Middle East Cinema Series Announces Fall 2014 Line-Up

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Nadi Cinema line-up for Fall 2014

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

All screenings take place in the Hembree Auditorium, room 107E in the Agricultural Food and Life Science Building (AFLS), next to the Pat Walker Health Center on Maple Ave. Screenings begin at 7 p.m. and are free and open to the public.

Aug. 27 – The new Fall 2014 season begins with Against the Government (Egypt 1992), directed by Atif al-Tayyib and staring the great Ahmad Zaki. An unscrupulous lawyer decides to right things and challenge the government over negligence regarding a school bus accident.

Sept. 10 – From Hany Abu Asad, the director of the acclaimed Paradise Now and a finalist for last year’s Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, comes Omar (Palestine 2013): the story of three young men growing up in Palestine, torn between the struggle for freedom and the rivalries of love – until an Israeli soldier is killed and Omar has to make a fateful decision.

Sept. 17 – Propaganda (Turkey 1999), directed by Sinan Cetin, is a comic masterpiece about what happens when international borders, dividing a town between Syria and Turkey, are suddenly enforced.  Based on a true story from 1948 and starring comic master Kemal Sunal in his last role.

Oct. 8 – From Asghar Farhadi, the Oscar winning director of A Separation, the psychological thriller About Elly (Iran 2009) examines the disappearance of the mysterious Elly from a weekend picnic to which she was invited, perhaps foolishly. 

Oct. 29 – 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. 

Nov. 5 – In this ‘smart, pitch-black comedy’ (Rotten Tomatoes) which saw only limited release in the US, director Chris Morris’ Four Lions (England 2010) follows a group of hapless British jihadis set out to wreak havoc in their native country. With clear antecedents in The Goon Squad and Monty Python, this film confronts faith and fanaticism with ‘touching humanity’ (Daily Telegraph).

Nov. 19 – Ibrahim el Batout directs a searing account of Egypt on the verge of revolution, as three lives – an activist, a journalist and a security officer – intersect in and around Tahrir Square in Winter of Discontent (Egypt 2012).

Dec. 3 – Twenty years after being kidnapped during the Lebanese civil war, a hostage is released to wander the streets of Beirut seeking ties with the past and others who have suffered dislocation in director Bahij Hojeij’s Here Comes the Rain (Lebanon 2010).

All eight film screenings 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 on the King Fahd Center webpage, or follow the Center on Facebook and Twitter.