MoMA AND ArteEast ANNOUNCE THREE-YEAR FILM INITIATIVE EXPLORING AVANT-GARDE FILMMAKING ACROSS ARAB COUNTRIES OVER THE LAST FIVE DECADES

Annual Film Exhibitions to Include New Discoveries, Recoveries and Restorations

Mapping Subjectivity: Experimentation in Arab Cinema, 1960s-Now PART 1: October 28-November 22, 2010 The Roy and Niuta Titus Theaters

NEW YORK, September 7, 2010— The Museum of Modern Art launches Mapping Subjectivity: Experimentation in Arab Cinema, 1960s-Now, a three-year program of annual screenings of groundbreaking films and videos, celebrated masterworks, and modern cinema from Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine, Morocco, Syria and more, beginning this fall. This in-depth initiative aims to map the largely unknown heritage of personal, artistic, and innovative cinema from the Arab world. In the 1960s, galvanized by a broader global vanguard of countercultural experimentation in the arts, filmmakers in these countries began to craft a language and form that broke away from established conventions and commercial considerations, ultimately clearing the ground for boldly subjective cinematic expressions. The Museum will screen each annual exhibition the Roy and Niuta Titus Theaters and selections of the program will travel to the Abu Dhabi Film Festival and Tate Modern in London, and subsequently touring throughout the Middle East and internationally. Mapping Subjectivity is a collaboration between The Museum of Modern Art and ArteEast, and is organized by Jytte Jensen, Curator, Department of Film, The Museum of Modern Art, and Rasha Salti, Curator and Artistic Director, ArteEast. ―Much of the daring and formally challenging filmmaking at work today in the Arab world has its roots—both acknowledged and not—in this pioneering drive to experiment with narrative, representation, and the production of images,‖ says Ms. Jensen. ―Together, these films are sure to inspire new ways of thinking about and appreciating modernity in art and cinema from the Arab world.‖ ―Three years of research have gone into making this program possible,‖ says Rasha Salti, who is also a programmer at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival. ―It will not only instigate a re-writing of film history, but give contemporary and emerging filmmakers the strength to continue in taking risks, artistically and politically.‖ The first installment of Mapping Subjectivity, October 28 through November 22, 2010, is organized in clusters that reflect thematic and aesthetic kinship rather than considerations of chronology and geography, highlighting intangible connections and conversations among the selected works. The October 28 opening night screening is acclaimed director ‘s Al Zaman al Baqi (Time that Remains) (Palestine/Great Britain/Italy/Belgium/France, 2009), slated for release later this

year by IFC Films. Suleiman will introduce this insightful and at times heartbreaking film, which is set among the Israeli Palestinian community and was inspired by his father‘s diaries, and letters which his mother had sent to family members who had fled the Israeli occupation. Suleiman will also introduce his two earlier films in the trilogy, Sijil Ikhtifa’ (Chronicle of a Disappearance) (Palestine/France/USA/Germany/, 1996) and Yadon ilaheyya (Divine Intervention) (Palestine/France/Morocco, 2002), the following day, marking the first time the trilogy will be seen in its entirety. Highlights include a number of films that had been lost or forgotten, as was the case with Sayf Sab‘een (Summer 70) (Egypt/Italy, 1972), the radically experimental first and only film by Naji Shaker and Paolo Isaja. A meditation on freedom at the turn of the 1960s that uses the full vocabulary of experimental filmmaking, it has gone virtually unseen for the past 20 years, and only now has been rediscovered and restored specifically for this program by averda, a leading environmental services company in the Middle East, as a gift to MoMA‘s collection. Other rarities include Qays al-Zubaidi‘s Al-Yazerli (Iraq/Syria, 1972), a film that explores a young boy‘s inner turmoil at the prospect of a destiny that seems bound to poverty and manual labor and was screened only once in Syria, where it was filmed; El-Chergui, al-Samt al-‘Aneef (The East Wind or The Violent Silence) (Morocco, 1975) considered a classic and recently restored by the Centre Cinématographique Marocain; and Al-Moumia’ (The Mummy/Night of Counting the Years) (Egypt, 1973), the most famous of Egyptian auteur movies, directed by Shadi Abdel Salam and restored by the World Cinema Foundation and Cineteca di Bologna. Two new works, with funding and support provided by the Abu Dhabi Film Festival, Maher Abi Samra‘s Sheoeyin Kenna (We Were Communists) (Lebanon, 2009) and Mina’ al-Thakira (Port of Memory) (Palestine/Germany/France/UAE, 2009), written and directed by Kamal Aljafari, follow in the footsteps of their predecessors, pushing the boundaries of filmmaking both artistically and in terms of subject matter. Each director will introduce his film. Mapping Subjectivity features a number of pioneering women directors and artists, including Hala Alabdalla (with Ammar el-Beik), whose film Ana Alati Tahmol Azouhour Ila Qabriha (I Am the One Who Brings Flowers to Her Grave) (Syria/France, 2006) follows three Syrian women, and ultimately creates a moving and formally inventive monument to humankind‘s resilience in the face of loss, exile, and death. Domestic Tourism II (Egypt, 2009), by rising director and artist Maha Maamoun, who will introduce her film, explores the ways in which iconic, historical monuments in Egypt are re-appropriated from the timelessness of the tourist postcard; and Joana Hadjithomas, an artist and director whose film Yawmon Akhar (A Perfect Day) (Lebanon/France, 2005), co-written and directed with Khalil Joreige, looks at a mother and son coming to terms with the disappearance of their husband and father. Mapping Subjectivity will include two Modern Mondays, weekly programming by MoMA which brings contemporary, innovative film and moving-image works to the public and provides a forum for viewers to engage in dialogue and debate with contemporary filmmakers and artists.

