Throughout June, the Gene Siskel Film Center presents an introduction to the small but passionately thriving cinema of Syria through four films by three contemporary directors. This program is part of "Lens on Syria: Thirty Years of Contemporary Cinema," a touring exhibition organized by ArteEast.

The cinema of the Middle East remains a mystery to the majority of American viewers, much like the region itself. While the visibility of Iranian and Turkish cinemas has launched a new era of recognition of the world-class film culture of those nations, the cinema of many other Middle Eastern nations remains unavailable and unseen in the U.S. The four Syrian films in
this series tell stories of a land rich in history and tradition but
impacted by regional conflict and struggling toward an image of nationhood. The three directors represented, Abdullatif Abdul-Hamid, Mohammad Malas, and Oussama Mohammad, are masterful storytellers whose bodies of work are defining the shape of Syrian cinema today.

Special thanks to Livia Alexander and Rasha Salti of ArteEast, and the Film Society of Lincoln Center.

--Barbara Scharres


AT OUR LISTENERS' REQUEST
(MA YATLUBUHU ALMUSSTAMI'UN)
2003, Abdellatif Abdul-Hamid, Syria, 89 min.
With Fayez Qazaq, Jamal Qobbesh

Friday, June 16, 6:00 pm
Tuesday, June 20, 7:45 pm

Packed with Arabic hit tunes circa 1969, AT OUR LISTENERS' REQUEST celebrates a more innocent time when radio was king in an isolated region. The collective enjoyment of a musical request show on the local squire's transistor radio is the center of social life and the catalyst for romance in a remote Syrian border village. Weekly listening sessions characterized by wackiness and joy are soon tempered by portents of tragedy when news of Israeli bombing breaks and the village heartthrob is drafted. In Arabic with English subtitles. 35mm. (BS)


THE NIGHT
(AL-LEYL)
1992, Mohammad Malas, Syria, 125 min.
With Sabah el-Jazairi, Fares Helou

Friday, June 23, 7:45 pm
Wednesday, June 28, 7:45 pm

A man looks back on his chaotic childhood in the Golan Heights in the critical period of the late 1930s and early 1940s with nostalgia and bitterness as THE NIGHT unreels a semi-autobiographical history through the eyes of a boy. As regimes rise and fall, a harsh life fraught with political turmoil precipitates an erratic journey towards martyrdom for the boy's father, regarded as the local crazy man. THE NIGHT was the first
Syrian film ever selected for screening in the New York Film Festival, and it opened the way for Syrian cinema in the West. In Arabic with English subtitles. 35mm. (BS)


STARS IN BROAD DAYLIGHT
(NUJUM AL-NAHAR)
1988, Oussama Mohammad, Syria, 115 min.
With Zuheir Abdul-Karim, Maha Al-Saleh

Friday, June 9, 7:45 pm
Tuesday, June 13, 7:45 pm

"The devils are gnawing at me. My films are born from my dreams and my devils."--Oussama Mohammad

At the height of a wedding celebration the reluctant bride is last seen hightailing it out of town with a member of the band. The anger of the groom's sister is short-lived when she too finds herself unwillingly facing an arranged marriage. This dramatic tale of a family in crisis over two stalled weddings throws light on the near-forbidden subject of women in rebellion against patriarchal power. Nearly a decade after director Mohammad's debut feature brought him international acclaim at Cannes, the
film remains unreleased in Syria as a result of the controversy. In Arabic with English subtitles. DigiBeta video. (BS)


VERBAL LETTERS
(RASA'EL EL SHAFAHIYYAH)
1991, Abdellatif Abdul-Hamid, Syria, 108 min.
With Fayez Qazaq, Rana Jammul

Friday, June 2, 6:00 pm
Tuesday, June 6, 8:00 pm

Wry humor infuses this comedy set in the Syrian mountains and loosely, jauntily based on Cyrano de Bergerac. A young man obsessed with his thick glasses and huge nose is shortsighted indeed when he wheedles his personable best friend into courting the woman of his dreams on his behalf. To the dismay of the covert suitor, the term face value takes on a whole new
meaning as the raven-haired beauty falls for the man she sees, and the surrogate's family and friends draw their own conclusions about the apparent hot romance. In Arabic with English subtitles. 35mm. (BS)

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Martin Rubin
Associate Director of Programming
Gene Siskel Film Center
164 N. State Street
Chicago, IL 60601
phone 312 846 2075
fax 312 332 5859
Visit our website at:
www.siskelfilmcenter.org