Hay Festival Abu Dhabi 2020 Programme

The first in our series of film and documentary screenings selected for Hay Festival Abu Dhabi by Sheyma Buali, Director of BBC Arabic Festival - the BBC News Arabic initiative platforming talented filmmakers and journalists whose work focuses on current issues in the region.

These four short films by female directors take us through the effects of war on individuals and their families. Whether in an assumed safe zone, in exile or remembering previous generations who spoke out for justice, these dramas take us on a voyage across today’s Arab World. Informed, accomplished and impassioned, each film presents an imagined telling of the consequences of war and the hope for freedom.

The films in order:

One Minute, Dina Nasser, 2015, 11’
Only Silence, Katia Jarjoura, 2018, 30’
Rupture, Yassmina Karajah, 2017, 15’
The Calling, Mariakenzi Lahlou, 2017, 24’

Free but ticketed

From the hieroglyphs on the walls in Medina to mobile txt-speak, the Arabic scholar and broadcaster previews clips from her forthcoming documentary film series tracing the development of alphabets and script in human civilisation.

Chaired by Carlo Pizzati, author, political analyst for la Stampa and professor of theory of communication at the Asian College of Journalism. His most recent memoir is Bending over Backwards (Harper Collins '19).

The second in our series of film and documentary screenings selected for Hay Festival Abu Dhabi by Sheyma Buali, Director of BBC Arabic Festival - the BBC News Arabic initiative platforming talented filmmakers and journalists whose work focuses on current issues in the region.

Iraq: A State of Mind is an award-winning BBC Arabic produced feature documentary (52') by Namak Khoshnaw. In the past 40 years Iraq has endured three major wars, a violent coup, two invasions, a decade of bombing, two insurgencies, attack by the so-called Islamic State group, and a sectarian civil war. Living through such relentless bloodshed has taken a heavy toll on the nation's mental health. There's only one psychiatrist for every 300,000 Iraqi people and just one psychiatric hospital in the entire country. This film tells the stories of children who, as a result of extreme trauma, are suffering a severe physical impairment such as the inability to talk or walk. A year in the making, this highly acclaimed BBC Arabic documentary has won two prestigious awards, the BUPA Mind Media Documentary Award and the Grierson Best Current Affairs Documentary Awards in 2019.

Free but ticketed

The third and final session in our series of film and documentary screenings selected for Hay Festival Abu Dhabi by Sheyma Buali, Director of BBC Arabic Festival - the BBC News Arabic initiative platforming talented filmmakers and journalists whose work focuses on current issues in the region.

Though obviously devastating, the effects of war on humanity is never easy to quantify. In this Children After War session we see how war has affected young people. Loss of limbs for some, dreams of ulterior worlds for others, but always with endurance, stability and hope. These short fiction films are presented through animation, performance and the involvement of those who lived the events they recount.

Children of God, directed by Ahmed AlDaradji – 10’ (Iraq)
War Canister, directed by Yahya AlAlak – 10’ (Iraq)
Transit Game, directed by Anna Fahr – 18’ (Lebanon)
Baghdad Messi, directed by Sahim Omar Khalifa – 12’ (Iraq)
Ayny, directed Ahmed Saleh – 11’ (Palestine)

Free but ticketed