The November 1 Modern Monday will feature Hala Alabdalla and Omar Amiralay; November 15 will feature Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige.

This exhibition has been co-organized by The Museum of Modern Art and ArteEast. It is curated by Jytte Jensen, Curator, Department of Film, MoMA, and Rasha Salti, Curator and Artistic Director, ArteEast. It is made possible through the generous support of averda.

The program is organized in association with the Abu Dhabi Film Festival. Additional support has been provided by the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the United States.

ArteEast receives additional funding from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts, and New York City‘s Department of Cultural Affairs.

Press Contacts: MoMA D‘Arcy Drollinger, (212) 708-9747, [email protected] MoMA Margaret Doyle, (212) 408-6400, [email protected] ArteEast Mahdis Keshavarz, (425) 591-8781, [email protected] Abu Dhabi Film Festival Steve Grenyo, (917) 545-0487, [email protected]

For downloadable images, please visit http://press.moma.org

Hours: Films are screened Wednesday-Monday. For screening schedules, please visit www.moma.org or www.arteeast.org

Film Admission: $10 adults; $8 seniors, 65 years and over with I.D. $6 full-time students with current I.D. (For admittance to film programs only.) The price of a film ticket may be applied toward the price of a Museum admission ticket when a film ticket stub is presented at the Lobby Information Desk within 30 days of the date on the stub (does not apply during Target Free Friday Nights, 4:00–8:00 p.m.). Admission is free for Museum members and for Museum ticketholders.

The public may call (212) 708-9400 for detailed Museum information. Visit us at www.moma.org

Screening Schedule

Mapping Subjectivity: Experimentation in Arab Cinema, 1960s-Now October 28-November 22, 2010

Thursday, October 28

7:00 Irtebak (Awkward). 2007. Palestine/France. Directed by Elia Suleiman. With Leonid Alexeenko. This is an extended cut of Suleiman‘s segment from the omnibus film Chacun son cinéma (), which was commissioned by the Cannes International Film Festival to explore different directors‘ feelings about cinema. In Arabic; English subtitles. 7 min.

Al Zaman al Baqi (). 2009. Palestine/Great Britain/Italy/Belgium/France. Written and directed by Elia Suleiman. With , Tarek Qubti, Suleiman.

Subtitled ―Chronicle of a Present Absentee,‖ this humorous, heartbreaking film (the final installment in a trilogy) is set among the Israeli Arab community and shot largely in homes and places in which Suleiman‘s family once lived. Inspired by his father‘s diaries, letters his mother sent to family members who had fled the Israeli occupation, and the director‘s own recollections, the film spans from 1948 until the present, recounting the saga of Suleiman‘s family in elegantly stylized episodes. Inserting himself as a silent observer reminiscent of Buster Keaton, Suleiman trains a keen eye on the absurdities of life in . Print courtesy IFC Films. In Arabic, Hebrew; English subtitles. 109 min. Introduced by Suleiman.

