Massachusetts Multicultural Film Festival: Lady Kul el-Arab
The University of Massachusetts Amherst Interdepartmental Program in Film Studies' 16th Annual Massachusetts Multicultural Film Festival "Beyond Walls" presents Lady Kul el-Arab.
This film was directed by Ibtisam Mara'ana in Israel in 2008. It is 56 minutes long, and is in Arabic and Hebrew with subtitles.
A young woman from a Druze village in Galilee is a finalist in a beauty pageant for Israeli-Arab women. When she decides to enter the Israeli beauty contest as well, the film becomes a dramatic and moving portrait of a family caught between cultures in a struggle that involves the whole community.
This event is co-sponsored by the Consulate General of Israel to New England, in honor of International Women's Month, and Judaic & Near Eastern Studies at UMass Amherst. An introduction will be given by Anne Ciecko, Communication, UMass Amherst. The director will be present for discussion.
About the festival:
The 16th Annual Massachusetts Multicultural Film Festival showcases innovative major studio releases and independent films exploring life in the post-socialist, post-communist era since 1989, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the end of the Soviet Union and its satellite East bloc regimes, and the opening of China. In fourteen events from February 11 to May 6, 2009, we feature provocative and entertaining films from Romania, Hungary, Russia, Cuba, Hong Kong, Israel, Lebanon, Korea, Germany, Turkey, China, and the Czech Republic. With a special focus on children and youth, several world and national premieres, visiting filmmakers, and a distinguished lecture, the Festival promises to engage audiences in lively debate and discussion.
