Nadi Cinema Announces Spring Schedule

Nadi Cinema, the Middle East Film Club has announced its Spring 2008 lineup. Nadi Cinema features films from the Middle East and Islamic world – comedies, tragedies, political films, thrillers, social satires – classics, art films and recent blockbusters. All films are free, open to the public and subtitled in English. Films are screened at 7 p.m. Wednesdays in 104 Mullins Library. All films are free and open to the public. For further information, contact Joel Gordon, department of history, joelg@uark.edu

Jan. 23 – The Ambassador in the Building / Al-Sifara fil Imara (Egypt, d. Amru Arafa, 2006). After 25 years abroad, Sharif Khayri (Adil Imam) returns to Cairo, only to discover that his new neighbor is the Israeli ambassador? Will things ever be the same? One of the biggest comic hits of recent years. Arabic w/English titles.

Feb. 6 – Journey to the Sun / Gunese Yolculuk (Turkey, d. Yesim Ustaoglu, 1999). Mehmet, a recent migrant to Istanbul becomes ensnared in ethnic politics when he is mistaken for a Kurd. Condemned as something he is not, he sets out to discover the roots of his new “identity.” “Haunting” (NY Times) and “remarkably vivid” (Village Voice).

Turkish/Kurdish w/English titles.

Mar. 5 – Men at Work / Kargaran Mashgoole Karand (Iran, d. Mani Haghighi, 2006). Four yuppie friends returning from a failed ski trip encounter an enormous rock by the roadside. Are they man enough to dislodge it? This off-beat comedy from Iran is a “thoroughly modern spoof on masculine fixations” (Variety). Farsi w/English titles.

Mar. 26 – The Open Door / Al-Bab al-Maftuh (Egypt, d. Henri Baracat, 1962). A classic Egyptian melodrama based upon a best-selling coming-of-age novel. Fatin Hamama is Layla, a headstrong undergraduate struggling, at once, against patriarchy and colonialism. Why can’t girls be just like boys? Arabic w/English titles

Apr. 9 – Silent Waters / Khamosh Pani (Pakistan, d. Sabiha Sumar, 2003). Rural Punjab in the late 1970s. Ayesha worries about her teenage son, who is torn between romance and religious extremism. Suddenly their story becomes intertwined with the heart-rending memories of partition thirty years earlier. Winner of 14 international awards. Punjabi/Urdu w/English titles.

Apr. 23 – Beaufort (Israel, d. Yosef Cedar, 2006). In the waning days of occupation of southern Lebanon, an Israeli unit waits for orders to withdrawal from Beaufort Castle, a medieval Crusader citadel, and wonder what it all was for. Silver Bear Award winner at the Berlin Film Festival. Hebrew w/English titles.

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