Adnan - film screening and children’s picture book launch!

Come join us for an exciting event featuring a family friendly screening of the award-winning short film, Adnan followed by the book launch and reading of the same title!

The event will take place at St Peter's Church, De Beauvoir Town, London and will include a Q&A with the writers and directors Mark Arrigo and Steven Chatterton, a representative of refugee charity Choose Love, and special guest, Colin McFarlane.

Adnan tells the story of an imaginative young Syrian boy who flees his home country with his mother after their neighbourhood is destroyed by war. Now settled in the UK, the boy uses all his creativity to help heal his mother’s PTSD.

It won multiple awards around the world over a two year film festival run, including (but not only) Best Global Short at SCAD Savannah, Youth Jury Award at Amplify, Audience Award at Providence Children’s Festival and Best Film at Exit 6.

The film has been lovingly adapted into a children’s picture book featuring beautiful illustrations by Syrian artist and fellow refugee Diala Brisly. It is a heart-warming story of hope.

It will be released in the UK and USA on 9th May, but ahead of the event you can pre-order your copy of the children’s picture book Adnan: The boy who helped his mummy remember from Burley Fisher Books and pick it up on the 10th May or at the signing with Mark and Steven!

Burley Fisher Books will be selling copies of the book at 5:30pm, 6:15pm and 7pm.

Both authors are donating 50% of their royalties to the refugee charity Choose Love, with whom they also partnered on the film. The publisher will also donate 2% of the book’s RRP on every copy sold.

Don't miss this unique opportunity to immerse yourself into Adnan's world and support refugees and displaced people around the world.

All proceeds from ticket sales will be shared between Choose Love and St Peter's.

Your contribution plays a vital role in supporting St. Peter's Church in its mission and ministry to serve the community. This includes providing essential pastoral care and funding all our programs, from worship and music to outreach community initiatives like our Warm Welcome hub and parish nurse services, as well as special one-off film and musical events.

14-year-old Zeina and her family are the last to have stayed in their besieged hometown of Damascus in Syria.A missile rips a giant hole in their home, exposing them to the outside world. When a rope is mysteriously lowered into the hole, Zeina gets her first taste of freedom, and an unimaginable world of possibility opens up for her.

Delicately weaving lightness and magicalrealism among heart-breaking desolation, Soudade Kaadan’s Venice Film Festival award-winner offers a powerful and moving perspective on the Syrian conflict.

This special preview screening will be followed by a Q&A with filmmaker Soudade Kaadan.

More screenings from Friday 3 May.

The Arab Film Club Podcast launches 1st May... Series One - Palestinian Cinema

Listen at https://www.thearabfilmclub.podbean.com/

The Arab Film Club is delighted to present an evening of short films, made by their own members.

The Club is a vibrant network of filmmakers and film enthusiasts dedicated to discovering cinema from the Arab world. Members have watched and discussed films from Algeria, Egypt, the occupied Golan Heights, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria and Tunisia.

This August, to celebrate their third year, they will be screening shorts at The Garden Cinema, followed by a chance to mingle and chat in the bar. 

TICKETS AVAILABLE HERE

You can follow or request to join the club on Instagram @thearabfilmclub.
You don't need to identify as Arab, anyone can join!

Nadia Emam directs Nikki Mailer’s powerful play, The Tremors in Manchester this summer:

“Think about your whole collection, all of your books. Just let yourself think about that for a moment. What if someone took them from you?”

Set in a Bookshop, under threat of demolition, in occupied East Jerusalem. The Tremors is about an unequal relationship between two women. It explores the magic of books, erasure of history & the Palestinian struggle against occupation.

The play runs for five nights from the 18th July. Tickets available here.

WARNINGS: The play does include themes of trauma, war, ethnic cleansing, occupation and violence that some audience members could find distressing.

Nadia Emam directs Nikki Mailer’s powerful play, The Tremors in Manchester this summer:

“Think about your whole collection, all of your books. Just let yourself think about that for a moment. What if someone took them from you?”

Set in a Bookshop, under threat of demolition, in occupied East Jerusalem. The Tremors is about an unequal relationship between two women. It explores the magic of books, erasure of history & the Palestinian struggle against occupation.

The play runs for five nights from the 18th July. Tickets available here.

