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Dispatch: Spring Screenings
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Welcome to Dispatch, the Diasporist's culture newsletter. Here you'll find reports on film and literature, interviews with writers and artists, and other cultural tidbits that may be of interest to our readers. In this issue, Schayan Riaz reports on Berlin's ALFILM Festival.
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Last week, I served on the critics’ jury of the Malmö Arab Film Festival (MAFF), the largest festival dedicated to Arab cinema located outside of the Arab world. Our main prize went to Mohamed Siam’s Egyptian drama My Father’s Scent, a film that portrays a father-and-son relationship in all its complexity with tender and deeply human moments as well as remarkable honesty and compassion for all its fractured characters.
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For those in Berlin, My Father’s Scent will be playing twice at ALFILM this week. ALFILM is Berlin’s own Arab film festival, that has become a mainstay in the capital’s diverse cinematic calendar. Starting today, ALFILM opens with Annemarie Jacir’s rousing historical epic Palestine 36. Next to the usual features, documentaries, and short films, this year the festival will shine a special light on Sudan, including an exhibition curated by cultural manager Larissa-Diana Fuhrmann and cartoonist Khalid Albaih, as well as a dedicated film program that starts with Suzanna Mirghani’s feminist anti-capitalism tale Cotton Queen.
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Here are 5 recommendations for those who want to attend but need a little guidance:
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Photo: Life After Siham, 2025. Courtesy of ALFILM.
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1.) This year’s edition features a couple of very fine documentaries from the Arab world, chief among them Namir Abdel Messeh’s Life After Siham, a personal and cinematic attempt by the filmmaker to keep his late mother’s memories alive by tracing his family history across Egypt and France, and the cinema of Youssef Chahine. Another documentary recommendation is Alex Bakri’s Habibi Hussein, about the projectionist of Cinema Jenin, who found himself caught in the midst of a neo-colonial cinema revival aid project in 2008 and dismissive, know-it-all German project leads (and funders), who didn’t always seem to trust his expertise of more than 40 (!) years.
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Photo: Adieu Bonaparte, 1985. Courtesy of ALFILM.
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2.) Apropos Youssef Chahine: This year marks the director’s centenary and ALFILM is paying tribute to the Egyptian legend through a couple of events, such as Adieu Bonaparte, his big-budget epic on Bonaparte’s occupation of Alexandria, or the panel discussion “Do You Believe in Cinema After Defeat” at Spore. Another tributee this year is veteran Palestinian actor Mohammad Bakri, who died late last year. ALFILM will be showing Ameer Fakher Eldin’s The Stranger in Bakri’s honor.
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Photo: On Dying Loudly, or Eulogies of the Uncounted, 2026. Image courtesy of ALFILM.
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3.) On Dying Loudly, or Eulogies of the Uncounted promises to be another highlight: Following the screening of Sepideh Farsi’s Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk, a documentary about the the life and killing of Gazan photojournalist Fatma Hassouna by an Israeli airstrike, Maha El Hissy has curated an evening with writers from Gaza who will be reflecting on writing, surviving, and solidarity. All proceeds from the reading will be sent to Fatma’s family in Gaza.
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Photo: But It Rotates, 1978. Courtesy of ALFILM
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4.) As mentioned before, this year’s spotlight is on Sudan, with a specially-curated film program and exhibition. Next Monday, there will also be a rare chance to see Sudanese short films from the 70s and 80s, followed by a panel conversation on the “conditions under which Sudanese film history is preserved, circulated and re-encountered today.” Before that, ALFILM is showing Gadalla Gubara’s Tajouje from 1977, a cinematic gem restored in 2015.
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Photo: Spring Came On Laughing, 2024. Courtesy of ALFILM
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5.) Last but not least, there are some standout feature films showing over the course of the festival. If I had to pick, I would go with Noha Adel’s debut Spring Came On Laughing, a series of short vignettes set around springtime in Cairo with sharp writing and a wonderful cast playing it up in each scene. And another work not to be missed is Marwan Hamed’s emotional and frenzied El Sett, perhaps the definite biopic on legendary Egyptian singer Umm Kulthum.
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