The Dublin Arabic Film Festival will be returning to Dublin and the lineup looks brilliant.
The festival will kick off this Friday at the Irish Film Institute in Dublin’s Temple Bar, and will run until Sunday.
Cinema fans are in for a treat as the festival will feature films featuring a common theme of displacement.
Jim Sheridan, festival president, said: “This year there is a common theme of displacement which runs through many of the films we have selected.
“We live in strange times, where it quite often seems that society is becoming less tolerant of different cultures.
“This festival aims to embrace difference and to encourage tolerance. It further aims to create a greater understanding of the Arab world, its people and the wonderful films that are currently being made in the region.”
Award winning actor Liam Cunningham of Game of Thrones fame will be the event’s inaugural festival patron.
The lineup for this year’s festival includes:
The Reports on Sarah and Saleem, Muayad Alayan’s drama centred on the clandestine affair between a Palestinian deliveryman and an Israeli cafe owner.
Stephanie Brockhaus and Andreas Wolff's documentary about Saudi poet Hissa Hilal, The Poetess, and Soudade Kaadan's Syrian drama The Day I Lost My Shadow will screen on Saturday.
The final two festival films, The Tower from director Mats Grorud and Nour Eddine Lakhmari's Burnout, will hit the big screen on Sunday; Burnout will be followed by a Q&A with the film's director Nour Eddine Lakhmari and producer Khadija Alami.
A free screening of Oscar-nominated animation The Breadwinner will be presented by Oscar winner Nora Twomey and Jim Sheridan at Chester Beatty library at 2pm on Saturday.
