The festival opened with a screening of "Screwdriver" on August 25 followed by a discussion with the film Director Bassam Jarbawi.
The 9th Edition of the Arab Film Festival Amman organised by the Royal Film Commission (RFC) in Jordan is among one of the biggest film festivals in MENA dedicated to regional filmmakers.
Slated to take place from August 25 until August 30, 2019, the festival will feature 10 popular productions.
The festival will open with a screening of Screwdriver (MAFAK) on August 25 followed by a discussion with the film Director Bassam Jarbawi at the RFC.
Set in the semipermanent Al-Amari Refugee Camp on the Ramallah outskirts, the film tackles the difficulties a man faces in returning to normal life after 15 years in prison, exploring the physical and emotional toll that trauma and lost time extract from his damaged psyche.
The film has received Best Film Award at Bosphorus Film Festival and Best Film at Montpellier Mediterranean Film Festival. It has also participated in many festivals such as New York Human Rights Watch Film Festival, El Gouna Film Festival, Carthage Film Festival, Chicago Palestine Film Festival, Cleveland International Film Festival, Haifa Independent Film Festival, Singapore International Film Festival and others.
The 9th edition of the Arab Film Festival will also feature screenings of Director Ghassan Halawani’s Erased, Ascent of the Invisible on August 26 at the Rainbow Theatre. The film that has won the Special Mention for First Feature at Locarno Film Festival follows the life of a vagabond caught amid the Lebanese civil war.
Other film screenings include Amr Gamal’s comedy-drama 10 Days Before the Wedding; Yassine Marco Marroccu’s drama Catharsys or The Afina Tales of the Lost; Hajooj Kuku’s rom-com Akasha; Abdulaziz Alshahei’s thriller Zero Distance; Karim El Shenawy’s narrative crime Gunshot; Karim Sayed’s documentary Of Sheep and Men; Mahmoud Ben Mahmoud’s drama Fatwa; and Georges Hachem’s film Still Burning.
Screenings held as part of the film festival are free and open to the public. The festival runs until August 30. More information regarding the location and timings of each film can be found on the RFC Jordan’s website and Facebook page.
