This season’s summer film program brings together a selection of Arab films that move beyond conventional cinematic forms to craft experimental visual and sonic narratives. These works engage familiar symbols with social and historical resonance in critical and nuanced ways, often intersecting with other art forms to explore questions of reality, history, and the archive.
Following last month’s screening of The Dam by Lebanese artist Ali Cherri, this month’s program features the Jordanian premiere of East of Noon (Sharq 12) by Egyptian filmmaker and visual artist Hala Elkoussy.
East of Noon weaves a fictional tale that blends symbolism with echoes of Egyptian popular folklore, unfolding in a register of irony and quiet despair. Set against a backdrop of poverty, corruption, and injustice, the film imagines a world where even imagination is seized by power and turned into a tool for silencing and control. Within this landscape, two protagonists set out on a journey to confront and reshape the forces around them.
Told through an inventive visual and sonic language, the film’s narrative grows alongside its characters. At times, the cinematic frame slips into theatrical and fantastical registers, where imagination collides with the fragility and violence of the real.
The film is in Arabic with English subtitles. A conversation with the director will follow the screening.
Film duration: 104 minutes
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Hala Elkoussy (Egypt, 1974) is a visual artist whose practice spans photography, video, installation, and sculpture. She has produced numerous short films that have been screened at exhibitions and film festivals around the world, including the Istanbul Biennial, Tate Modern, and Centre Georges Pompidou. Her artworks are part of several major collections, such as Tate Modern, the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, and the Jameel Collection.
Elkoussy earned her BA from the American University in Cairo and her MA from Goldsmiths, University of London. In 2004, she co-founded the Cairo Image Collective, the first space in the region dedicated to the image. From 2006 to 2008, she was an artist-in-residence at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam. In 2010, she received the Abraaj Capital Prize. In 2014, she established Fotomasr, an archive of Egyptian photography spanning the 19th century to the 1970s.
Cactus Flower, her debut feature film, was developed through La Fabrique Cinéma at the Cannes Film Festival and premiered at the International Film Festival Rotterdam, winning several awards at festivals worldwide. In 2020, she chaired the board of De Appel in Amsterdam. Her second feature film, East of Noon, premiered in the Directors’ Fortnight section at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival.