Arab cinema conquers hearts

Arab cinema is about telling the world of a magical humanity even among continuing battles, said the festival director Aruna Vasudev.

From illicit teenage pregnancies to Palestinian refugee camps and Islamic fundamentalism, the Asian film festival here has a microcosm of the Arab world's tears and laughter.

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A collection of 13 topnotch Arab films is being screened at this year's Osian Cinefan film festival. The festival focuses on a part of the world where incessant conflict often threatens to destroy the film movement but only succeeds in generating greater empathy in the region cinema.

From Egyptian director Magdi Ahmed Ali's The Girl's Secret that deals with teenage pregnancies and its taboos to In Casablanca Angels Don't Fly from Morocco that tells the tale of an angst-ridden country where hope is a rare commodity, the tales of the Arab world are winning hearts in India.

"Arab cinema is particularly poignant," said Aruna Vasudev, the organiser of the 10-day festival. "These films are so beautiful, so powerful, that they touch every heart."

"We are terribly proud to have these films with us, which gives a true picture of the Arab world."

Till the 1960s, Arab cinema was dominated by the Egyptian film industry, with the country producing about 100 films a year, which competed in all Arab markets.

But, in the 1990s, conflict hurt the film centres of the Arab world like Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia.

Today most of these countries, apart from Egypt, only make about a handful of films every year, though the Cinema Institute of Cairo remains a beacon of light.

What is also helping Arab cinema in recent years are co-productions with countries like Germany, France, the Netherlands, Belgium and Italy.

So if Syrian director Abdullatif Abdulhamid makes a film about love and longing against the backdrop of a famous radio programme, Yamina Bachir from Algeria talks of a schoolteacher trying to grapple with Islamic fundamentalism in Rachida.

"The governments of the Arab world must understand that cinema is a great weapon for change, for growth and prosperity," said Tunisian director Taieb Louhichi whose Dance Of The Wind is being screened at the festival.

"We just have four or five films made in my country today. Sometimes not even that."

In one of the most touching films in the section, Ticket To Jerusalemfrom Palestine, a couple runs a mobile cinema in the Palestinian refugee camp near Ramallah, north of Jerusalem.

They go from door to door showing films, lending a touch of humanity amid the surrounding madness of political turmoil.

As the protagonists fight to get permits to show their films, in their troubles resonates the turbulence of the whole Arab world.

"Arab cinema is about telling the world of a magical humanity even among continuing battles," said Vasudev.