Friday, October 29

4:30 Sijil Ikhtifa’ (Chronicle of a Disappearance). 1996. Palestine/France/USA/Germany/Israel. Written and directed by Elia Suleiman. With Suleiman, Ola Tabari, Jamal Daher. Suleiman‘s acclaimed directorial debut is a meditative search for what it means to be Palestinian. Constructed as a series of witty vignettes, some contemplative, others laced with satirical humor, the film expresses Suleiman‘s emotions and state of mind as he observes daily life in Nazareth, , and outlying areas. The director leads us on an evocative journey from an apartment in West Jerusalem to a Holy Land souvenir shop to a group of old women gossiping about their relatives. Print courtesy International Film Circuit. In Arabic, Hebrew; English subtitles. 88 min. Introduced by Suleiman.

7:00 Yadon ilaheyya (Divine Intervention). 2002. Palestine/France/Morocco. Written and directed by Elia Suleiman. With Suleiman, Emma Boltanski, Amer Daher. Subtitled ―A Chronicle of Love and Pain,‖ Divine Intervention follows several interrelated characters as they struggle to maintain the veneer of normal life in Nazareth, the West Bank, and Jerusalem. The film unfolds with a series of expertly executed fantasy sequences and sight gags depicting the absurd and even perverse manifestations of the Israeli- Palestinian conflict in everyday events. A man with a failing business (the director‘s father) takes matters into his own hands and tries to break a chain reaction of petty feuds, only to break down himself. The man‘s son, while caring for his ailing father, steals intimate moments with his lover in a deserted lot beside a checkpoint, from which they witness daily hostilities and quotidian feuds. Print courtesy Avatar. In Arabic, Hebrew; English subtitles. 92 min. Introduced by Suleiman.

Saturday, October 30

2:00 Cessez-le-Feu (Ceasefire). 2003. Algeria/France. Directed by Ahmed Zir. When airplanes drop leaflets announcing a ceasefire ending the civil war, a young Algerian shepherd, too poor to afford schooling, becomes stubbornly determined to decipher the text. In Arabic; English subtitles. 15 min.

Abna’ el-Reeh (Sons of the Wind). 1981. Algeria. Directed by Brahim Tsaki. Four almost wordless segments, poetic yet unsentimental, focus on people living in the countryside on the edge of society. Children playing, sudden bursts of wildness, grown-up faces lit by warming fires in winter—landscapes and the people they shape and (barely) sustain. 40 min.

4:00 Al-Rajol al-Lathi Kan Yanzhor Ila al-Nawafith (The Man Who Was Looking at the Windows). 1986. Algeria. Directed by Merzak Allouache. With Fazia Chemloul, Allel El Mouhib, Hadj Smaine. The social and political frustrations of Algeria in the early 1980s are distilled into this tale of a quiet man whose mounting desperation leads him to rise up against a tyrant: his boss at the library. Allouache captures an era of despotism and the impotence of the common man through compelling visual imagery, including a surreal dream sequence with Weimar-

period cabaret music that hauntingly illustrates the mood of political entrapment. Print courtesy CNC. In Arabic; English subtitles. 85 min. Introduced by Allouache.

7:30 Wa Laou fil Seen (La Chine est encore loin/China Is Still Far). 2008. Algeria/France. Directed by Malek Bensmaïl. On November 1, 1954, in a small village near Ghassira, nestled in the Aurès mountains, two French teachers and an Algerian were the first civilian victims of the seven-year war for Algerian independence. Bensmaïl returns to that village, ―the cradle of the Algerian revolution,‖ to chronicle everyday lives in this symbolic place. The film might have easily become a meditation on regret, but in Bensmaïl‘s masterful hands it bears the weight of the past while engaging profoundly with the present. Print courtesy Doc and Film International. In Arabic, Berber, French; English subtitles. 120 min. Introduced by Bensmaïl.

Sunday, October 31

2:00 Al-Hobb al-Maw’ood (Love Aborted). 1985. Syria/France. Directed by Omar Amiralay. In the year leading up to a 1985 international conference on gender equality in Beijing, filmmakers throughout the world took part in an international series of documentary films exploring changing relationships between men and women. Amiralay, invited to explore the changing social and economic status of women in Egypt, chose his female protagonists from across classes—lawyers, actresses, domestic workers—and dared them to reveal the intricacies of their interior worlds. In Arabic; English subtitles. 52 min.

Massa’ibu Qawmon…(The Misfortunes of Some…).1981. Syria/France/Lebanon. Directed by Omar Amiralay. Hajj Ali makes a living as a taxi driver during the day, carrying citizens safely across the city, but he also runs a funeral home, waiting for ―customers‖ to be delivered daily. As he documents one man‘s existence in civil war–ravaged Beiruit, Amiralay creats a tragicomic portrait of a society held captive by conflict. In Arabic; English subtitles. 52 min. Introduced by Amiralay.

