MoPA welcomes Arab Film Festival for third year

It’s our town’s other SDAFF. This year’s Third Annual San Diego Arab Film Festival promises three nights featuring seven films from seven countries. The festival runs November 20–22 at the Museum of Photographic Arts in Balboa Park. Tickets run $12 per show, or you can pick up an all-access pass for $60. Here’s a quick rundown of this year’s offerings.

Thursday, November 20: From Morocco comes Laïla Marrakchi’s Rock the Casbah, a family drama about a mother and her three daughters, struggling to work through a death in the family. It screens at 6:30 p.m., followed at 8:30 p.m. by Philippe Aractingi’s Heritages, the sweeping true-life saga of a Lebanese family that, combined, spent five generations eluding war.

Friday, November 21: The evening kicks off at 6:30 p.m. with Rani Massalha’s debut feature. Giraffada (Palestine) tells the story of a young boy, obsessed with giraffes, who manages to smuggle a long-necked, spotted ruminant from Tel Aviv to a zoo in the occupied West Bank. The festival program calls Hamid Benamra’s Pieces of Lives, Pieces of Dreams a film that “traces the work of Algerian artist Mustafa Butajin and his view of the relationship of his art to the Algerian Revolution and other international political movements.” It screens at 8:30 p.m.

Saturday, November 22: A triple-header awaits, starting at 5 p.m. Mohamed Malas’s Ladder to Damascus follows a young actress who believes her soul to be occupied by a child who died the day she was born. In My Mother’s Arms is a gripping documentary account of one compassionate soul who devotes his life to protecting orphans of war. The film, directed by Atea Al Daradji and Mohamed Al Daradji, screens at 7 p.m. Rounding out the evening at 9 p.m. is May in the Summer, the latest comedy-drama from Cherien Dabis (Amreeka).

For more information visit sdaff.karamanow.org.