Arab Film Festival 2013

Overview

Arabic is spoken by 1.4% of the Australian population. That’s a little less than Italian, a little more than Greek. But Arab stories don’t always get quite the same mainstream coverage as their Mediterranean counterparts. For ten years, the Arab Film Festival has been bringing stories from among Arab peoples and cultures to show that they can have every bit as much interest as the stories at the Italian or the Greek festivals. Ten years spans events from the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan to the 2011 Arab Spring. That's a long time, and a lot has changed in the Arab world since they started. This year, they’re planning to tell you about it.

Opening night film, After the Battle, follows the aftermath of Tahrir Square for one of 2011’s horseback thugs, Sleepless Nights looks at Lebanon’s civil war and the amnesty that came after and the Repentant covers life as an ex-militant in Algeria. This is London explores the modern logistics of professional photography and the niquab and A World Not Ours follows a friendship through three decades of a six decade old Palestinian refugee camp.

The Festival is also offering a panel on the changing masculinity of Arab Men in Film, which includes words from After the Battle director Yousry Nasrallah.

Arab Men in Film is free, but you need to RSVP. Still from After the Battle.