Arabian Sights film fest in US with Egyptian focus

The Arabian Sights Festival, held annually in Washington, is focusing this year on Egypt giving American audiences the opportunity to explore the Arab cinema.The festival's director, Shirin Ghareeb, told KUNA that the Arabian Sights Festival seeks "to feature the newest and the best out of the Arab world every year, and this year we are featuring eleven films and we are focusing on Egypt because there were a number of exceptional films"."Each film from the Egyptian focus is very different ... and it gives a broad range of the artistic development and range of subjects the films deal with," she added."It is our duty as (organizers of) film festivals and cultural organizations around the United States to bring these films to show them to American audiences, otherwise they will never be seen here." "We are trying to show something beyond what Americans read in the headlines of the American newspapers; they read the events that are going on, mostly politics. This is an opportunity for Americans to see another reality; to see the Arab story as told by Arab directors," Ghareeb added.Among the vibrant films from the Arab world, featured at the sixteenth Arabian Sights Festival in Washington, "18 Days" is a collective work by ten directors narrating the stories they experienced, heard, or imagined during the January 25 revolution in Egypt, notably director Yousri Nasrallah."The selection is based on the number-one criteria; artistic quality, whether by established or new directors, it is a year round process where we look at multiple numbers of films from all over the world but particularly the Arab world," noted Ghareeb. "We look for originality, their timeliness, their emotional depth, and any countless of reasons that they might stand out." "Operation Casablanca" is meanwhile a satirical comedy by the Swiss filmmaker Laurent Negre along with renowned Moroccan actor Tarik Bakhari, who plays the role of an illegal Arab immigrant mistaken for a terrorist and arrested by the police.Directed by Sameh Zoabi, "Man without a cell phone" offers a humorous take on the social habits of a Palestinian village inside Israel, telling the story of a restless young concrete worker trying to enjoy his life in a place where politics and traditional values dominate."What we are trying to show is the richness of Arab culture, (this is an) opportunity to see films that an American audience would never have an opportunity to see ... films that are participating in film festivals all over the world and many of them winning awards," said Ghareeb. "Unfortunately ... it is a sad reality that most of these films will not be picked up by American distributors ... (to be shown) on the screens of commercial movie theaters." Arabian Sights festival, running October 27 till November 6, is part of the Filmfest DC, the biggest and oldest international film festival in Washington, featuring international movies for the past 25 years. Filmfest DC brings international films, from as many as 25 to 35 different countries, to show each year over a period of eleven days in Washington."Sixteen years ago there were just so many films from the Arab world that I wanted to feature and it was just not possible to put that many in the international festival, so I started sort of a side bar of Arab films," says Ghareeb, who is also the deputy director of Filmfest DC."It was only intended to be a one-time thing. I knew there was an interest in Washington for people to come see these films, but it really was an eye opener for me to see how many people showed up and we had to turn so many people away from each screening," she added.She further recalls that "it was obvious there was an interest in these films but also that we are filling a void in Washington ... and that is where we decided that it would be an annual event."