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The SAFAR Film Festival is the largest festival in the UK dedicated to cinema from the Arab world. Founded in 2012, SAFAR showcases the broad spectrum of film from the region by working with curators on themed programmes and inviting filmmakers for live Q&As and events.This year’s festival theme aims to highlight a multitude of daily realities being faced across the Arab world and reflect on how small hopes and bigger dreams co-exist within such contexts.
The ninth edition of the festival runs from 18-30 June 2024 with screenings in London, Birmingham, Cardiff, Glasgow, Hull, Liverpool, Manchester, Oxford and Plymouth.
SAFAR is supported by the BFI, awarding funds from the National Lottery, the British Council, the Bagri Foundation and the Barjeel Art Foundation.
www.safarfilmfestival.co.uk.
Click here for information about the other festival events taking place at Plymouth Arts Cinema
Zoo
Dir. Tarik Rimawi, Germany / Jordan, 2022, 8 mins. Animation
Wandering through the Worst Zoo in the World, a young boy Sami is looking for his football. The loner finds more than that when he encounters the little tiger Laziz, who follows him on his quest to find a safe place to play. Against all odds, they become friends. But the remnants of war harbour danger.
Bye Bye Tiberias
Dir. Lina Soualem, France / Palestine / Belgium / Qatar, 2023, 82 mins. In French and Palestinian Arabic with English subtitles. Feature Documentary.
SAFAR Film Festival is delighted to present an exclusive preview of Bye Bye Tiberias ahead of its UK release by T A P E Collective.
In her early twenties, Hiam Abbass left her native Palestinian village to follow her dream of becoming an actress in Europe, leaving behind her mother, grandmother, and seven sisters. Thirty years later, her filmmaker daughter Lina returns with her to the village and questions for the first time her mother’s bold choices, her chosen exile and the way the women in their family influenced both their lives.
Set between past and present, Bye Bye Tiberias pieces together images of today, family footage from the nineties and historical archives to portray four generations of daring Palestinian women who keep their story and legacy alive through the strength of their bonds, despite exile, dispossession, and heartbreak.
Bye Bye Tiberias is the second documentary of Lina Soualem, a French-Palestinian-Algerian filmmaker and actress, born and based in Paris. Her first feature Their Algeria (SAFAR, 2021) shone a spotlight on her paternal grandparents as they embarked on a divorce later in life. The film received over a dozen awards from festivals in Europe and the Arab world. Bye Bye Tiberias won the Grierson Award for Documentary Film at London Film Festival 2023 and was Palestine’s submission to the Academy Awards in 2024.
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Plymouth Arts Cinema, PL4 8AT Plymouth, United Kingdom, Little Box, Plymouth, PL4 8AX, United Kingdom,Plymouth
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