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11/3/2005

Women's places

Museum of the Moving Image, Astoria

New films from the Middle East

Thirteen-film Series To Be Presented During Women's History Month Includes Movies From Afghanistan, Algeria, Iran, Israel, Palestine, and Tunisia

The Museum of the Moving Image will present a three-weekend film series about women's lives in today's Middle East. Most of the films in Women's Places: New Films From the Middle East were directed by women, reflecting the region's changing artistic climate and the vitality of its artistic cinema. The series opens on Saturday, March 12, 2005 with a personal appearance by Israeli director Avi Nesher and his movie Turn Left at the End of the World, the tale of a budding friendship between the studious daughter of an Indian family and a free-spirited local Moroccan-Jewish girl. Also featured on the opening weekend is Iranian director Samira Mahkmalbaf's acclaimed new movie At Five in the Afternoon.

Among the highlights of the series, which includes films from Algeria, Iran, Israel, Palestine, and Tunisia, are the Cannes Camera d'Or winner Or: Mon Trésor, Keren Yadaya's riveting neorealist drama about a mother and daughter fighting the temptations of lives of prostitution; Rachida, an Algerian film by Yamina Bachir-Chouikh, about a schoolteacher's confrontation with terrorists; and The Ladies' Room, a fascinating documentary by Iranian actress Mahnaz Afzali, capturing private conversations in a women's bathroom in a Tehran park.

"The ongoing tension between tradition and modernity in the Middle East, and the social turmoil that has become a part of its daily life, are reflected in the region's cinema," said David Schwartz, the Museum's Chief Curator. "The films are as notable for their poetic visual styles and artistic excellence as for the range of political and personal perspectives that they offer," said Assistant Curator Livia Bloom, who organized the series with Schwartz.

On the final day of the series, Sunday, March 27, there will be a discussion in the Riklis Theater about all of the films in the series, after the 4:00 p.m. screening of the Palestinian film Rana's Wedding. The discussion will be followed by a reception in the Museum café.

WOMEN'S PLACES: NEW FILMS FROM THE MIDDLE EAST
SCREENING SCHEDULE

SATURDAY, MARCH 12, 2:00 P.M.
Turn Left at the End of the World
*DIRECTOR AVI NESHER IN PERSON
Israel, 2004, 110 mins. Directed by Avi Nesher.
In the late 1960s, two teenage girls-one Indian, one Moroccan-Jewish-become friends in a desert settlement and share their first experiences of sex, death, betrayal, and the responsibilities of adulthood. With a light touch, Nesher captures the girls' flirty sexual energy and the expectations of their families and watchful communities.

SATURDAY, MARCH 12, 4:30 P.M., AND SUNDAY, MARCH 13, 4:30 P.M.
AT FIVE IN THE AFTERNOON
Iran, 2004, 105 mins. Directed by Samira Makhmalbaf.
A young Kabul woman who, unbeknownst to her strict father, is enrolled in a girls' school, dreams of becoming Afghanistan's first president. Winner of a Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, 25-year-old Makhmalbaf's third feature is filmed in documentary style, vividly capturing the postwar landscape.

SUNDAY, MARCH 13, 2:00 P.M.
Or: Mon Trésor
Israel, 2004, 100 mins. Directed by Keren Yedaya.
Yedaya won the Camera d'Or at Cannes for her unflinching neorealist drama about a young woman who struggles to win her mother back from a life of prostitution, pay the rent on their tiny apartment, and edge through school. Ultimately, she faces the tempting pull of her own dark side.

SATURDAY, MARCH 19, 2:00 P.M.
The Circle
Iran, 2000, 90 mins. Directed by Jafar Panahi.
Banned in Iran for its indictment of the country's treatment of women, The Circle is also a formally inventive narrative film, comprised of interlocking stories about a group of Tehran women united by their supposed crimes against society.

SATURDAY, MARCH 19, 4:00 P.M.
THE LADIES' ROOM
Iran, 2003, 55 mins. Directed by Mahnaz Afzali. Afzali, the acclaimed Iranian actress, created an astonishingly candid look at the hidden lives of Iranian women by filming inside a women's bathroom in a Tehran park, capturing frank conversations about relationships, sex, drugs, and religion.

SATURDAY, MARCH 19, 5:15 P.M.
The Day I Became a Woman
Iran, 2000, 78 mins. Directed by Marzieh Meshkini.
Three vignettes explore the boundaries of freedom in modern Iran: a girl is forbidden friendship with a boy her age; a young woman tries to enter a bicycle race; and an old woman must decide how to spend her inheritance. This entrancing film by Meshkini (Samira Makhmalbaf's mother) was a thesis project at the film school run by her husband Mohsen Makhmalbaf (Kandahar).

