When Arabs Danced
+Artists in Focus
Sunday, 9/29
2:10 p.m.
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When Arabs Danced
Jawad Rhalib
Documentary feature
84 mins | 2018
Morocco, France, Egypt, Iran, Belgium
French, English, Dutch, and Arabic with English subtitles
Minnesota premiere
Sponsored by:
This new work by director Jawad Rhalib shines a light on aspects of Arab culture that western and Middle Eastern mainstream media alike seem to have forgotten: its love for dance, music, literature, philosophy, and science. These aspects have always been an integral part of the great texture of Arab identity. Dealing with episodes as diverse as Gamel Abdel Nasser’s mockery in the ’50s of the Muslim Brotherhood’s goal of requiring all Egyptian women to wear the hijab, a stage adaptation of Michel Houellebecq’s controversial book Submission, and attempts to address the issue of gender identity throughout the Middle East, the film explores the state of freedom, creativity, and tolerance in Arab societies.
Festivals and Awards:
Best Film Audience Award, Grand Angle section, Visions du Réel, Switzerland, 2018
Toronto International Film Festival, Canada, 2018
DOC NYC, US, 2018
Jawad Rhalib was born in 1965 in Morocco to Belgian Moroccan parents. He was originally a journalist before he began making films in 1997. As an author and a director, Rhalib has oriented his work toward social realism. He wrote and directed short films and feature-length documentaries, such as El Ejido, the Law of Profit (2006), The Damned of the Sea (2008), and The Turtle’s Song (2013), garnering awards at several international film festivals.
