The Middle Eastern Film Festival

Saturday 31 January – Thursday 19 February 2009
The Filmhouse Cinema, Edinburgh

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Event: Middle Eastern Film Festival.
Organisers and Partners: 2009 Middle East Festival, MESP 2009, Edinburgh Iranian Festival 2009, the Filmhouse, the Persian Society of the University of Edinburgh and the Department of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies of the University of Edinburgh, supported by the Scottish Iranian Community and the British Council, with funding from Scottish Screen.

This project is organised by Neill Walker (on behalf of MESP 2009), committee members (on behalf of Edinburgh Iranian Festival 2009) and James McKenzie (on behalf of the Filmhouse), and is managed by Neill Walker (on behalf of the EICSP). The film programmers are James McKenzie, Maryam Ghorbankarimi and Stephanie Tait.

Venue: The Filmhouse, 88 Lothian Road, Edinburgh, EH3 9BZ.
Dates: Saturday 31 January – Thursday 19 February 2009.
Event Description: The purpose of the Middle Eastern Film Festival is to provide a focus for the study and promotion of Middle Eastern cinema. The geographic area covered by the Festival broadly covers that outlined in Oliver Leahman’s ‘Companion Encyclopedia of Middle Eastern and North African Film,’ which includes Central Asia, North Africa, Turkey, Israel, Egypt, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Iran and Iraq.

The Iranian films will represent the three generations of films and filmmakers in the post revolutionary years in Iran showcasing the wide breadth of talent and innovation that exists in Iranian cinema. This will include films by some well-known directors who have helped build Iranian cinema's reputation along with some films by lesser-known directors who have been unjustly overlooked, and finally some films by new Iranian talents who have emerged in the last couple of years. Other Middle Eastern films in the Festival will feature the best of contemporary Middle Eastern cinema.

This Middle Eastern Film Festival hopes to introduce and educate new audiences about Middle Eastern films and culture, bring together Iranian and other communities, providing networking opportunities for filmmakers, and to allow for question and answer sessions that will accompany some of the film screenings.

This year the Middle Eastern Film Festival has focused on mapping the changing and evolving character of Iranian cinema, reintroducing some of the most significant works of the last two decades, including the works of auteur directors Bahran Beizai (Bashu, the Little Stranger), Abbas Kiarostami (Where is the Friend’s House?) and Amir Naderi (The Runner), whilst also highlighting the works of lesser-known, but influential, female directors such as Rakhshan Bani Etemad (Nargess), Tahmineh Milani (Two Women) and Manijeh Hekmat (Three Women). Also included is an example of the highly under-represented war genre, The Scent of Joseph’s Shirt by Ebrahim Hatamikia, who for the first time focused his camera on the aftermath and the influence of war on the home front. Rounding off this section are some fine examples from Iran’s new generation of filmmakers, including recent award-winning films As Simple as That (Seyyed Reza Mir-Karimi), Lonely Tune of Tehran (Saman Salur) and Have You Another Apple? (Bayram Fazli).

The festival also provides a platform for three remarkable feature length directorial debuts, Seyfi Teoman’s beautiful and lyrical Turkish drama Summer Book, Lebanese filmmaker Michel Kammoun’s gritty but playful comedy Falafel, and Chadi Zeneddine’s surreal journey through war-torn Beirut, Falling from Earth.
For finalised details see: http://www.filmhousecinema.com/
Contact and Booking: 0131 228 2688, http://www.filmhousecinema.com/