From the streets of Egypt to the marshlands of Iraq, Nadi Cinema introduces viewers to the storytelling and vision of filmmakers across North Africa and the Middle East.

Nadi Cinema, the Middle East Film Club, screens films from across the Middle East and often beyond. All films – classics, cult favorites, recent hits, comedies, tragedies, political thrillers, social commentaries, and romances, in black-white and living color – are subtitled in English. The series is hosted by Professor Joel Gordon; screenings are free and open to the public.

Screenings take place in Mullins Library Room 104 and begin at 7:00 p.m.

Aug. 28 – The new Fall 2013 season begins with Cry of an Ant (Egypt 2011) directed by Sameh Abd al-Aziz.  Egypt on the verge of revolution, from satire to tragedy to high satire, this film was completed and reconceived after the uprising against Hosni Mubarak.

Sept. 4 – Ceasefire (Iran 2006), Tamineh Milani's smash hit of 2006 is a comic battle of the sexes.  Will newlywed bride Sayeh tame her husband Golzar, or will he tame her?

Sept. 18 – Jack Shaheen, leading media critic and chronicler of American popular representation of the Middle East, will join Nadi Cinema for a special screening and discussion of his 2007 documentary Reel Bad Arabs:  How Hollywood Vilifies a People on September 18^th.  He will also speak in Giffels Auditorium the following evening at 7:00 p.m.

Oct. 2 – Danny Glover and Gina Gershon co-star in Five Minarets in New York (Turkey 2010), directed by Mahsun Kirmizigul.  Two Turkish agents are sent to New York City on a mission to extradite the emir of a jihadist terrorist bloc – but there are dark secrets in this blockbuster action flick. 

Oct. 16 – At the violent twilight of the Palestine mandate, an orphanage for girls becomes a microcosm for a society filled with broken dreams and audacious hopes in director Dina Zvi Riklis' The Fifth Heaven (Israel 2011). 

Oct. 30 – The first Iraqi film in 15 years and completed within days of the US invasion, Amer Alwan's Zaman: The Man from the Reeds (Iraq 2003) is a blend of fiction and documentary that traces a man's life-or-death quest to and throughout Baghdad to find medicine for his wife.  This film will be shown in conjunction with International Education Week.

Nov. 20 – In Under the Moonlight (Iran 2001), directed by Seyyid Reza Mir-Karimi and winner of the Critic's Award at Cannes, a young seminary student goes in search of his stolen clerical equipment and learns far more about human nature – and theology – than he did in his formal training. 

Dec. 4 – A New Day in Old Sanaa (Yemen 2005) is a mystical romantic tale of a groom-to-be chasing an alluring spirit through the streets and alleys of medieval Sanaa.  Directed by Bader Ben Hirsi, A New Day in Old Sanaa is the first feature film made in Yemen screened at Cannes.

All eight films are free and open to the public, and all are subtitled in English. Nadi Cinema is sponsored by the King Fahd Center for Middle East Studies in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences.

For film synopses, trailers and more information visit Nadi Cinema.