Mariam
+Wintry Spring
+Under the Hat
+Saudi Arabia / Egypt / UAE
Saturday, 10/1 at St. Anthony Main Theatre
11:30 a.m.
Buy tickets >>>
Mariam
Faiza Ambah
narrative short / politics / religion
43 mins / 2015
Saudi Arabia / France
French with English subtitles
DCP
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.
Website
mariamlefilm.assemble.me/the-film
Facebook
facebook.com/MariamLeFilm
Twitter
@mariamlefilm
Festivals and Awards
*Special Jury Prize, Dubai International Film Festival, UAE 2015
*Women’s Independent Film Festival, Pasadena, USA, 2015
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 organized 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.
Wintry Spring / ربيع شتوي
Mohamed Kamal
narrative short / family
16 mins / 2015
Egypt
Arabic with English subtitles
Minnesota premiere
DCP
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.
Facebook
facebook.com/wintryspring
Festivals and Awards
*Best Short Fiction, Tripoli Film Festival, Lebanon, 2015
*Best Short Film, Festival International du Film PanAfricain de Cannes, France, 2016
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
Amal Al-Agroobi
narrative short / comedy
15 mins / 2016
UAE
Arabic with English subtitles
Minnesota premiere
DCP
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.
Website
www.alagroobifilms.com
Facebook
facebook.com/alagroobifilms
Twitter
@alagroobifilms
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.
