"Niloofar"Levantine Center presents an exclusive director's screening of Niloofar, the acclaimed directorial debut by Franco-Lebanese director Sabine El Gemayel. Filmed in the Khuzestan Province of Iran, near the Iraqi border, this movie is in Persian with English subtitles (82 minutes). This is third film to screen in the New Voices in Middle Eastern Cinema series, which takes place every third Thursday of the month. A Q & A with writer/director Sabine El Gemayel will follow the screening.

Niloofar is a twelve-year-old girl whose dream is to read and write, but she lives in a village where education is only for boys. Her mother, a well-known midwife, insists that Niloofar become her apprentice. While assisting her mother during a delivery, Niloofar meets a feminist woman who undertakes to teach her in secret. Unfortunately, in exchange for a palm tree field, Niloofar's father promises her in marriage to an older man once she becomes a woman.

Horrified by this notion, Niloofar does everything in her power to postpone her first periods. Eventually, the inevitable occurs. However, Niloofar, who is determined to keep her freedom as long as possible, arranges to conceal the fact from her family for another two years until the truth can no longer be hidden. Then, rather than live in a marriage without love, Niloofar runs away with her friend. Shocked, her family considers itself dishonored and sends her step-brother to track her down.

American Radical: The Trials of Norman Finkelstein

Directed By: David Ridgen & Nicolas Rossier (Documentary | 2009 | USA | 88 minutes) In English with some Arabic language w/ English subtitles

AMERICAN RADICAL: THE TRIALS OF NORMAN FINKELSTEIN is a new feature-length documentary film from directors David Ridgen (MISSISSIPPI COLD CASE) and Nicolas Rossier (ARISTIDE AND THE ENDLESS REVOLUTION) that will have its theatrical premiere in Los Angeles at Laemmle Music Hall on Friday, March 12, 2010, where it will enjoy a week-long run.

The gala opening will feature Norman Finkelstein in person and a Q & A after the film, in an evening cosponsored by Levantine Cultural Center and L.A. Jews for Peace.

"Captain Abu Raed"Levantine Cultural Center presents an exclusive screening of the critical hit that Jordan picked to be its Oscar contender in 2009. 

Abu Raed is a lonely janitor at Amman's International Airport. Never having realized his dreams of seeing the world, he experiences it vicariously through books and brief encounters with travelers. Captain Abu Raed is the story of everyday people intersecting across social boundaries. It is a story of dreams, friendship, forgiveness, and sacrifice.

Captain Abu Raed is the second in Levantine Cultural Center's series this year, "New Voices in Middle Eastern Cinema", which takes place the third Thursday of each month.

This event's reception is sponsored by the Jordanian American Club of Southern California.

Omid Arabian

Awards season is in full swing, and the most lauded film of 2009 appears to be Kathryn Bigelow's actioner The Hurt Locker. It has appeared on almost everyone's best-of-the-year list, and even made it to some best-of-the-decades (Roger Ebert, Time Magazine, etc.) The film follows a trio of U.S. Army officers assigned to bomb-diffusion duty (official euphemism: Explosive Ordnance Disposal) in the heyday of the Iraqi resistance, and there is no denying that it's a top-notch piece of craftsmanship. Eschewing the usual big battle scenes, cartoonish CGI, and deafening sound design, and shooting mostly hand-held, Bigelow and cinematographer Barry Ackroyd take us in with the soldiers as they perform their hair-trigger job in perilously unfamiliar and often hostile surroundings, always an inch away from being blown to bits. The tension level starts already cranked up to 11, and rarely relents.

Levantine Cultural Center Presents

New Voices in Middle Eastern Cinema Series

THE SECRET OF THE GRAIN
A film by Abdellatif Kachiche

What: The Secret of the Grain (2008)
French, Arabic, and Russian with English subtitles. 151 minutes

When: January 21, 2010 at 7:00 p.m.
Film to be followed by a Q & A discussion and refreshments.

Where: Levantine Cultural Center @
The Goethe-Institut Cinema
5750 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 100
Los Angeles CA 90036
(free parking after 6 pm)

Details: Tickets $12 general public/$10 LCC members

MOVIE SYNOPSIS: In this complex and moving portrait of a North African immigrant family in the south of France, aging protagonist Slimane Beiji is a divorced father down on his luck who seeks to change his fortunes by opening his own restaurant, serving his ex-wife's famous fish couscous. The family rallies around him, despite the financial hurdles they must overcome and the racial and class discrimination from local officials.

