All films are rated 18. Book through the BOOK NOW button to view all four films.
6pm: AL-SIT – 2021 – SUDAN – 20 MINSDirector: Suzannah MirghaniProducer: Maysaa Al Mumin, Eiman Mirghani, Julietta Mirghani, Suzannah Mirghani
In a cotton-farming village in Sudan, 15-year-old Nafisa has a crush on Babiker, but her parents have arranged her marriage to Nadir, a young Sudanese businessman living abroad. Nafisa’s grandmother Al-Sit, the powerful village matriarch, has her own plans for Nafisa’s future. But can Nafisa choose for herself?
Suzannah Mirghani is a writer, researcher, and independent filmmaker, highlighting stories from the Arab world. She is a media studies and museum studies graduate, and the author or editor of several academic books and articles. Being of multicultural Sudanese and Russian backgrounds, Suzannah is interested in stories that examine the complexity of identity. She is the writer, director, and producer of AL-SIT (2020), a story about an arranged marriage in a cotton-farming village in Sudan. Her previous short films include CARAVAN (2016) and HIND’S DREAM (2014). Her projects COTTON QUEEN and VIRTUAL. VOICE were selected at Qumra 2021.
6.45pm: NOUR SHAMS – SAUDI ARABIA, UNITED KINGDOM – 2021 – 26 MINS
Director: Faiza AmbahProducer: Bazil Khalil, Hashim Alsaraf, Abboud Ayyach
Single mother Shams is an Uber driver in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, with two obsessions; her only child Makki, and her African dessert recipes she learned from her grandmother. Shams struggles to get Makki married, or to get any interest in her desserts. In fact Makki wants to participate in a hip-hop competition, which could lead to winning an extended trip to France, and separate them for the first time in their lives. Shams finds herself desperate to keep her son beside her. Her whole life has been Makki. But what she does to insure he stays ends up pushing him further away. Shams is forced to decide which is more important, keeping her son, or finding herself.
Faiza Ambah is a Saudi filmmaker with a background in journalism. She was Gulf Correspondent for The Washington Post before leaving in 2009 to focus on filmmaking. Her scripts have been supported by the Sundance Institute through the Rawi Screenwriter’s Lab in Jordan, the Dubai International Film Festival and the Doha Film Institute. She was a jury member at the Gulf Film Festival in Dubai in 2013 and organised a festival of Gulf Films at the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris, France the same year. She is currently in post-production for her medium-length film, MARIAM (2015), which was shot in France. Ambah has a feature-film writing certificate from UCLA extension and has taken directing courses at the Cinematic Arts School at the University of Southern California and the New York Film Academy. Her latest work is the film NOUR SHAMS (2021), selected at El Gouna FF 2021.
7.30pm: WHEN LIGHT IS DISPLACED – PALESTINE – 6 MINS
Director: Zaina Bseiso
Interested in its parallels with the fate of the Jaffa oranges, the filmmaker tells her father about her intention to film the last orange grove in Los Angeles. Their disagreement transforms the grove into a space for contemplation on the politics of storytelling in the multi generational experience of Palestine in exile.
Zaina Bseiso is a film director, producer, and curator working primarily in documentary and experimental cinema. Her work explores the relationship between the materialities of place and issues of memory, surveillance, corporeality, and nationalism. She received her Master’s degree in Film and video from the California Institute of the Arts. Bseiso is based in Los Angeles and was raised in Egypt by Palestinian parents. Her practice mainly traverses among Egypt, Palestine, Cuba, Mexico, and the US. She is co-founder of Bahía Colectiva, a community of filmmakers that collaborate in practice and curation. Her latest work is the film WHEN THE LIGHT IS DISPLACED (2021) which was selected at Curtas 2021.
8pm: MARIAM– USA – 2021 -25 MINS
Director: Reem Jubran
Starring: Maz Siam (Sido), Beto Ochoa (Zaid), George Jubran (Baba)
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