PART OF MIZNA'S TWIN CITIES ARAB FILM FESTIVAL
The Twin Cities Arab Film Festival presents a series of three shorts, including Wintry Spring by Mohamed Kamal, Under The Hat by Amal Al-Agroobi, and Mariam by Faiza Ambah.
Family friendly 10+
Wintry Spring
Dir. Mohamed Kamel
2015 | Egypt | Arabic with English subtitles | 16 min | Minnesota Premiere
SYNOPSIS: After her mother’s death, Nour, a teenager, lives alone with her father in Cairo. She misses the support and feminine presence of her mother during the changes of puberty. Her father tries to help, even though he does not completely understand.
FESTIVALS & AWARDS
Best Short Fiction, Tripoli Film Festival, Lebanon, 2015
Best Short Film, Festival International du Film PanAfricain de Cannes, France, 2016
DIRECTOR BIOGRAPHY: Mohamed Kamel is an award winning Egyptian screenwriter and filmmaker. He studied filmmaking at the Academy of Arts Higher Institute of Cinema in Cairo. He has written and directed two short narrative films that have been shown in several national and international festivals.
Under The Hat
Dir. Amal Al-Agroobi
2016 | United Arab Emirates | Arabic with English subtitles | 15 min | Minnesota Premiere
SYNOPSIS: When the muezzin (prayer-caller) at the local mosque begins to lose his voice, he is forced to look for a temporary replacement or give up his home and status in the country. He finds his neighbor, a singer in a rock band who’s constantly playing loud guitar riffs next door.
DIRECTOR BIOGRAPHY: Amal Al-Agroobi is a filmmaker from the United Arab Emirates. She started her career in 2012, making social documentaries that focus on stories about Arabic-speaking regions. Al-Agroobi’s films have won several awards and her feature-length documentary about autism, The Brain That Sings, was distributed on streaming platforms worldwide.
Mariam
Dir. Faiza Ambah
2015 | Saudi Arabia | French with English subtitles | 43 min | Minnesota Premiere
SYNOPSIS: When France passes a law in 2004 banning religious symbols from public schools, Mariam (Oulaya Amamra), a French Muslim teenager, must choose between her hijab and going to class. While her school and community look for proof that the “veil” is a form of oppression, Mariam demonstrates the role of choice and political conviction with her defiance of the new law. A well-crafted coming-of-age story, the film explores the effects of Islamophobia in European countries.
FESTIVALS & AWARDS
Special Jury Prize, Dubai International Film Festival, UAE 2015
Women’s Independent Film Festival, Pasadena, USA, 2015
DIRECTOR BIGORAPHY: Faiza Ambah is a Saudi filmmaker with a background in journalism. She was the Gulf correspondent for The Washington Post until 2009. Her film scripts have been supported by the Sundance Institute, the Rawi Screenwriter’s Lab in Jordan, the Dubai International Film Festival, and the Doha Film Institute. In 2013, she was a jury member at the Gulf Film Festival in Dubai and organised a festival of Gulf films at the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris. Ambah was awarded the Special Jury Prize at the 2015 Dubai International Film Festival for Mariam.
PRESENTED WITH SUPPORT BY
TWIN CITIES ARAB FILM FESTIVAL
Mizna presents the eleventh Twin Cities Arab Film Festival in partnership with the Film Society of Minneapolis St. Paul. The Arab Film Fest showcases modern Arab cinema, featuring debut screenings of independent narrative, documentary, and experimental features and shorts.