media coverage

'Filmgoers in London are getting the chance to see what a new generation of Arab film-makers have to say.’ BBC News Website/Middle East, first published on 23 August 2004

‘An Arab Cinema Season reveals works that are mordant, moving and darkly humorous’ The Times, 2 July 2004

‘…It is a powerful and unsettling moment in a film that, like many in the season, demands to be seen’ The Times, 2 July 2004

‘What many of the films have in common is an intimate human focus – small, often very personal, stories set against a backdrop of greater socio-political concerns. While many of the films do not address politics directly, the basic facts of living in a society under extreme pressure are inescapable’ The Times, 2 July 2004

‘The National Film Theatre is to be applauded for putting on an Arab programme in August.’ The Guardian, 31 July 2004

‘For the first time, the National Film Theatre is devoting a season to contemporary Arab cinema…The festival showcases fresh, diverse talent emerging from the Arab world. Most of the films were made since the turn of the millennium. The focus is on the modern to give people the opportunity to experience living, breathing Arab culture, not a retrospective of it’ New Statesman, 2 August 2004

‘A dazzlingly eclectic range of films has been produced during the recent years of war and conflict in countries across the Arab world.’ Sight & Sound, the Monthly Film Magazine – August 2004

‘The Arab Cinema Season is a salutary reminder that Middle Eastern filmmakers this side of Iran have been busy in the past 15 years.’ Time Out, every week in August 2004

‘The National Film Theatre is playing host to a month-long season of the best Arab films of the last decade throughout August, organised in partnership with Zenith Foundation, an organisation dedicated to promoting contemporary Arab arts. The Daily Star (Lebanese English language daily distributed with the International Herald Tribune) – 2 August 2004

‘Films from the Middle East have only occasionally been afforded a release in this country. The National Film Theatre’s Arab Cinema Season aims to show the range and commitment of directors who invariably manage to tell movingly human stories while also exploring the social, religious and political issues that make the region so potentially combustible’ BBC Website, Festivals and Seasons August 2004

‘This August’s Arab season of films at the NFT sets out to undermine the broad-brushstroke kind of portrayal that blanket media coverage has given the British public, and it does a fantastic job of filling in the blanks. Thanks to the Zenith Foundation – a London based group dedicated to extending the reach of contemporary Arab arts, who are behind the month’s 16 films – you can swap catching up on the latest from gloomy foreign correspondents with a trip to the NFT to see a much more uplifting slice of life in an Arab country.’ MusicalBear (www.musicalbear.com), 17 August 2004

‘Taken from eight different countries, the directors share the ability to etch characters tight with human warmth and to defy outdated prejudices.’ MusicalBear (www.musicalbear.com), 17 August 2004

‘For anyone looking to understand the people – as a change from the politics – of the Middle East, these films are vital viewing. They are proof that if London venues such as the NFT and organisations like Zenith work together, they can harness the attention focused on the region and prevent it from becoming tainted with negativity.’ MusicalBear (www.musicalbear.com), 17 August 2004

Television, Radio, Other Press & Web Coverage

BBC1 News, London News at 6.30 pm and 10.30 pm on 16 August 2004 – Audience reach 5.1 million

BBC London Radio, news item on 16 August 2004

Dubai TV, pan-Arab satellite television: news story

Al-Arabiya TV, pan-Arab satellite television: news story, and film discussion item

Al-Jazeera TV, pan-Arab satellite television: coverage for the programme Awraq Thakafia

BBC World Service Radio, news story on 23 and 24 August 2004

BBC Arabic Service Radio, two stories

Al-Shark Al-Awsat (pan-Arab daily paper with wide circulation), feature story

Time Out weekly listings

Week-end newspaper supplements weekly listings, e.g The Guardian and The Times

What’s On in London, Feature story

Various Websites, including Red Pepper, Movie Blog, and Artyfacts