5:00 Ana Alati Tahmol Azouhour Ila Qabriha. (I Am the One Who Brings Flowers to Her Grave). 2006. Syria/France. Written and directed by Hala Alabdalla h and Ammar el-Beik. With Fadia Ladkani, Rola Roukbi, Raghida Assaf. Conceived as a summation of life‘s postponed projects, this beautifully shot black-and- white film is a monument to humankind‘s great resilience and love of life in the face of loss, exile and death. Interviews with three Syrian women alternate with a variety of impressions: landscape, art, family, and an interview with painter and icon restorer Elias Zayyat. Part documentary, part fable, this is a well-crafted, highly emotional tribute to the rejuvenating power of poetry and beauty in general, and in particular to Da‗ad Haddad, a Syrian poet disappeared in 1991. In Arabic; English subtitles. 110 min. Introduced by Hala al-Abdallah.

Monday, November 1

4:30 Yadon ilaheyya (Divine Intervention) (See Friday, October 29.)

7:00 Modern Mondays with Hala Alabdalla and Omar Amiralay. Screening of Nouron wa Thilal (Light and Shadows) 1991, Syria. Followed by a conversation with Alabdalla and Amiralay.

Wednesday, November 3

7:00 Sijil Ikhtifa’ (Chronicle of a Disappearance) (See Friday, October 29.)

Thursday, November 4

4:00 Al-Rajol al-Lathi Kan Yanzhor Ila al-Nawafith (The Man Who Was Looking at the Windows) (See Saturday, October 30.)

7:00 Cessez-le-Feu (Ceasefire) Abna’ el-Reeh (Sons of the Wind) (See Saturday, October 30.)

Friday, November 5

4:00 Domestic Tourism II. 2009. Egypt. Directed by Maha Maamoun. Exclusively utilizing footage of sequences from Egyptian films that use the pyramids as backdrop, Domestic Tourism II explores the ways in which these iconic historical monuments are re-appropriated from the timelessness of the tourist postcard, and re- inscribed into the complex and dynamic political, social and historical moment in narratives representing the city. In Arabic; English subtitles. 62 min. Introduced by Maamoun.

7:00 Al-Moumia’ (The Mummy/Night of Counting the Years). 1973. Egypt. Directed by Shadi Abdel Salam. The most famous of Egyptian auteur movies and the film that is credited with helping define the origins of Egyptian national identity. The story reveals a fatal predicament for the ancient Horbats and sets a deadly moral dilemma inside the tribe at the site of the discovery of the legendary cache of royal mummies at Deir Al-Bahari in 1881. The exteriors filmed exclusively at dawn and at dusk lend the film an eerie, evocative quality. The overall ritualistic atmosphere is beautifully calibrated by the director and the print restored to its original stunning beauty by the World Cinema Foundation and Cineteca di Bologna. In Arabic (Fusha); English subtitles. 110 min.

El-Fallah el-Fasseeh (The Eloquent Peasant). 1970. Egypt. Written and Directed by Shadi Abdel-Salam. With Ahmed Enan, Ahmed Higazi, Ahmed Marei. Based on one of the major literary texts from the classical period of the Pharaonic era (between 2160 and 2025 BC), The Eloquent Peasant is folk tale in verse. In Arabic; English subtitles.17 min. Restored in 2010 by the World Cinema Foundation and Cineteca di Bologna. Introduced by Kent Jones, Executive Director, WCF 17 min.

Saturday, November 6

1:30 El-Chergui, al-Samt al-‘Aneef (The East Wind/The Violent Silence). 1975. Morocco. Written and Directed by Moumen Smihi. With Aïcha Chaïri, Khadija Moujahid, Majdouline Abdelkader Moutaa. The prize-winning first feature of the director‘s four decades career, is set in mid-1950s Tangiers, when it was still an international city. Aïsha is coerced by her close circle to resort to witchcraft in order to thwart her husband from taking a second, younger, wife and abandoning her. Between sacrifice, tradition, prejudice, and spells, we witness the tragedy of a woman who wants to rebel. In French and Arabic, English subtitles. 90 min.

4:00 Mina’ al-Thakira (Port of Memory). 2009. Palestine/Germany/France/UAE. Directed and Written by Kamal Aljafari. Aljafari follows his family‘s story after they receive an order to evacuate their home in Ajami, Jaffa‘s sea-front neighborhood of once wealthy homes and villas. The family is thrown into disarray, and a mute despair cloaks their lives because they don‘t have the means to fight back. Radically poetic, blending mundane gestures of everyday life and collective memory, Port of Memory travels from the subjective to the objective. In Arabic and Hebrew, English subtitles. 63 min. Introduced by Aljafari.