SUNDAY, MARCH 20, 2:00 P.M.
Afghanistan Unveiled
Afghanistan, 2003, 52 mins. By Brigitte Brault and Aina Women Filming Group.
A team of female video journalists documents the effects of the Taliban and the U.S. military campaign on Afghani women. Venturing into the deep rural regions of the country, the film reveals heartbreaking conditions while also finding hope for the future.

SUNDAY, MARCH 20, 3:00 P.M.
Kandahar
Afghanistan/Iraq, 2001, 81 mins. Directed by Mohsen Makhmalbaf.
A female journalist travels alone to her native Afghanistan in a desperate attempt to prevent her sister's suicide. With breathtaking color and compositions, Makhmalbaf creates an unorthodox, unraveling structure; as he has said, "the reality of Afghanistan is surreal in itself."

SUNDAY, MARCH 20, 4:45 P.M.
SATIN ROUGE
Tunisia, 2002, 95 mins. Directed by Raja Amari.
A sumptuous and sensual melodrama that has been compared to Douglas Sirk's 1950s Hollywood films, Satin Rouge follows a widowed mother as she is drawn into her daughter's world of belly dancing.

SATURDAY, MARCH 26, 2:00 P.M.
TO TAKE A WIFE
Israel, 2004, 97 mins. Directed by Shlomi and Ronit Elkabetz.
A woman struggles with a claustrophobic marriage and the demands and frustrations of motherhood. Filmed with devastating Cassavetes-style intimacy, To Take a Wife features a haunting performance by Ronit Elkabetz (Or: Mon Trésor), who co-directed with her brother.

SATURDAY, MARCH 26, 4:30 P.M.
Rachida
Algiers, 2002, 100 mins. Directed by Yamina Bachir-Chouikh.
Confronted by terrorists on her way to work, schoolteacher Rachida is ordered to plant a bomb in her own school. Bachir-Chouikh's first feature, filmed under the Algerian sun, explores the violent gender politics that mirror the harshness of the country's political climate.

SUNDAY, MARCH 27, 2:00 P.M.
OSAMA
Afghanistan, 2003, 83 mins. Directed by Siddiq Barmak.
Her father and uncle dead, a young Afghani girl in an all-female household is disguised as a boy in order to secure food and protection with a mobility impossible for girls. The first entirely Afghan production made during or since the Taliban's rule, Osama tells its compelling story with a spare, poetic style.

SUNDAY, MARCH 27, 4:00 P.M.
Rana's Wedding
Palestine, 2002, 90 mins. Directed by Hany Abu-Assad.
A woman fights her family's plans for an arranged marriage by trying to set up her own wedding in a single day. With the ruddy colors of a fading sun and a serene visual style, this film by the director of Ford Transit casually takes viewers on an intimate tour of the dangerous border region between Ramallah and Jerusalem.

MUSEUM INFORMATION
Hours: Wednesday & Thursday, 12:00 to 5:00 p.m. Friday, 12:00 to 8:00 p.m. Saturday & Sunday, 11 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. (Tuesday, school groups only, by appointment.)
Film Screenings: Fridays at 7:30 p.m.; Saturdays and Sundays at 6:30 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday afternoons (see above for schedule). During President's Week: Daily weekday matinees at 1:30 p.m.
Museum Admission: $10.00 for adults; $7.50 for persons over 65 and for students with ID; $5.00 for children ages 5-18. Children under 5 and Museum members are admitted free. Admission to the galleries is free on Fridays, 4:00 to 8:00 p.m.
Location: 35 Avenue at 36 Street in Astoria.
Subway: R or V trains (R or G on weekends) to Steinway Street. N or W trains to 36 Avenue.
Program Information: Telephone: (718) 784-0077; Website:

The Museum of the Moving Image is grateful for the generous support of numerous corporations, foundations, and individuals. The Museum receives vital funding from the City of New York through the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and the New York City Economic Development Corporation. Additional government support is provided by the New York State Council on the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Natural Heritage Trust (administered by the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historical Preservation). The Museum occupies a building owned by the City of New York, and wishes to acknowledge the leadership and assistance of Michael R. Bloomberg, Mayor, Helen Marshall, Queens Borough President, City Council member Eric Gioia, and the entire New York City Council under the leadership of Speaker Gifford Miller.
Copyright © 2005, Museum of the Moving Image

Museum of the Moving Image
35 Avenue at 35th Street
Astoria, NY

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