OctOber 6-21 2013

MerMaid arts centre

GaLWaY FiLM sOcietY

trisKeLarts centre

3 films 3 venues

Dir: ZiaD Doueiri / 102 mins / Lebanon, France, Qatar, beLgium / 2012 / cert: cLub / arabic, Hebrew / engLisH subtitLes

Working as a Palestinian Israeli surgeon, Amin Jaafari, has successfully negotiated the religious and cultural divide in Tel Aviv. He is an admired and respected member of his profession. Both he and his wife Sihem are fully integrated into the liberal non-traditional Israeli society they inhabit.

Their perfect lives are upended however when a suicide bomb in a local restaurant kills 17 people and police suspect Sihem is involved.

A stunned Jaafari is haunted by how he could have missed the signals. In dreamlike sequences he revisits

his most intimate encounters with Sihem looking for clues.

Following his intuition, Amin enters the Palestinian Territories alone to look for answers. There he plunges into ever more dangerous places and situations where he is unaccepted and unwelcome.

By the end of his journey Amin is forced to confront a deeper, more appalling truth than he had ever expected; his inability to see who his wife truly was and his failure to understand the reality that created her.

Based on the popular novel, L’attentat, written by Algerian novelist Yasmina Khadra, this gripping and suspenseful film explores a complex political situation through a heart breaking personal story.

Ziad doueiri was born in Lebanon in 1963. He left at 20 to study in the US before graduating in 1986 with a degree in film from San Diego State University. He worked from 1987 to 1997 on numerous films as a camera assistant in Los Angeles including several early features from Quentin Tarantino. In 1998 Ziad wrote and directed his first film West Beirut which earned him international critical acclaim followed by his second feature Lila Says in 2004.

THe ATTACK

Dir: Hala lotfy / 95 mins / Egypt, UnitED arab EmiratEs / 2012 / CErt: ClUb / arabiC / EnglisH sUbtitlEs

Soad lives with her mother and bed-ridden father on the outskirts of Cairo. While bright sunlight and the sounds of the city can be made out behind the half-closed shutters, everything in the flat exudes sickness and stagnation.

Her mother works nights in a hospital and has barely any energy to spare during the day. Soad too is no longer young, having resigned herself to caring for her father and putting her own life on hold.

The camera patiently follows her movements and daily activities that have become routine, capturing her frustration as well as moments of great tenderness.

Hala Lotfy’s impressive debut focuses on the relationship between light and shadow, within and without, life and death. Al-khoroug lel-nahar, the idea of emerging into light, is the literal translation of the title of the ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead.

Soad’s longing is palpably directed outside. But when she leaves the flat in the evening and wanders alone through Cairo by night, it becomes clear just how far she has already distanced herself from her own needs. And yet at the end of the night begins a new day that may still bring change.

- Berlin Film Festival Programme 2013.

Hala Lotfy was born in Egypt in 1973. She graduated from Cairo University in 1995 with a degree in economics and political science before studying at the Cairo Film Institute. She worked as an assistant director for the international TV broadcaster Al Jazeera before she began shooting her first feature, Coming Forth by Day, in 2007. Filming was interrupted by political unrest before completion in 2012.

CoMING ForTH BY DAYAl-khoroug lel-nAhAr

nour-eddine Lakhmari was born in Safi on Morocco’s Western Atlantic coast in 1964. At the age of 19 he emigrated to France to study pharmacy but quickly changed his mind to follow his passion for cinema. His first short film was shot in Oslo, Norway and earned him a place at the Norwegian Film Academy. His first feature Le Regard was released in 2005 followed by Casa Negra in 2008. Zero is his third feature.

Dir: Nour-EDDiNE Lakhmari / 112 miNs / morocco / 2012 / cErt: cLub / arabic, FrENch / ENgLish subtitLEs

A bold and atmospheric exercise in film noir set against the vibrant backdrop of contemporary Casablanca, cop drama Zero is a stylish, absorbing and impressively made film, driven by a wonderfully intense performance by Younes Bouab as a troubled cop Amin Bertale, nicknamed ‘Zero’ by those around him.

Overwhelmed by a sense of futility and loss, by the corruption that surrounds him, and by the constant needs of his disabled, abusive father - a scene stealing performance by the late Mohamed Majd who played the father to great effect

in Le Grand Voyage - he has to make a change, to turn his life around.

When he meets with a mother searching for her lost daughter, his decision to help her sees him descend into a dark and steamy world of brothels and prostitution where he finds himself under threat from both gangsters and corrupt police alike.

Writer/director Nour-Eddine Lakhmari borrows certain classic film noir elements, but brings to the film a fresh and energetic sense of pacing, strong characters and a real appreciation for the cop-in-turmoil genre.

Zero has proved to be a big hit with local audiences in Morocco.

zero

From Morocco in the west to Syria in the east, the countries that fringe the southern part of the Mediterranean are rarely out of the news. But the often one dimensional view that is presented can’t and doesn’t tell the full complex picture of everyday life in this diverse and challenging region.

Films from the Southern Mediterranean, now in its second year thanks to funding from the Arts Council, tours three films from this region to three arts venues in Ireland.

Reflecting the vibrancy and rich cultural tradition of the region, the films selected are deliberately different in tone and texture: The Attack is a political thriller but it is also a love story; Zero follows some well know Hollywood cop drama conventions but is set in Casablanca; Coming Forth by Day is a contemplative chamber piece about family relationships.

This year the tour takes in Galway Film Society at the Town Hall Theatre, Mermaid Arts Centre in Bray, and for the first time Triskel Arts Centre in Cork. The programme

aims to surprise and engage audiences, whether you know a lot about the region - maybe that’s where you came from originally - or you’d like to get behind the headlines to arrive at your own conclusions.

We’d like to say a big thanks to each of the venues participating in the tour. The project would not have been possible without funding from the Arts Council under their Touring and Dissemination of Work Scheme. We also received support from New Communities Partnership.

Films from the Southern Mediterranean is a joint project by Maretta Dillon and access › cinema.

zero

MerMaid arts Centre

Galway FilM soCiety

triskel arts Centre

Mermaid Arts Centre, Bray, Co. Wicklow

Booking / InformationTel: 01 272 4030 www.mermaidartscentre.ie

Galway Film Society, Town Hall Theatre, Galway

Booking / InformationTel: 091 569 777 www.tht.ie

Triskel Arts Centre, Tobin Street, Cork

Booking / InformationTel: 021 427 2022 www.triskelartscentre.ie

the attaCkMonday, Oct 7, 8.00pm

zeroSaturday, Oct 12, 4.00pm

zeroSunday, Oct 6, 6.30pm

CoMinG Forth By dayMonday, Oct 14, 8.00pm

CoMinG Forth By daySunday, Oct 13, 6.00pm

CoMinG Forth By dayMonday, Oct 7, 6.30pm

zeroMonday, Oct 21, 8.00pm

the attaCkSunday, Oct 13, 8.15pm

the attaCkTuesday, Oct 8, 6.30pm

SCreeNINGS 2013