Goethe-Institut Cairo:
 Bustan Film Week

In Arabic, the word bustan refers to a garden, in particular a fruit or vegetable garden. The old building of the Goethe Institute in downtown Cairo is in Sharia El-Bustan, Garden Street. This is where the first ever edition of the newly founded Bustan Film Week will be taking place in September. This year’s co-organizers are Cimatheque – Alternative Film Centre in Cairo and Arsenal as part of Arsenal on Location. The fact that the extension of Gerichtstraße, the location of Arsenal offices since January, is called Gartenstraße is a happy coincidence.

Alongside Arab, German and international films, the Bustan Film Week offers panel discussions, film introductions and conversations. The theme of the first edition is “Dreams of the Village and the City”, which refers to two of the most influential works of Syrian cinema: AHLAM AL-MEDINA (Dreams of the City, 1984) by Mohammad Malas will be presented at the opening, while Omar Amiralay’s AL HAYATT AL YAWMIYAH FI QARIAH SURIYAH (Everyday Life in a Syrian Village, 1974), which can only be shown in excepts due to its fragile state, forms the starting point of a panel discussion about rescuing Arab film heritage.

Before the backdrop of the political upheaval of the 50s, DREAMS OF THE CITY tells the story of Dib, whose family moves to Damascus after the death of his father. Impressed by the magic of the city, he wants to discover everything new and is full of dreams. Yet his everyday life is marked by insults and punishments. Mohammad Malas’ autobiographically tinged debut film marks the transition to auteur cinema in Syria. Amiralay’s film takes the tensions between the government and landowners and that between them and the landworkers in turn as the starting point for a portrait of a village in northeastern Syria. Films by Sarah Winkenstette, Hala Lotfy, Mahmoud Lotfy, Tatjana Turanskyj, Sarah Francis, Simon El Habre, the Sudanese Film Group (Eltayeb Mahdi und Ibrahim Shaddad) and Ahmed Magdy Morsy, Hend Bakr, Mayye Zayed, Mohamad El-Hadidi, Mohamed Zedan and Nermeen Salem are also showing. (Stefanie Schulte Strathaus) (23.–27.9.)