October 13, 2021

Mizna Film Series Fall 2021: Best of the Fest

by Lamia Abukhadra | in Film

The Mizna Film Series is a monthly selection of programs, marking our first venture into year-round curated film programming. While our annual Film Fest focuses primarily on the works of contemporary artists, the Mizna Film Series provides a space to expand our regular film programming to include screenings, critical essays, filmmaker interviews, and discussions exploring revolutionary forms of cinema from the SWANA region and beyond. This series is presented virtually and in-person in collaboration with Trylon Cinema. Learn more about the Mizna Film Series here.

Tickets + Passes

In-person Trylon tickets: $10
Virtual Tickets: Pay what you can, $5 suggested donation
Virtual Pass (3-pack) : $20

UPCOMING

December 22, 2021: DIVINE INTERVENTION BY ELIA SULEIMAN

For the final pick of the 2021 Mizna Film Series, we continue to celebrate the “best of” Mizna’s film festival with a blast from TCAFF’s past. Bringing back one of our audience favorites from the first Arab film festival in March of 2003, we’re excited to screen Elia Suleiman’s Divine Intervention in-person at the Trylon Cinema. Don’t miss this rare opportunity to see the remastered version of this classic, absurd comedy on the big screen.

This film screens IN PERSON ONLY at Trylon Cinema on Wednesday, December 22, 2021 at 7pm.

A love story takes place between a Palestinian man living in Jerusalem and a Palestinian woman from Ramallah. The man, ES, shifts between his ailing father and his love life, trying to keep both alive. Because of the political situation, the woman’s freedom of movement ends at the Israeli army checkpoint between the two cities. Barred from crossing, the lovers’ intimate encounters take place on a deserted lot right beside the checkpoint. The lovers are unable to exempt reality from occupation. They are unable to preserve their intimacy in the face of a siege. A complicity of solemn desire begins to generate violent repercussions and against the odds, their angry hearts counter-attack with spasms of spectacular fantasy.

PAST

November 24–28, 2021: BEST OF THE FEST: COMPLICATING FAMILIES

Screening the week of Thanksgiving, this series is a selection of the best short films from Mizna’s 2021 Arab Film Festival. Including Darine Hotait’s Tallahassee, the audience award winner for best short film, each of these fan favorites demonstrate the complexity of family and belonging, and they explore the importance of communities, both made and inherited.

NOV 24: SCREENING AT TRYLON
For a perfect way to start off the holiday weekend, join us for an in-person screening Wednesday, November 24, 2021 at 7 pm, tickets are $10. Tickets available here

NOV 25–28: SCREENING VIRTUALLY (US ONLY)
Watch this program anywhere in the world Thursday–Sunday, November 25–28, 2021, tickets are pay what you can. Tickets available here

TALLAHASSEE (dir. 2021, Darine Hotait)

On the day of her release from a psychiatric facility, Mira attends her grandmother’s 90th birthday — only to discover that her sister Lara has lied to the family that she was on a trip to Florida.
Tallahassee is the winner of the 2021 TCAFF audience award for best short!

AL-SIT (dir. 2020, Suzanah Mirghani)

In a cotton-farming village in Sudan, 15-year-old Nafisa has a crush on Babiker, but her parents have arranged her marriage to Nadir, a young businessman living abroad. Nafisa’s grandmother Al-Sit, the powerful village matriarch, has her own plans for Nafisa’s future. Can Nafisa choose for herself?

THE DEPARTURE (dir. 2020, Saïd Hamich Benlarbi)

Adil, aged 11, spends the summer in Morocco playing with his friends and waiting for his idol, Olympic runner Hicham El Guerrouj, to compete in his last Games. But the arrival of his father and older brother from France for a few days will mark him forever.

MARIAM (dir. 2020, Reem Jubran)

Zaid, a young Arab-American amateur drag queen, has to confront his conservative father and Alzheimer’s grandfather about his identity.

LIFE ON THE HORN (dir. 2020, Mo Harawe)

While a son takes care of his dying father, the surrounding countryside grows empty. Neighbors are in the process of moving out as the young man delivers a load of sand to a long since abandoned construction site. Only its owner remains, hanging on to a prayer chain, his last mainstay.

October 27, 2021: GAZA MON AMOUR BY ARAB AND TARZAN NASSER

For October 2021, we present the best of our Arab Film Fest: Mizna Film Series screens Palestinian film Gaza Mon Amour (dir. Arab & Tarzan Nasser, 2020), which won the 2021 Twin Cities Arab Film Fest Audience Award for Best Feature Film.

This film screens IN PERSON ONLY at Trylon Cinema on Wednesday, October 27, 2021 at 7pm.

Gaza, today. Sixty-year-old Sherman Issa is secretly in love with Siham, a woman who works as a dressmaker at the market. Finally determined to propose, he gets momentarily distracted by the discovery of an ancient statue of Apollo in his fishing net, which he decides to hide at home. When Hamas discovers the existence of this mysterious treasure, troubles start for Issa.