Tickets are now on sale for the SAFAR Film Festival. Showcasing Arab cinema at cinemas around the UK from 29 June to 9 July, the festival is themed around the idea of a journey through space and time. Over 30 screenings including 11 UK premieres, a first-ever SAFAR family screening, new releases and classic films, plus live events with 15 filmmakers and industry practitioners will be shown across the UK.
The opening night will be held at Ciné Lumiere, before the festival travels across London and into the Barbican and ICA. The Garden Cinema is welcomed for the first time as a host venue alongside new national partners The Ultimate Picture Palace, Oxford, and The Midlands Art Centre, Birmingham. SAFAR Film Festival will screen in nine cities nationwide, including London, Manchester, Birmingham, Chester (part of the Liverpool Arab Arts Festival), Hull, Plymouth, Oxford, Cardiff and Glasgow.
Throughout the last decade SAFAR has been the only festival in the UK dedicated to promoting cinema from the Arab world and it remains the UK’s largest showcasing of Arab feature films, documentaries and shorts.
Highlights this year include the UK premiere of The Last Queen (2022), screening at Ciné Lumiere and followed by a Q&A with co-director Damien Onouri, who was nominated for a Director’s Award at Venice last year. On Sunday 9 July SAFAR will close with the documentary Foragers (2022), from the multi-disciplinary artist Jumana Manna, who will be in conversation with fairtrade organisation Zaytoun CIC at the Barbican.
Additional award-winning titles and premieres to screen include the acclaimed festival hit The Damned Don’t Cry (2022) the sophomore feature from BAFTA nominated, UK-based director Fyzal Boulifa (following his debut Lynn + Lucy, 2019); this preview will be followed by a director Q&A. Also screening will be Raven Song (2023), followed by an interview with the Saudi Director Mohammed Al Salman, and the winner of the FIPRESCI Award at Cannes: The Blue Caftan (2022) by Maryam Touzani. Sara Suliman’s documentary Heroic Bodies (2022) focusses on the rise of the Sudanese women’s movement, receives a UK premiere, as does the radical melodrama Birdland (2023), directed by Leila Kilani.
Check out the trailer below for more information about the SAFAR film festival.
The SAFAR Film Festival runs from 29th June to July 9th.
