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Talking About Trees
Once, they were acclaimed film directors; today they are virtually forgotten. Four members of the Sudanese Film Group decide that if the government will no longer let them make films, then at least they will try to show them. That means finding a venue, overcoming bureaucratic obstacles, and attracting a contemporary audience – all documented…
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For Sama
Waad Al-Kateab started filming as a ”citizen journalist” for Channel 4 News and won awards for her contribution to the series ”Inside Aleppo.” (online at http://www.insidealeppo.com/ ) The 21-year old economics student first used a mobile phone, graduated to a camera and occasionally borrowed a drone. Friends’ amusement at her preoccupation changed when one of…
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In Between
A gripping drama that’s winning audiences’ hearts around the world. Writer/director Hamoud has earned a lot of respect with her first feature film which packs a punch and entertains. In Between presents the lives of three young Palestinian women sharing a flat in Israel and living independent lives. The friends tread the delicate line between…
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Timbuktu
Mauretanian director Sissako, who spent part of his youth in Mali, was inspired to make this film when he read an article in Paris newspaper in 2012 about the public stoning of an unmarried couple in the town of Aguelhok (for reportedly having children outside wedlock). Set against the stunning landscapes of the fabled Saraha…
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Monsieur Lazhar
In Montreal, an elementary school teacher hangs herself. Bachir Lazhar, a recent Algerian immigrant, then offers his services to replace her, claiming to have taught in his home country. Desperate to fill the position, the principal, Mme Vaillancourt, takes him at his word and gives him the job. He gets to know his students despite…
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The Source
Set in current times in a Muslim “North African or Arabian village”, this comedy-drama film tells the story of the local women who dare to defy tradition. Following a series of accidents along the treacherous trek they must tread to fetch water for their community from a distant spring, the women go on ‘love strike’…
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Incendies
Canadian Nawal Marwan has just passed away. The only people at the reading of her will are her twin adult children, Jeanne and Simon Marwan, and the executor, Nawal’s long-time employer and friend, notary Jean Lebel. The will contains many unusual requests, the most unusual being two sealed envelopes, one to be delivered by each…
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Of Gods And Men
One of the most thought provoking films of 2010, this austere, meditative story about faith and martyrdom is based on real events in the Algeria in 1996. In a Cistercian monastery in Atlas Mountains eight monks become increasingly aware of their mortal danger as jihadists kill non-Muslim construction workers and rumours gather credence that they…