San Sebastian spotlights Arab films
Middle Eastern movies get set in Motion
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It promises interesting returns. Largely limited to the Maghreb region (such as Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia), unfinished-film showcase Cinema in Motion now takes in Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt and Palestine.
Its four-film section Sept. 23 spotlights three talented women helmers and is knit by a sense of urgency.
Two films -- Moroccan Leila Kilani's "Nos lieux interdits" and Mahmoud Al Massad's "Recycle" -- are documentaries.
"Lieux" interviews relatives of political prisoners who disappeared under Hassan II. It's more a contempo study of Moroccans' still-shaded reactions to the disappearances than a simple historical record. Al Massad brings his talent for humored portraits of redoubtable mavericks, seen in "Shatter Hassan," to a trip around the Jordan home district of slain Iraq insurgency leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
Lebanese two-hander "Je veux voir," by Khalil Joreige and Joana Hadjithomas, follows Catherine Deneuve on a visit to Lebanon. The visuals -- Deneuve, bombed-out cityscapes -- are reportedly near surreal.
Rising U.S.-Arab director Annemarie Jacir will present early extracts from "The Salt of This Sea," about a U.S. hip-hopper's experiences in the Middle East. It's fiction, but it's lensed with a gritty, neo-docupic style.
Of the 20 films presented, some 12 were docus, says section coordinator Jose Maria Riba. That's a sign of the times -- and Arab directors' urgent need to bear witness to them.
