2013 Arab Film Festival 

January 24-26, 2013

Lower Level Auditorium 
Arab American National Museum 
13624 Michigan Ave., Dearborn MI 48126 

Tickets required
Festival schedule is subject to change

Teta (Grandma)
Dir: Merva Faddoul 
2011/Lebanon 
24 min.

Set in Byblos, an historic town in Lebanon with a prominent Maronite Christian community, a family’s life is turned upside down when their iconic Virgin Mary statue sheds tears. Stars Mimi Farah, Chantal Zailaa and Anna Maria Saad. Arabic w/ English subtitles.

An Official Selection of
2011 Doha Tribeca Film Festival
2011 National Geographic All Roads
   Film Festival
2011 Twin Cities Arab Film Festival

View trailer here.

AND

Habibi Rasak Kharban (Darling, Something’s Wrong with Your Head)
Dir: Susan Youssef 
2010/Palestine
85 min.

Two students in the West Bank are forced to return home to Gaza, where their love defies tradition. To reach his lover, Qays grafittis poetry across town. It’s a modern re-telling of the famous ancient Sufi parable Majnun Layla. Arabic w/ English subtitles.

FIPRESCI Prize, Best Arab Feature Film, Best Actress, Best Editor, Dubai Int’l Film Festival

“The end will leave you breathless and wondering” – Huffington Post

View trailer here.

Habibti (Darling)
Dir: Nour Wazzi 
2010/United Kingdom 
16 min.

Based on a short story by Academy Award nominee Ari Folman (Waltz with Bashir) and Lebanese director Nour Wazzi, Habibti follows Iman (Hiam Abbass, The Visitor, Lemon Tree), a conservative Arab woman who travels to London to visit her estranged daughter and is shocked to find her living with her boyfriend, a black artist. Arabic w/ English subtitles.

View trailer here.

AND

Teta, Alf Marra (Grandma, A Thousand Times)
Dir: Mahmoud Kaabour
2010/UAE , Qatar, Lebanon 
50 min.

Teta Fatima is the 83-year-old matriarch of the Kaabour family and the sharp-witted queen bee of an old Beiruti quarter. With great intimacy, the film, by her grandson/director Mahmoud Kaabour, documents her larger-than-life character as she struggles to cope with the silence of her once-buzzing house and imagines what awaits her beyond death. Arabic w/ English subtitles.

Audience Award, Best Documentary, 2010 Doha Tribeca Film Festival

Best Film, 2011 London Int’l Documentary Film Festival

View trailer here.

Private Sun Dir: Rami Alayan  2011/Palestine 25 min. Mariam (Shadeen Saleem) is instructed by her doctor to sunbathe in order to reverse the vitamin D deficiency that is causing her bone illness. But with nosy neighbors, an overbearing sister-in-law and Israeli surveillance planes, private moments under the sun are precious and rare. Arabic w/ English subtitles. REMI Special Jury Award, 2012 Worldfest-Houston Int’l Film Festival Premio de Genero, 2012 FENACO-Peru View trailer here. AND

Pegase (Pegasus) Dir: Mohamed Mouftakir 2010/Morocco 104 min. A young woman (Majdoline Drissi), traumatized by her dictatorial father’s insistence she be raised as a boy, finds herself the unwitting patient of a psychiatrist intent on learning the truth behind the girl’s story. Reality turns into a haunted fever-dream of fear and denial in this visually striking psychological thriller. Moufkatir is considered a leading voice in the New Moroccan cinema wave; this is his first feature. Arabic w/ English subtitles. Winner, Golden Stallion of Yennega Prize, 2011 Pan African Film Festival (FESPACO) “…gripping and emotionally moving story which leaves much to be discovered underneath, to satisfy those who want to (and can) read into its underlying symbolism.” – Vanessa McMahon, FilmFestivals.com View trailer here.

HERE Dir: Reem Munir Katami  2012/Jordan 2 min. In a barbaric political regime, who is the real prisoner – the guard who reinforces the policies of the oppressor, or the one behind bars? This animated short examines the dialogue between an advocate for the right of civilians to demonstrate peacefully for basic human rights and the enforcer of laws. Arabic w/ English subtitles.

1/2 Revolution

Dir: Omar Shargawi, Karim El Hakim
2011/Egypt
72 min.

This is a personal story from the Arab Spring: a group of friends living in downtown Cairo struggle to stay together during the first chaotic days of the Egyptian Revolution. It’s the first film that considers the January 25 uprising an incomplete revolution. In English.

Official Competition, 2011 Dubai Int’l Film Festival

Official Selection, 2012 Sundance Film Festival

“Almost diary-like in its intimacy, 1/2 Revolution is a thrilling first-person action movie empowered by immediacy.” – Eric Kohn, IndieWire.com

View trailer here.

All screenings take place in the intimate 156-seat Auditorium on the Lower Level of the Arab American National Museum (AANM), 13624 Michigan Avenue, Dearborn, Michigan.

Free, lighted parking is available in the municipal lot behind the Museum; enter lot by turning north from Michigan Avenue onto Neckel Street, immediately west of the AANM.

For driving directions, click HERE or call 313.582.2266. For further information, call 313.624.0215 or email aanmfilmfest@accesscommunity.org.

To purchase tickets IN ADVANCE, click on any of the blue Buy Tickets buttons on this page and use a debit/credit card.

Tickets will also be available at the door; cash or debit/credit card.

To become a Member of the Arab American National Museum and take advantage of reduced rates on this and other event tickets, call 313.624.0200 or click HERE.

Select one or more of the following packages:

Package A 
Teta (Grandma)
Habibi Rasak Kharban (Darling, Something’s Wrong with Your Head)

Package B 
Habibti (Darling)
Teta, Alf Marra (Grandma, A Thousand Times)

Package C 
Private Sun
Pegase (Pegasus)

Package D 
HERE
1/2 Revolution

Weekend passes not available; festival schedule is subject to change.

The AANM Arab Film Festival is supported by these Community Partners

This program is made possible in part by