7:30 Sheoeyin Kenna (We Were Communists). 2009. Lebanon. Directed by Maher Abi Samra. A reflection on the intersecting destinies of comrades, once bound by a shared ideological affiliation, who remain tightly knit friends. We Were Communists is director Maher Abi Samra's uninhibited examination of the legacy of Lebanon's civil war and its post-war present. Four men recount stories from the battlefield, broken dreams, and eventual disillusionment in light of the country's ongoing unsettled crises. At once artistically and politically audacious, incisive and tender, the film travels the chimeric and daunting reality of Lebanon's fractured post-war landscape. In Arabic; English subtitles. 84 min. Introduced by Maher Abi Samra.

Sunday, November 7

2:00 Al-Yazerli. 1972. Iraq/Syria.Directed and Written by Qays al-Zubaidi, from a novella by Hanna Mina. With Muna Wasef, Adnan Barakat, Abdulla Abbasi. Al-yazerli is the labor foreman who provides day laborers in the port. The film‘s poetic, non-narrative structure simulates the mind of young boy who is forced to leave school and find work on the docks. Al-Yazerli spans the length of his work day. Using minimal dialogue but evocative music and sounds, separate vignettes introduce characters the boy comes across, as the filmmaker explores the imaginary world of a boy whose destiny seems bound to poverty and manual labor, and makes tangible its physical harshness and repressed sexuality. In Arabic; English subtitles. 95 min.

5:00 Al-Hayat Ba‘ad al-Suqut (Life after the Fall). 2008. Iraq/UK. Directed by Kasim Abid. This award-winning documentary eloquently depicts the lives of director Kasim Abid‘s family in Iraq following the American invasion. Abid returns to his native country after a 30-year absence and is greeted by jubilant family members with high hopes for the post- Saddam future. Over the course of four years, hopes are dashed and despair sets in as the family watches the violence and vigilantism that has beset daily life in Baghdad. Bullets and bombs, kidnapping and gas shortages, unemployment and sectarian violence characterize their stressful, fragmented lives. The filmmaker artfully chronicles the quotidian life of the Abid family against history-making events such as the first democratic elections and the trial of Saddam Hussein. In Arabic; English subtitles. 100 min.

Monday, November 8

4:30 Wa Laou fil Seen (La Chine est encore loin/China Is Still Far) (See Saturday, October 30.)

8:00 Fissures (Cracks). 2010. Morocco. Written and Directed by Hicham Ayouch. With Abdelsellem Bounouacha, Marcela Moura and Noureddine Denoul. The destinies of three lost souls searching for love and deliverance intertwine in the moonstruck maze of Tangiers. Noureddine, an alcoholic architect, picks up his best friend Adel on the day of his release from prison where he served a 15-year sentence. Marcela, a Brazilian painter stranded in the city, passionate, capricious and almost suicidal, comes into their lives and wreaks havoc. Emotionally-charged, alcohol-fueled, and raucous, Cracks startled critics and audiences in Morocco with its style and approach. It earned several awards at the national festival in Tangiers, recognizing Ayouch daring filmmaking. In Arabic and French; English subtitles. 75 min. Introduced by Ayouch.

Thursday, November 11

4:00 Al-Hobb al-Maw’ood (Love Aborted) Massa’ibu Qawmon…(The Misfortunes of Some…) (See Sunday, October 31.)

Friday, November 12

4:00 Ana Alati Tahmol Azouhour Ila Qabriha. ( I Am the One Who Brings Flowers to Her Grave) (See Sunday, October 31.)

7:00 Sayf Sab‘een (Summer 70). 1972. Egypt/Italy. By Naji Shaker and Paolo Isaja. With Gloria Merlino. A collaboration between two film students whose individual budgets for making a graduation film at the Rome Film School were too low for their ambitions, their mutual effort was rescued by Renzo Rossellini who financed a print. With a terrific original score by Suleiman Jamil, and a beautiful unselfconscious performance by a young American woman who posed as a model for art classes, they alternated between directing, filming and recording sound. The film is a meditation on freedom at the turn of the 1960s, and utilizes the full vocabulary experimental cinema to evoke this youthfull experimentation with energetic abandon. This newly restored print is a gift of averda. 70 min. Introduced by Shaker and Isaja.

