In March, AFLAMUNA.online presents the restored version of "Fatma 75" by Tunisian filmmaker Selma Baccar, the Palestinian documentary "Between Two Crossings" by the late filmmakers Yasser Murtaja and Roshdi Al-Sarraj, and "Children of Shatila" by Mai Masri, in partnership with the Aswat Festival.
The program also features two films from Lebanon and Syria by the pioneering directors Maroun Baghdadi and Mohammed Malas.
Whispers
"Whispers" traces the path of Lebanese poet Nadia Tueni (1935-1983) as she embarks on a journey across various war-torn regions in Lebanon. The film captures the unraveling of a nation grappling with survival and the search for hope. At each stop, amidst locations infused with poetry and nostalgia for a past era, the poet's shattered dreams and idealized vision of her homeland intersect with the director's reflections.
*In collaboration with Nadi Lekol Nas.
Director on the Edge of Reality
A biography of the late filmmaker, Maroun Bagdadi, portraying the stages of his life, excerpts from his interviews and films until the very last moments of his life. A short film directed by Marwan Khneisser, produced by Nadi Lekol Nas and Fondation Liban Cinema.
*In collaboration with Nadi Lekol Nas.
Fatma 75
University student Fatma embarks on a historical feminist journey, conducting interviews with iconic women from various eras. She engages with aristocratic women from ancient times and contemporary revolutionaries involved in the struggle for Tunisian independence. The primary focus is from the 1930s to the 1950s, when Tunisian women were increasingly struggling for emancipation and the controversial Personal Status Law was passed, which aimed at the institutionalized equality of women and men.
The innovative style of docu-fiction allows director Selma Baccar to present a fictional narrative element interspersed with actual interview footage, re-enactments of historical circumstances, and archival material.
Didactic and instructive in its tone, the film has gained mythical status, certainly aided by its rarity and previous unavailability for screenings due to censorship.
"Fatma 75" was restored in 2017 by Africa’s Lost Classics project (initiated by Africa in Motion and the University of Glasgow, funded through an Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) grant).
Between Two Crossings
“Between Two Crossings” is a documentary film that follows the journey of Nour, a Palestinian student in the Gaza Strip, who is granted a scholarship to attend Portland State University in the United States. However, Nour struggles to find a way out, and her journey is fraught with difficulties and travel obstacles as the Gaza Strip is besieged. The only way out is through one of the two crossings that cut off the Gaza Strip from the rest of the world: the Erez Crossing, controlled by the Israeli occupation, and the Rafah Crossing, controlled by Egypt.
This documentary confronts us with the atrocity of these constraints imposed on the residents of the Gaza Strip for decades now, violating their fundamental human rights, and the angst they endure while waiting for the decision to release them, allowing them to cross - which is not even guaranteed to occur.
Ladder to Damascus
Ghalia is possessed by Zeina’s spirit. Haunted by the life of a girl who drowned the day she was born, Ghalia travels to Damascus, where she studies acting. There, she meets Fouad, an aspiring filmmaker fascinated by Ghalia's duality. He takes her under his wing and helps her find a place to live. Fouad's love for Ghalia and Zeina blossoms while the tumultuous events in Syria start unfolding in the streets around them and gradually encroach on their idyllic isolation.
Unlocking Doors of Cinema
“Unlocking Doors of Cinema” is a feature documentary exploring the fifty years of artistic contribution of the daring Syrian auteur Mohammad Malas. Exiled from his hometown Quneitra, Malas provokes audiences to contemplate loss, memory, and home. From the 1967 War and Palestinian Camps in Beirut to the songs of Aleppo and the political tragedies of Syria, Malas exemplifies what it means to be an auteur and public intellectual.
Unlocking Doors of Cinema takes you on a unique cinematic journey where creative cinematography becomes a visual conversation with the author's five decades of work.
Children of Shatila
Farah and Issa, two children living in Beirut's Palestinian Shatila refugee camp, use their imaginations and creativity to come to terms with the realities of growing up in a refugee camp that has survived massacre, siege, and starvation.
The filmmaker gives Issa and Farah a small video camera to film their lives and learn how they see their own world. Both children start asking their elders how they feel about forcibly leaving Palestine. When queried about what he wants to tell the new generation of Palestinians, an old man asks that Palestine must never be forgotten. "Promise me that," he tells the children.
"Children of Shatila" -produced in 1998- commemorates the 50th anniversary of the 1948 Palestinian Nakba and explores how memory is passed on from generation to generation through the eyes of Palestinian children born in exile.
*In collaboration with Aswat festival.