Winds of Change: Cinema from Muslim Societies
Cinema from the so-called ‘Muslim world’ is an instructive index of the fervent and creative diversity which those societies have experienced as their own complex legacies of modern transformation. The start of 2011 focused the world’s attention on the wildfire mass demonstrations for democracy across the Arab regions.
This programme of introduced screenings and talks takes the ‘Arab Spring’ as its starting point. Now into its sixth month, raising fundamental issues of religious and civic freedom, human rights, gender and social equality, and the challenges of modernity. The films selected illustrate the broad variety of contemporary cinema across Muslim societies. They offer a refreshing change from the present mindless output of Hollywood and mainstream Western cinema and offer an opportunity to appreciate and engage with current Muslim filmmaking for its story-telling vitality, its aesthetic integrity and engaging entertainment qualities.
All the films in this series will be introduced by specialist in their given fields and will aim to give a brief overview of the general regional and historical background in which it is set.
Curated by Ali Nobil Ahmad, Haim Bresheeth & Richard Appignanesi.
Third Text - Virtual Special Issue
Third Text is pleased to announce Routledge-sponsored free online access to a Virtual Special Issue. The selected articles are made available to accompany the Winds of Change: Cinema from Muslim Societies season.
Programmed in conjunction with Third Text and Visiting Arts
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Is There a Muslim World?
21 September 2011
Is there such a thing as a singular, homogeneous Muslim global phenomenon? Is there or can there be one global Muslim ‘culture’?
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Salt of this Sea + Intro
23 September 2011
The cinematic rendering of the pain of return to the lost homeland. It tells the story of Soraya, a young Palestinian born in exile in New York to exiled parents who were ejected from their homeland during the Nakba in 1948.
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The Long Night + Intro by Robin Yassin-Kassab
23 September 2011
Director Hatem Ali's debut film about political dissent, all the more topical in the light of the recent Arab Spring, tells the story of four political prisoners who return to face a society they no longer recognise.
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Takva + Intro by Vedide Kaymak
24 September 2011
The story of an introverted and private man, deeply devout, whose devotion brings him to the attention of a religious sect leader in Istanbul, who radically changes his views and values.
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Ceddo + Intro by Imruh Bakari
24 September 2011
This seminal masterpiece by the Senegalese director Ousmane Sembène maps the period of the struggle of African indigenous culture against the double onslaught of Christianity and Islam, bringing about European Colonialism and the slave trade, and destroying the long tradition of the Ceddo, the village council.
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Winds of Change in the Arab Territories
24 September 2011
A panel and public discussion exploring the longer term issues of the 'Arab Spring'. Why this sudden and simultaneous mass movement for democracy?
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Les Silences du Palais + Intro by Ros Gray
24 September 2011
In this beautiful film by director Moufida Tlatli, set in a large labyrinthine country palace at the end of the colonial era, the young Alia realizes, on her return to the palace where her mother Khedija has worked all her life, that the women working there, including her mother, have been exposed to the old code of droit du seigneur – and she is unable to affect any change in the situation.
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From the Middle East Selected by Visiting Arts: Roads of Dreams
25 September 2011
The UK premiere of Mona Rafatzadeh's short, which in a beautiful and confrontational way provides a voice to the dreams of the Iranian people.
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The Green Wave + Intro by Gholam Khiabany
25 September 2011
Ali Samadi Ahadi’s The Green Wave is a moving account of the Iran’s 2010 Green Revolution. The film uses collage and illustration to tell the stories of the demonstrators as they bravely fought for change and reform under ultra-conservative President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
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Microphone + Intro by Issandr El Amrani
25 September 2011
In his second feature, Ahmad Abdala takes us to the cultural underbelly of Alexandria, a centre of cultural production for two millennia. In what now seems to be a prophetic script, he examines the changing cultures of Egypt, through Khaled, who returns from the USA to his mother's funeral.
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The Green Wave
30 September 2011 - 13 October 2011
★★★★ Time Out
"An extraordinary intro into Iranian politics" Little White Lies
This moving account of Iran’s 2010 Green Revolution follows demonstrators who bravely fought for reform under ultra-conservative President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.