Saturday, November 13

4:30 The Lost Film (El-Film el-Mafqood). 2003. Lebanon/France. Directed and Written by Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige. Following the trail of a missing print of their first feature film, Around the Pink House, Hadjithomas and Joreige travel to Yemen, mystified as to whom might be interested in the film to the extent of stealing it. As their quest takes them from Sanaa to Aden, they find out their guide considers movies a sin, and an open-air cinema showcases Brigitte Nielson pics while censors compulsively blacklist most releases. The Lost Film is a subjective exploration of the image and status of film and filmmakers in that part of the world. In Arabic; English subtitles. 42 min.

Ramad (Ashes). 2005. Lebanon/France. Directed and Written by Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige Co-written by and starring Rabih Mroué. When a young man returns from abroad, following the death of his father, the preparation of the funeral at home presents disturbing problems. In French; English subtitles. 26 min. Introduced by Hadjithomas and Joreige.

7:00 Baddi Shoof (Je veux voir/I Want to See). 2008, Lebanon/France. Written and Directed by by Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige. With Catherine Deneuve, Rabih Mroué. The sight of the devastation wrought by the 2006 Israeli incursion into Southern Lebanon elicits a strong emotional impact on both the spectator and the film's actual witness, Catherine Deneuve. She is guided by Lebanese thespian Rabih Mroue, who grew up in this war-torn region. The two embark on a road trip from Beirut, where the famous—and famously detached—actress is visiting for a gala. The initial uneasiness of being trapped in a car with a near-stranger gives way to polite curiosity and, once the landscape bears its scars, intimacy. This unique composite of scripted scenes, documentary footage, and improvised travelogue makes a nation's heartbreaking tragedy all too apparent. In French, Arabic and English; English Subtitles. 75 min. Introduced by Hadjithomas and Joreige.

Sunday, November 14

1:00 Baddi Shoof (Je veux voir/I Want to See) (See Saturday, November 13.)

3:00 Ashbah Bayroot (Fantom Beirut). 1998. Lebanon/France. Written and directed by Ghassan Salhab. With Aouni Kawas, Darina El Joundi, Rabih Mroué. A thriller of loyalty and betrayal, Fantom Beirut is set in Lebanon at the end of the 1980s, when Khalil returns home after ten years of absence. A decade earlier during the civil war,

using the cover of chaos and fire during a battle, he had pretended to have been killed to opt out of his life in Beirut, and acquire a new identity. His homecoming stirs turmoil, doubt and anger among his close friends and former companions-in-arms, as they seem to recognize him, but still remain angry with his desertion. Salhab intercuts the film‘s narrative with video footage of actors discussing the script, delivering a personal viewpoint of their lived experience of war. In Arabic, English subtitles. 153 min.

Monday, November 15

1:30 Yawmon Akhar (A Perfect Day). 2005. Lebanon/France. Written and directed by Joana Hadjithomas & Khalil Joreige. Luminous and soft-spoken, A Perfect Day captures a day in the life of a middle-aged mother and her son, as each comes to terms with their missing husband and father, and are finally able to begin grieving. As gentle as a caress, A Perfect Day is an existential call for mourning, the most essential step in moving past the legacy of the civil war. In Arabic; English subtitles. 88 min.

7:00 Modern Monday with Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige. Performance: Aida, sauve-moi (Aida, save me). Followed by a conversation with Hadjithomas and Joreige.

Wednesday, November 17

4:00 Sheoeyin Kenna (We Were Communists) (See Saturday, Nov. 6.) 7:00 Domestic Tourism II (See Friday, November 5.)

Thursday, November 18

4:30 Fissures. (Cracks) (See Monday, November 8.)

Friday, November 19

8:00 El-Chergui, al-Samt al-‘Aneef (The East Wind / The Violent Silence) (See Saturday, November 6.)

Saturday, November 20

2:00 Al-Hayat Ba‘ad al-Suqut (Life After the Fall) (See Sunday, November 7.)

5:00 Al-Yazerli (See Sunday, November 7.)

7:00 Mina’ al-Thakira (Port of Memory) (See Saturday, November 6.)

Sunday, November 21

2:00 Sayf Sab‘een (Summer 70) (See Friday, November 12.)

5:30 The Lost Film (El-Film el-Mafqood) Ramad (Ashes) (See Saturday, November 13.)

Monday, November 22

1:30 Ashbah Bayroot (Fantom Beirut) (See Sunday, November 14.)