Event Calendar Listings

“The City in Recent Arab Cinema” Film Series

Nov. 6-April 15

Middlebury College

Thursday, Nov. 6

7:30 p.m., Twilight Hall, College Street (Route 125)

“The Closed Doors”

Egypt, 1999, color, 105 minutes

Directed by Atef Hetata

In Arabic with English subtitles

Set during the Gulf War, “The Closed Doors” touches on several taboos in contemporary Egyptian society, examining their social and political implications. The film tells the story of Mohamad, a highly impressionable young man who embraces fundamentalist ideas as a way of dealing with the confusion of adolescence.

Thursday, Nov. 13

7:30 p.m., Twilight Hall, College Street (Route 125)

“Halfaouine: Boy of the Terraces”

Tunisia, 1990, color, 98 minutes

Directed by Ferid Boughedir

In Arabic with English subtitles

Set against the backdrop of modern Tunisia, renowned Arab critic-turned-filmmaker Ferid Boughedir offers a bittersweet portrait of a boy’s sexual awakening.

Thursday, Nov. 20

7:30 p.m., Twilight Hall, College Street (Route 125)

Double feature of two short documentaries:

“Cairo as Seen by Chahine”

Egypt, 1991, color, 22 minutes

Directed by Yousef Chahine

In Arabic with English subtitles

This concise masterpiece began as a commission by French television for the news series “Envoyé Spécial.” Using his unique sense of artistic digression, Chahine transforms this portrait of a city into a self-portrait of a filmmaker.

“On Boys, Girls and the Veil”

Egypt, 1995, color, 72 minutes

Directed by Yousry Nasrallah

In Arabic with English Subtitles

Nasrallah offers an exquisite tour of a subject normally overdramatized by the West?the head scarf. Taking the debate beyond the simplistic approach and with familiarity rarely seen, young men and women talk about the hijab and its social implications.

Thursday, Feb. 26

7:30 p.m., Dana Auditorium, Sunderland Language Center, College Street (Route 125)

“West Beirut,” Lebanon, 1998, color, 105 minutes

Directed by Ziad Doueiri

In Arabic and some French with English subtitles

During the Lebanese Civil War in the 1970s, two teenagers who live in West Beirut? what would become the Muslim section of the city?find their school in the now mostly Christian East Beirut has closed. Determined to have fun and pretending to ignore the unfolding tragedy, they use a Super 8 camera to film what they see, turning the battlefield into a sort of playground until they are gradually drawn into the escalating violence, and their carefree adolescence comes to an abrupt and startling end.

Thursday, March 4

7:30 p.m., Dana Auditorium, Sunderland Language Center, College Street (Route 125)

“Salut Cousin,”Algeria, 1996, color, 104 minutes

Directed by Merzak Allouache

In French and Arabic with English subtitles

“Salut Cousin!” is the tale of two Algerian cousins and their mishaps in the racially volatile environment of Paris.

Thursday, March 11

7:30 p.m., Dana Auditorium, Sunderland Language Center, College Street (Route 125)

“Ali Zaoua: Prince of the Streets,” Morocco, 2000, color, 90 minutes

Directed by Nabil Ayouch

In Arabic with English subtitles

This film is a memorable and moving portrait of the lives of street kids living in Casablanca’s abandoned lots.

Thursday, April 15

7:30 p.m., Conference Room, Rohatyn Center for International Affairs, 148 Hillcrest Road off College Street (Rt. 125)

Lecture: “Location, Location, Location? Urban Space in Post-1970 Egyptian Cinema” by Walter Armbrust of Oxford University?a leading scholar of Arab Cinema.

All events are free and open to the public. For more information, contact Christopher Stone, Middlebury College assistant professor of Arabic and international studies, at cstone@middlebury.edu or 443-3482.

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