With the cooperation of the Liverpool Arab Arts Festival (LAAF), Casa Árabe 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.)

We will also be showing 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 the language spoken in the ancient Kingdom of Sheba. It portrays life on the remote island of Soqotra, adrift 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.

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, by Sarah Ishaq
(United Arab Emirates, 2012, 25 min.) Documentary short
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 where 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).

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 the wedding again, but just ten days before, new obstacles begin to unfold. Will their 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