From the Egypt to Saudi Arabia, 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 on the University of Arkansas Campus and begin at 7:00 p.m.

Jan. 15 – The new Spring 2014 season begins with Microphone (Egypt 2010) directed by Ahmad Abdalla.  Egypt on the verge of revolution viewed through the lenses of the skateboard/hip-hop scene in Alexandria, Egypt’s second city.  Screening will take place in Mullins 104.

Jan. 22 – In Orhan Eskikoy and Zeynel Dogan’s Voice of My Father (Turkey, 2012), a young Kurdish man finds tapes of his father that reveal family secrets enmeshed in ethnic conflict and its aftermath.  Screening will take place in Mullins 104.

Feb. 5 – No One Knows About Persian Cats (Iran 2009), Bahman Ghobadi’s acclaimed film, traces the story of two musicians recently freed from prison who set out to form a new band.  Screening will take place in Mullins 104.

Feb. 26 – Henri Barakat directs a powerful screen adaptation of the first great Arabic coming-of-age feminist novel, told against the backdrop of revolution in The Open Door (Egypt 1963).  Screening will take place in Mullins 104.

Mar. 5 – Based on a novel by acclaimed author Rachid al-Daif, director Bahij Hojeij’s Ring of Fire (Lebanon 2004) follows a man searching for the woman he thinks he loves in a city ravaged by civil war.  Or is it all in his imagination?  Screening will take place in Mullins 104.

Mar. 19 – Join Dr. Ali Ahmida, Libyan historian from the University of New England, for a screening of Lion of the Desert (Libya 1981), the epic tale of the resistance against Fascist Italy led by Omar Mukhtar starring Anthony Quinn and Oliver Reed.  Directed by Syrian-American Mustapha Akkad and filmed on location.  Screening will take place in Giffels Auditorium.

Apr. 9 – The first ‘serious’ film to deal with Israel’s Arab-Jewish underclass, Nisim Dayan’s Light out of Nowhere (Israel 1973) is the story of a young boy growing up in the slums of Tel Aviv in the aftermath of Israel’s 1967 victory.  Screening will take place in Mullins 104.

Apr. 16 – The first major production out of Saudi Arabia, Kif al-Haal?/How’s it Going? (Saudi Arabia 2006) directed by Isidore Musallim follows the story of a family caught between tradition and change.  A comic-drama and cultural breakout.  Screening will take place in Mullins 104.

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.