Yahoo News UK’s 'biggest film festival' returns to Liverpool
The UK’s biggest Arab film festival is returning to the city.
SAFAR Film Festival prides itself on being dedicated to “presenting cinema from across the Arab world”. It offers “a unique space for audiences to connect with, explore, and celebrate Arab cinema past, present, and future” and this year is no different.
In what has been a challenging year, the programme seeks to bring people together to challenge preconceptions and foster discourse and solidarity.
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Curated by long-time SAFAR and Arab British centre collaborator Rabih El-Khoury, the 2024 programme brings “together visionary works by filmmaking pioneers and debuts from rising talent in the Arab region to audiences across the UK”.
In a time of war in Gaza, Palestine sits at the programme’s heart while stories from Sudan, the Gulf and the wider region bring varied dimensions to this year’s theme.
On Dreams, Hopes & Realities centres on the daily realities faced across the region and reflects on how small hopes and bigger dreams can exist within such context.
Curator Rabih El-Khoury said: "How does bearing witness to the realities of the Arab region empower us to confront them? Are we allowed to envision hope beyond these realities? And can we achieve our dreams individually, or must we collectively dream to ensure their realisation?
“By sharing stories and narratives from 15 Arab countries, including focuses on Sudanese and Palestinian cinema, audiences will encounter themes spanning family dynamics, loss, love, migration, and the harsh truths of war and politics.
“Within these stories, and through challenging and captivating cinema, we aim to facilitate exchange, reflection and share strength in solidarity.”
Bye Bye Tiberias by Lina Soualem is an exploration of four generations of Palestinian women and will be screened at Wood Street’s FACT Liverpool, with a Q+A with the creators and cast of the documentary.
The UK’s longest-running Arab film festival will return on Sunday, June 23.
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