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Tickets to all screenings are $10
| Sat,
Jun 18, 4:15 pm, DGA Theatre 1. Le Grand Voyage [French/Arabic with English Subtitles] Screening cosponsored by Levantine Cultural Center &Moroccan L.A. Directed By: Ismaël Ferroukhi Mustapha, a Moroccan immigrant living in France, wants to make a last pilgrimage to Mecca before he dies. He enlists his reluctant, thoroughly westernized son, Réda, to drive him there. As they begin a journey across seven nations in Europe and Northern Africa, the confines of the car become a pressure cooker for their many differences—in education, language, and attitude toward tradition. Great road movie! Also, Sun, June 19, 7:00 pm, Sunset Laemmle 2. Buy Tix |
Cast: Nicolas
Cazalé, Mohamed Majd
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Sat, Jun 18 7:30 pm, DGA Theatre 2; Sun, Jun 19, 4:30 pm, Laemmle Sunset 2. Avanim [Hebrew with English Subtitles] Directed By: Raphael Nadjari Michale finds momentary relief from her suffocating life as a dutiful wife, mother to a young son, and employee of her father's Tel Aviv accounting firm in afternoon trysts with her lover. A sudden tragedy, however, forces Michale to confront her long repressed emotions about her existence. With a John Cassavetes-style emphasis on mobile camera work and intimate close-ups, French director Raphael Nadjari creates an intense portrait of female resistance to a claustrophobic, male-dominated culture that covers its own sins in a stifling cloak of familial love and religious duty. Buy Tix |
Cast:
Asi Levi, Uri Gabriel, Florence Bloch,
Shaul Mizrahi, Danny Steg, Gabi Amrani-Gur  |
Fri, Jun 17, 5:00 pm and Sat, Jun 18, 7:00 pm, both at Laemmle Sunset 2 Bitter Dream [Farsi with English Subtitles] Directed By: Mohsen Amiryoussefi On the outskirts of Sedeh, Iran, corpse washer Esfandiar rules over the local cemetery with an iron fist, lording his power over his goofy apprentice and the perpetually stoned gravedigger. When he begins to see intimations of his own mortality broadcast on TV, Esfandiar tries to ask for his co-workers' forgiveness so he can have a proper burial. From the arid graveyard to a serene subterranean bathhouse, neophyte Iranian director Mohsen Amiryoussefi takes an absurdist look at rituals of life and death, questioning Iran's adherence to antiquated mores through deadpan comedy instead of censorable politicking. Buy Tix |
Cast: Abbas Esfandiari, Delbar Ghasri, Safar Ali Safari, Yadollah Anvari  |
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Cast: Amel
Djemel, Aboubacar Sadikh Ba, Larbi Zekal, Abdoul Almamy Cheikh Wane,
Mame Ndoumbé Diop, Mostfa Stiti, Thierno N'Diaye Doss
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Documentary
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Sat, Jun 25, 4:45 pm, DGA Theatre 1. Sun, Jun 26, 7:30 pm, Laemmle Sunset 1. Pilgrimage [Farsi with English Subtitles] Directed By: Bahman Kiarostami It's hard to overstate how central a figure Hossein, the martyred fourth Imam, is to Shi'a Islam. To visit his shrine in the southern Iraqi city of Karbala is the dream of every devout Shi'ite. With Saddam gone, crossing the border from the Iranian town of Mehran into Iraq is again possible, but it is far from easy. The crowds are maddening, the bureaucrats in charge of the border are overwhelmed, and fake I.D.s are everywhere. In "Pilgrimage," Bahman Kiarostami, son of famed director Abbas Kiarostami, zeroes in on Mehran to reveal the greater picture of today's Iran and its surreal, at times humorous, but also utterly chaotic nature. Preceded By: "Letters from Iran," directed by Nezam Manouchehri [Iran, 2004, 33 min, Color; Farsi] Buy Tix |
Documentary
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Silent
Movie with Rudolph Valentino
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Wed, Jun 22, 7:00 pm, Thu, Jun 23, 4:45 pm, both screenings at Laemmle Sunset 2. The Syrian Bride [French/Arabic/Hebrew with English Subtitles] Directed By: Eran Riklis Since 1967, the Israeli-Syrian border has run through a community of Druze Arabs, dividing them with a fenced no-man's land. Today is Mona's wedding day and she will be crossing the border for the first—and last—time. Once she leaves her village in the Golan Heights to marry her Syrian TV-star fiancée, she will never be able to return to her family or her home. As the wedding party gathers, simmering tensions begin to build both within the family and without. The wide-ranging and even-handed film, co-scripted by director Eran Riklis and Palestinian-Israeli former journalist Suha Arraf, tackles its territory with a light touch and a penetrating eye, creating a vivid tapestry of the passions and absurdities of clashing politics, traditions, and affairs of the heart. Buy Tix |
Cast: Hiam
Abbass, Makram J. Khoury, Clara Khoury, Ashraf Barhoum, Eyad Sheet |
Tue, Jun 21, 7:30 pm, DGA Theatre 1. Wed, Jun 22, 2:00 pm, Laemmle Sunset 2. Yes Directed By: Sally Potter In a complex story that is sure to provoke thought and argument, a successful molecular scientist in a loveless marriage begins an affair with a Middle Eastern man. A surgeon in his native Lebanon, in London the man is reduced to working as a cook and waiter. Though the two have much in common, their affair soon begins to strain under the pressures of their cultural and political differences. Stemming from a scene—an argument between two lovers—that director Sally Potter wrote in response to post-9/11 demonizations of both Arabs and Americans, "Yes" takes on bold and controversial themes of racism, terrorism, sexual politics, and other painful divisions of the modern world in artfully dramatic form. Buy Tix |
Cast:
Joan Allen, Simon Abkarian,
Sam Neill, Shirley Henderson  |
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