Opinion – Orientalissimo: Arab World Film Festival shows 10 never-before-seen films in São Paulo

August 29, 2022

Robert

Back to the face-to-face format, the Arab World Film Festival brings 11 films – 10 never seen before – to São Paulo. The event opens its 17th edition on Wednesday (31) at 8 pm with the exhibition of “Box of Memories”, by the Lebanese Joana Hadijthomas and Khalil Joreige. The festival runs until 7/9.

The show is organized by ICArabe (Institute of Arab Culture) and co-organized by Sesc São Paulo. Of the 11 films on the menu, 8 will be shown at CineSesc itself (2075 Rua Augusta) and 3 will be available online on the Sesc Digital platform. The event is free.

This festival is one of the rare opportunities that the Brazilian public has to update themselves on productions from Middle Eastern countries. Most of the films were released last year and thus remain current. Another striking feature is the focus on everyday life, rather than the exceptional conflicts and extremisms that the press usually reports. “I always have this concern of bringing everyday events, so that people can see a picture of what happens far from the lens of the mainstream media”, curator Arthur Jafet tells the Orientalíssimo blog. “It’s important for people to know about film production in this part of the world,” Jafet says. “Cinema is an art form that expresses the state of things.”

Jafet also says he chooses films with universal messages. He gives the example of “Sharaf”, which was intended as a portrait of Egypt but had to be filmed in Tunisia to escape censorship. “It’s a movie about a prison that could be anywhere else,” she says. Another example is “Costa Brava”. “The film deals with corruption in Lebanon, but it could refer to a Latin American country,” the curator says.

One of the films that should attract more public attention is “Amira” (2021). The director, the Egyptian Mohamed Diab, is one of the most acclaimed in the region. He is responsible for the masterful “Eshtebak” (2016). Most recently, he directed the Disney series “Moon Knight”. “Amira” tells the story of a Palestinian girl conceived with smuggled semen from her imprisoned father. The exhibition includes two other films about Palestine: “Farha” (2021) and “The Hall of Huda” (2021).