MUSALSAL ... Documentaries from the Middle East

Made in Egypt

France 2006 (with German subtitles), 69 min
Director: Karim Goury

Beginning: 19.30 h
Location: naTo, Karl-Liebknecht-Straße 46, 04107 Leipzig
Entry: 4, reduced 3 Euro

Director Karim Goury: “My father doesn’t exist, yet it seems people do know him. All I have is a photo of both my parents together, taken in a restaurant. They look young, beautiful, and maybe in love… It was in Cairo, in 1967. Who is this man whom people say I look like?” Goury, a Frenchman, searches for his Egyptian roots, exposing himself to emotional surprises.

Inshallah Beijing

Italy 2008 (with English subtitles), 54 min
Director: Francesco Cannito, Luca Cusani

25.03.2010

Ghadir dreams that at last someone will buy her some running shoes. Nader trains whilst dodging missiles and mines. Zakia can’t get a permit from the military to get to the swimming pool. Meet the 2008 Palestinian Olympic team- poorly trained, ill-equipped and competing for a country that doesn’t exist yet. Will the ultimate underdogs make it in Beijing? A unique portrayal of hope.

Bassidji

Iran, France, Switzerland 2009 (Farsi with English subtitles), 114 min
Director: Mehran Tamadon

08.02.2010

Being an Iranian man living in France, an atheist, and son of Communists activists under the Shah’s rule should put Mehran Tamadon on a collision course with the convictions of those who follow the current regime’s dogmas. And yet a dialogue opens up. However, beneath the charm offensive and the rhetoric, the moments of frankness and the reality of the political and religious system they support, to what extent are our respective beliefs likely to accommodate a real understanding of ‘the other’?
Among the numerous people the director met and among those who agreed to be in the film, two have played a particularly important role in his comprehension of the world of the Bassidjis. It is around them and the director´s relationship to them that the film is structured.

Anfal 2.0

Germany/ Iraq 2009 (Kurdish with subtitles), 75 min
Director: Fernando Vargas

20.01.2010

Anfal – this name stands for several brutal military attacks towards the Kurdish minority in northern Iraq. Saddam Hussein and his Baath-regime have been the initiator of this genocide in 1988. The survivors suffer from their experiences and memories to this day. There are still mass graves which have not yet been discovered. Officials can only estimate the number of deads. The film gives the suffering authentical voices. A number of survivors tell about this both national and personal catastrophe. Thereby the film reflects about today´s situation based on its history.

Semaan is leading a quiet life on his farm in the small village of Ain al-Halazoun in the Lebanese mountains. The hamlet was completely emptied and destroyed in combats during the civil war in Lebanon between 1975 and 1990. Today, many years after an official reconciliation, its inhabitants, who are all from one family, regularly go back to the village to cultivate their plots of land or visit their houses and always leave before sunset.
In his comforting and humorous film Simon El Habre observes the life in his quasi ghost village and tries to reflect on the collective and individual memory in a country that seems to live in a collective amnesia and is vulnerable to a new civil war.

Istanbul – the city between East and West – is considered among insiders to be the gay Mecca of Europe. Although European lifestyles have been adopted easily and often in Istanbul, today the city and her residents face a growing number of conservative, traditional forces.
Within the tension between the old and the new, between the traditional and the revolutionary, and between stagnancy and change, we find our protagonists: gays and transsexuals from every walk of life. The Other Side of Istanbul is a film that follows these young men as they come to terms with their “otherness,” and traces their struggles with the authorities,
with the military, with society, with their families and, of course, with themselves.
Theirs is a fight for human rights, for freedom, for a self-determined life, and with each success and failure they experience, we are offered a glimpse
at The Other Side of Istanbul.

Iran 1388 – Movies/ Dialogues, organised by the Cinémathèque Leipzig, has taken place from 20th of September till the 01st of October 2009 to give an inside view into the movie scene and the reality in Iran. In this context eurient e.V. presented twice MUSALSAL special:

The director questions women about luck at the railway station of Tehran. In this setting she is able to illustrate the intricacy of the status of women in today´s Iran.

Sonbol,a 35-year old Iranian woman, contradicts the norms of her society in any aspect: she is independent, childless, divorced and she participates in rallyes. In a country where women have only few rights for self-fulfilment Sonbol tries to cut her own path.

An elder woman / a fan; a young man / a book; a lady / a necklace … Twelf humans and several objects on the Vali Asr, the longest and oldest street of Tehran. The people look into the camera silently. The director just presents pictures, however the movie arises inside the viewer´s head.

Satellite television offers news and information from other countries. Therefore it is forbidden in Iran. However from urban middle-class families and nomad clans to hackers and dvd-dealer – everyone tries to circumvent governmental censorship.