, 79 min, original language version with Spanish subtitles). Fiction.
    Set in Baghdad in 2006, Haifa Street is one of the most dangerous places in the city, where civil war and violence are experienced as a harsh reality. When Ahmed arrives there in a taxi on his way to his beloved Suad’s house to ask for her hand in marriage, he is shot by Salam, a sniper living his own personal hell on the roof of a building. Suad desperately tries to save Ahmed, but Salam prevents anyone from approaching him by threatening to shoot them. When his daughter Nadia asks her clever neighbor Dalal for help, all hell breaks loose under the ominous presence of the U.S. occupation. The film is a close-up snapshot of characters on the edge, at moments of extreme complexity.
    Cast: Ali Thamir, Asad Abdulmajeed, Yumna Marwan, Iman Abdulhassan, Ali Alkarkhy, Rudhab Ahmed.
    Awards and Festivals: Best Film Award (Busan International Film Festival), Best Film (Cairo International Film Festival), Best Performance (Cairo International Film Festival), Laser Film Award and Distribution Award (Carthage Film Festival), Screen Lab Award (Asia Pacific Academy Awards), Market Award (Tribeca International Film Festival), Development and Post-Production Grant (Doha Film Institute).
  • Film: "Kashta", "Amphitheatre" and "Man without a Cell Phone"

    October 22, 20217:30 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 at www.casaarabe.es up to the day of the screening at 12:00 p.m. Those tickets not sold online will be made available for purchase on the day of the screening at Casa Árabe’s headquarters, as of one hour before each screening (payment in cash or by debit/credit card). Assigned seats with tickets.
    Films shown in the original language version with subtitles in Spanish.
    Last screening of these three Qatari-produced films in Madrid on October 22. Buy your tickets now on our website.
    Kashta, by A. J. Al-Thani (Qatar, 2016, 12 min., original language version with Spanish subtitles). Fictional short-subject film.
    Amid the beautiful peace and quite of windswept dunes, a man teaches his young sons the traditional desert skills of tracking and hunting. Frustration leads to a seemingly harmless fight between the two brothers, and one careless move causes sudden disaster.
    Awards: Ajyal Youth Film Festival (Made in Qatar, 2016).

    Amphitheatre, by Al Masrah Al Makshouf (Qatar, 2018, 16 min., original language version with Spanish subtitles). Fictional short-subject film.
    A professional photographer from Qatar is surprised by a rebelliousness teenage girl from a conservative family who takes pictures of murals in the street.

    Man Without a Cellphone, by Sameh Zoabi (Palestine, France, Belgium, Qatar, 2010, 80 min,. original language version with Spanish subtitles). Fictional feature film.
    A sharp-tongued, humorous view of daily life in Iksal, a Palestinian village in Israel, not far from Nazareth. Jawdat, a restless young man who has dropped out of university and works with his cousin in the cement business, finds himself in a relentless search for love, trying to conquer girls with his cell phone. Salem, his irritable father, is convinced that the new mobile phone repeater installed by the authorities in the middle of the village is going to contaminate them with radiation and tries to get the villagers mobilized to have it removed. Zoabi’s first feature film is a biting comedy about the injustice and absurdity of daily life for Palestinians living in the Israeli-occupied territory.
    Cast: Razi Shawahdeh, Bassem Loulou, Louai Nofi, Naela Zarqawy, Ayman Nahas, Amer Hlehel.
    Awards and Festivals: Golden Antigone Award (Montpellier Film Festival, France), Audience Award (Mons International Film Festival, Belgium), Special Mention by the Jury (twenty-second African, Asian and Latin American Film Festival of Milan), Dubai Film Connection winner; Doha Film Institute post-production grant.