ALFILM is presenting artistically demanding cinema from the Arab world between 31st March and 7th April, with feature and documentary films that depict new perspectives on societal challenges but also pose questions with regard to identity and personal fulfillment. The opening film is RABIH (Tramontane, Vatche Boulghourjian, Lebanon/F/Qatar/UAE 2016, 31.3., guest: Vatche Boulghourjian & composer Cynthia Zaven) Rabih is a blind and talented musician and singer who lives in a village in Lebanon. When his chorus is invited to perform abroad, he applies for a passport. He finds out that his papers are false and his identity is not what his family had led him to believe. He travels across the country to find out more about his background, but instead of finding answers he encounters more mysteries. His search takes him to the peripheries of Lebanon, to the ghosts of the past. The more he delves into the abyss of his existence, the darker the stories of the people become until finally it seems as if Rabih is the only one who can look truth in the face.
In our April program, we will show THE LAST OF US (Ala Eddine Slim, Tunisia/Qatar/UAE 2016) A nameless migrant struggles through hostile landscapes and is thrown back to his naked existence. The documentary BEZNESS AS USUAL (Alex Pitstra, The Netherlands 2016) sheds a humorous sidelong glance at gigolos in Tunisia and their European "conquests" from the perspective of their now adult offspring. Once again, ALFILM will be welcoming many directors for Q&As with the Berlin audience. There will also be a retrospective of the Egyptian director and artist Shadi Abdel Salam (1930–1986). (cj)
