Middle East Cinema Series Announces Spring 2016 Line-Up

From Turkey to Palestine, Iran to India, 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 Joel Gordon, professor of history; 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 7:00 pm and are free and open to the public.

Feb. 3 – The new Spring 2016 season begins with Amreeka (USA 2009), directed by Cherien Dabis.  Life in post‐9/11 suburban Chicago for a single mother and her teenage son, recent arrivals from Palestine: My Big Fat Palestinian Wedding? ﴾English and Arabic w/English subtitles 96 minutes﴿

Feb. 17 – Bus No. 678 – overcrowded and an easy working site for pickpockets and gropers – what happens when one woman has had enough? Cairo 678 (Egypt 2010), directed by Muhammad Diab, took top prize in the 2010 Dubai International Film Festival. (Arabic w/English subtitles – 100 minutes﴿

March 2 – The horse is a symbol of freedom in the countryside, but servitude in the sprawling Istanbul metropolis, where a father and son try to get by as cart peddlers. Ali Ozgenturk's The Horse is a social realist classic and a timeless tale of hope and oppression ﴾Turkish w/English subtitles – 116 minutes﴿

April 6 – On the verge of getting married – finally – Noha has second thoughts and contacts an old lover in director Georges Hachem's Stray Bullet (Lebanon 2010). It is 1976 with Lebanon on the verge of a 15‐year civil war.  Starring Nadine Labaki ﴾director of Caramel, Where Do We Go Now). (Arabic and French w/English subtitles 77 minutes﴿

April 27 – In director Rashid Mashrawi's Laila's Birthday (Palestine 2008), a 'dark urban comedy' about life under Israeli occupation, Laila's father ﴾the great Mohammed Bakri), an ex‐judge turned cab driver, must navigate the streets of Ramallah before he can celebrate his daughter's eight birthday. (Arabic w/English subtitles 71 minutes﴿

All five 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, follow the King Fahd Center on Facebook and Twitter.