ALFILM ATELIER

The 14th ALFILM Atelier will present a series of Film Talks, Panel discussions and Master Classes targeting cinephiles and film professionals, as well as non-professional movie lovers. These events will explore in depth the themes and questions raised by the films of the 14th ALFILM Selection and the problematic of the 14th ALFILM Spotlight.

Accompanying  this year’s special focus on Palestinian cinema, Saleh Bakri, ALFILM’s guest of honour, will give a master class called On Caftans, Arab filmmaking and sharing Palestinian stories: A Master Class with Saleh Bakri. He will adresshis extensive acting career, the need to keep sharing Palestinian stories on the big screen, and his collaborations across the Arab World. Furthermore, a Panel discussion on Palestinian Cinema 75 Years after the Nakba will bring together directors Jumana Manna, Firas Khoury and Basma Asharif. During this discussion the accent will be put on the diversity of the current Palestinian film landscape. Both events will take place in Sinema Transtopia.

The increasing visibility of queer protagonists and narratives that question heteronormative storylines in contemporary Arab cinema will be at the centre of a Film Talk with the filmmakers of the Renegotiating Gender Scripts short films program. This Film Talk will be moderated by Dalia Othman, the Project Manager of Jeem.me, an Arabic website focusing on Gender, Sex and Sexuality from the Goethe-Institut. It will take place after the screening of the Renegotiating Gender Scripts program on April, 27th in Kino in der Kulturbrauerei.

In the joint framework of the 14th ALFILM Spotlight and the 14th ALFILM Atelier, Egyptian filmmaker Tamer El Said will give a Master Class in which he will elaborate on his vision, sources of inspiration, modes of engagement with a megacity like Cairo and the challenges he faced while filming the city. Additionally, in a Panel Discussion called The Arab City Re-envisioned: Diasporic perspectives filmmakers and experts Emilie Serri, Mohamad El-Hadidi and Guevara Namer will address the modes and possibilities of narrating Arab cities from the diasporic perspective. Both events will take place in Sinema Transtopia.

Finally, a Film Talk with director Nadim Mishlawi, moderated by Dr Saadi Nikro from the Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient (ZMO) will take place after the screening of his film After the End of the World, on April, 28th in Kino Arsenal. The discussion will tackle the question of the role of cinema in addressing and making visible the afterlives of the war as evident in the perpetual urban crisis of contemporary Beirut.

Events of the 14th ALFILM ATELIER