WARNINGS: The play does include themes of trauma, war, ethnic cleansing, occupation and violence that some audience members could find distressing.

Nadia Emam directs Nikki Mailer’s powerful play, The Tremors in Manchester this summer:

“Think about your whole collection, all of your books. Just let yourself think about that for a moment. What if someone took them from you?”

Set in a Bookshop, under threat of demolition, in occupied East Jerusalem. The Tremors is about an unequal relationship between two women. It explores the magic of books, erasure of history & the Palestinian struggle against occupation.

The play runs for five nights from the 18th July. Tickets available here.

WARNINGS: The play does include themes of trauma, war, ethnic cleansing, occupation and violence that some audience members could find distressing.

Nadia Emam directs Nikki Mailer’s powerful play, The Tremors in Manchester this summer:

“Think about your whole collection, all of your books. Just let yourself think about that for a moment. What if someone took them from you?”

Set in a Bookshop, under threat of demolition, in occupied East Jerusalem. The Tremors is about an unequal relationship between two women. It explores the magic of books, erasure of history & the Palestinian struggle against occupation.

The play runs for five nights from the 18th July. Tickets available here.

WARNINGS: The play does include themes of trauma, war, ethnic cleansing, occupation and violence that some audience members could find distressing.

Nadia Emam directs Nikki Mailer’s powerful play, The Tremors in Manchester this summer:

“Think about your whole collection, all of your books. Just let yourself think about that for a moment. What if someone took them from you?”

Set in a Bookshop, under threat of demolition, in occupied East Jerusalem. The Tremors is about an unequal relationship between two women. It explores the magic of books, erasure of history & the Palestinian struggle against occupation.

The play runs for five nights from the 18th July. Tickets available here.

WARNINGS: The play does include themes of trauma, war, ethnic cleansing, occupation and violence that some audience members could find distressing.

Four women confront love, desire and memory in stories spanning East and West in this staged reading of Chambers of the Heart.

Newly divorced and adjusting to living alone in lockdown, 30-something Yasmine turns to online dating but there is something oddly familiar about who she meets. 

Reem is a Syrian refugee in her early 40s fleeing her country but unable to let go of the memory of an unrequited love. 

Warda, recently widowed in her 50s, is hosting a university friend who ignites suppressed emotions. 

Mother is in her early 70s and reluctant to be on stage as she is interrogated by her son who is trying to unlock the past. 

Written by Hassan Abdulrazzak, directed by Sepy Baghaei and performed by Laila Alj.

Tickets available here.

THE UK’S LARGEST FESTIVAL OF ARAB FILM IS BACK IN CINEMAS SOON!

SAVE THE DATES: 29 JUNE – 9 JULY 2023

https://www.safarfilmfestival.co.uk/

In celebration of Refugee Week, BAFTA and Counterpoints Arts today announce a public screening of Syrian documentary filmmaker and activist Hassan Akkad’s short film Matar on Friday 23 June at 19:00.

The screening will be followed by a lecture from Akkad on his experiences fleeing his country in 2015 and working in the UK film and TV industry. His short follows the story of a Syrian asylum seeker in England, forced to live on the fringes of society, and is released by WaterBear and produced by Deadbeat Film.

This event marks the beginning of a collaboration between BAFTA and Counterpoints Arts. It will be the first in a series of public events exploring the importance of authentic storytelling of refugees onscreen, and the positive impact of collaboration with creatives who have lived experience of migration, in order to build narrative power and create social change.

Tickets available here.

Neo Nahda screening, conversation, poetry & music

The evening will feature a screening of the short film Neo Nahda, followed by a discussion between the film's director, May Ziadé and Sabiha Allouche. Moderated by Eman Alali. 

Film Synopsis: 

Mona, a young woman in London, finds archived photographs of Arab women cross-dressing in the 1920s. Somewhere between her fantasies and reality, she starts a feverish journey of uncovering lost histories and her own identity.

Official Selection BFI Flare LGBTQIA+ Film Festival 2023 - World premiere.

Poetry by: Gamze Sanli, Riwa Saab, Eman Alali

*Please be advised that the screening will start promptly at 19:20

Ticket link here.

London Screening of Farha at the Prince Charles Cinema, followed by a Q&A with writer/director Darin J. Sallam. Thursday 18th May at 6pm.