"La Graine et le Mulet" by Abdellatif KachicheLevantine Cultural Center presents an exclusive screening and discussion of the critical hit that took France by storm in 2008, winning a César for Best Film, from writer/director Abdellatif Kachiche (Tunisia). 

In this complex and moving portrait of a North African immigrant family in a southern French city, aging protagonist Slimane Bejii is a divorced father down on his luck who seeks to change his fortunes by opening his own restaurant, serving his ex-wife's famous fish couscous. The family rallies around this common cause, despite the financial hurdles they must overcome, and the racial and class discrimination from local officials.

"The Secret of the Grain" is an extraordinary film from Tunisian-born writer/director Abdellatif Kachiche whose cinematic eye successfully enters into the most intimate parts of his characters in a style akin to Italian Neo-Realist films of the 1940s and 1950s. Little wonder the film picked up a César for Best Film and appeared on numerous critics' top ten lists for 2008, including that of A.O. Scott of the New York Times.

A post-film audience discussion will be led by Levantine Cultural Center's artistic director, Jordan Elgrably, whose family emigrated from Morocco to France, and Pani Norindr, Associate Professor of French & Comparative Literature, and Chair of the department of Comparative Literature at USC. Dr. Norindr received his doctorate in Romance Languages and Literatures from Princeton University. He is the author of Phantasmatic Indochina: French Colonial Ideology in Architecture, Film, and Literature (Duke University Press). He focuses his research on French, Francophone, and Southeast Asian cinema. He has recently published an essay on Rachid Bouchareb's "Days of Glory" in Yale French Studies.

Tickets available here online, or at the door but subject to availability (space is limited).

"The Secret of the Grain" is the first in Levantine Cultural Center's series this year, "New Voices in Middle Eastern Cinema", which takes place the third Thursday of each month. The February selection on Feb. 19, 2010 is Amin Matalqa's "Captain Abu Raed."

Read a review of this highly-lauded film in the Levantine Review.

 "La Graine et le Mulet" by Abdellatif Kachiche: your purchase in part benefits Levantine Cultural CenterReviewed by David Shasha

The precarious status of North African immigrants in France grounds the complex family drama that is "The Secret of the Grain." Taking its title from the savory fish couscous that is a signature dish of North African Arabs and Jews, the movie enters into the difficult world of one family led by a broken patriarch named Slimane.

Slimane works on the docks of an unnamed French city where his time as a laborer is about done. After working for over 30 years at the same place, he is now being moved out as labor costs are being slashed and he is now over 60 years old. We quickly learn that Slimane is divorced from his wife Souad and has a whole bunch of children and grandchildren. The film shows us a paterfamilias who is worn out, his family bursting at the seams and tensions everywhere. Souad complains that he is late with the alimony checks and his daughter Karima is fighting mightily with her two-year-old daughter to get her potty trained.

By Meena Nanji

He who has faith will never get lost. He who is at peace won't lose his way. —Bab'Aziz.

"Bab'Aziz" poster: your purchase in part benefits Levantine Cultural CenterWatching "Bab'Aziz" reminded me of how much I had become accustomed to Western cinematic conventions such as linear temporality and narrative structure. Akin to the dance of a whirling dervish (i.e. a Sufi Muslim ascetic), this film blends together a kaleidoscope of tales with breathtaking dreamscapes shot by celebrated Iranian photographer and cinematographer Mahmoud Kalari and an original musical score by Israeli composer Armand Amar. (The film costars Golshifteh Farahani.)

Co-written by Tunisian director Nacer Khemir, "Bab'Aziz" (2006) is the third and final installment of his "Desert Trilogy," and loosely follows the story of blind dervish, Bab'Aziz, and his granddaughter, Ishtar, as they embark on an eventful journey through the desert. Much like "A Thousand and One Nights," in which Scheherazade entertains the Prince with her tales and postpones her death by prolonging the ending until the following day, in order to keep Ishtar entertained on their search for the gathering of the Dervish that occurs once every thirty years, Bab'Aziz spins the story of a prince who one fateful day leaves his kingdom and becomes transfixed by his reflection.