sinema haftası

After a long cinematic drought, I've finally seen four films I had been looking forward two for some time, all of which were rewarding and thought-provoking and troubling in different ways: the Israeli-Palestinian documentary Arna's Children, Hany Abu-Assad's Paradise Now (finally arriving in UK cinemas this week), Aparna Sen's 15 Park Avenue, and Ligy J. Pullappally's Malayalam-language film Sancharram (The Journey).

So I'm belatedly declaring this Cinema Week, and will try to produce one review per day for the rest of the week. Some appetizers, though, to start things off--both from the Guardian, which is becoming my blog-mine of choice these days.

First, via both Sepoy and Moorishgirl, there's this article about John Sinno, the head of Arab Film Distribution & organizer of the Seattle Arab and Iranian Film Festival (I've written about AFD and SAIFF before here and here.) Among other things--including high praise for Iraq in Fragments, which I want to see NOW--it tells a distrubing story about Sinno's recent mishap with the border police at the US/Canada crossing between Vancouver and Seattle, when he was held and questioned for several hours because some Homeland Security idiot took exception to the pile of Middle Eastern movies in the car. I've encountered Sinno in Seattle & at MESA--he seems like a quite, unobtrusive man but then he opens his mouth and a great evangelizing passion for the cinema and culture of the Middle East is revealed. Via Arab Film Distribution, he's trying to break down the most durable sort of borders--the ones in people's heads--and bring a more complex and human vision of the region to American audiences. As the article points out, it's an uphill battle in the current political climate. So please, go buy some movies from him. Hit me up for recommendations if you're not sure what to pick; I've seen a good chunk of their backlist. (Also: I love the little animated metaphor-logo on the AFD webpage: the coffeepot runneth over! There's a SAIFF 2004 poster with the same image on the wall across from me, and an identical little red enameled pot in the kitchen upstairs.)

Also, today Xan Brooks has a good little article on the fraught state of Palestinian cinema, as an industry and a body of art (more on this to come in my Paradise Now review), with a discussion of both Hany Abu-Assad and Elia Suleiman's works.

Finally, Sepoy reminded me via email that the Boston Turkish Film Festival took place this past week. The lineup looked fantastic (including two films I missed in Istanbul and badly want to see: Crossing the Bridge and Two Girls). It's great to see Turkish film getting more exposure in the US; with luck some of these films will come to New York soon. Also, for Boston-area folks (ya Buchu!) there are some related concerts later this month--y'all should go hear Omar Faruk Tekbilek, whose ensemble plays what can possibly best be described as superfantastic quasi-traditional-fusion Turkish Anatolian Sufi music. Rock on.