About

Women's Cinema from Tangiers to Tehran is a celebration of film by women and their representation in cinema from Morocco in the west to Iran in the east. It will be the first festival of its kind to offer audiences an opportunity to appreciate a vital aspect of international cinema, and to actively engage with an exciting and innovative selection of films.

Screenings range from the groundbreaking short, The House is Black (Iran) by visionary poet and filmmaker Forough Farrokhzad, to the recent Caramel (Lebanon), Persepolis (France-Iran), and Cut and Paste (Egypt) featuring actress Hanan Turk. Premieres of the powerful Hidden Faces (Turkey) and the taboo breaking Samira's Garden (Morocco) will be presented. Classics such as The Nouba (Algeria) by auteur Assia Djebar will be screened and Moufida Tlatli will present her evocative The Silences of the Palace (Tunisia) followed by a master class at the London Film School. A special concert and talk with singer Souad Massi and director Yamina Benguigui will take place and a party will feature the best and latest sounds from Oran to Beirut via Istanbul and Cairo with special guest DJs.

A selection of artists' films by Mona Hatoum, Shirin Neshat, Zineb Sedira and others will be screened and a Film Symposium will be held. London based writer Hanan Al-Shaykh will hold a talk and an Arab classical concert will end the festival - A Journey from Andalusia to Modern Times. We invite you to participate in what promises to be an exciting and stimulating cultural experience.

James Neil & Suzy Gillett
Curators
Parallax Media & Institut français

Acknowledgements
A special thank you to Menem Richa, Aude Erenberk, Med-Screen, Morinade Akinbobola, Rebekah Polding, Film London, Muna Nashashibi & Arab Media Watch, Clare Binns, Tony Jones, Negede Assefa, Mario López-Goicoechea, Federico Spoletti, Marie Bonnel, Julien Planté, Natacha Antolini, Zineb Sedira, Meriem Talbi, Karen Alexander, Mula Halasa, Hanan Al-Shaykh, Ahdaf Soueif, Lawrence Joffe, Hala Khalil, Leila Mroueh, Latifa Fahmy, Alexandre Sorrentino, Tala Tutunji, Houria Niati, Zaki Boulos, Sharif Nashashibi, Alan Kirwan, Victor Farmand, Lilly Ladjevardi, Muna Wehbe, Aurélie Brault, Tamara Anderson, Isabelle McNeill, Kamran Rastegar, Guy Austin, Mark Aitken, Jean-Conrad Lemaître, Shirin Neshat, Lida Abdul, Tim Carson, Karma Hamady, Gladstone Gallery, Gallerie Polaris, Giorgio Persano Gallery, Anthony Reynolds Gallery, Ebrahim Golestan, Vertigo magazine, Bidoun magazine, Ed Berridge, Alda Terraciano, Una Feely, Sahide Sanin and all the directors, artists, distributors, and organizers for their generous support.