UALR’s Middle Eastern Studies Program is hosting a series of films from Monday to Wednesday, Oct. 17 to 19, followed by discussions led by  members of the Middle Eastern Studies faculty.

The film festival is free and open to the public. All films will be shown in Room D in the Donaghey Student Center. The schedule includes:

Monday, Oct. 17

2:30 p.m. – “A New Day in Old Sanaa,” a feature film from Yemen. Discussion leader, Dr. Krista Lewis, assistant professor of anthropology. The 2005 film is shown through the eyes of Federico, a photographer from Italy. Tariq, a friend of Federico, is scheduled to marry Bilquis, the daughter of a rich judge. However, while out in the city one night, he catches sight of a woman he believes to be Bilquis, and falls in love with her. The woman turns out to be a “nagsh” artist named Ines, and Tariq ends up having to choose between the two.

5:30 p.m. – “Little Town of Bethlehem,” a documentary from Israel-Palestine. Discussion leaders,  Lewis and Dr. Clea Bunch, assistant professor of history. The 2010 film shares the gripping story of three men, born into violence, willing to risk everything to bring an end to violence in their lifetime. A Christian, a Muslim, and a Jew – shaped by events of their Palestinian and Israeli upbringing – find inspiration in the words and actions of Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi.

Tuesday, Oct. 18

1:45 p.m. – “Veiled Voices,” a documentary featuring women in Egypt, Lebanon, and Syria. Discussion leader, Dr. Simon Hawkins, assistant professor of anthropology. The 2009 film from Egypt, Lebanon, and Syria introduces the audience to the world of Muslim women religious leaders, women who are reviving their leadership role in Islam across the Middle East. They are part of a growing movement that is increasingly willing to challenge the status quo from within the religion

3:30 p.m. – “Bezness,” a feature film from Tunisia. Discussion Leader Hawkins. The 1992 film set in one of Tunisia’s coastline tourist cities tells the contemporary story of a young man trapped between Arab tradition and prostitution. It portrays young people struggling with the perverse effects of tourism and the glaring contradictions between tradition and modernity.

5:30 p.m. – “Syrian Bride, film from Israel-Syria. Discussion leader Bunch. The 2004 story deals with a Druze wedding and the troubles a politically unresolved situation creates for the personal lives of the people in and from the village. The movie’s plot looks at the Arab-Israeli conflict through the story of a family divided by political borders, and explores how their lives are fractured by the region’s harsh political realities

Wednesday, Oct. 19

2:30 p.m. – “Hello America,” a feature film from Egypt. Hawkins and Lewis will lead the discussion. The 2000 film focuses on the misadventures of an Egyptian couple’s immigration to the United States, this popular comedy broadly satirizes both U.S. culture and Egyptian preoccupations with America.

5:30 p.m. – “Battle of Algiers,” from Italy and Algeria). Discussion leader Dr. Jacek Lubeck, associate professor of political science. Ranked as one of the greatest films of world cinema, the 1966 film covers the harrowing events of 1957, a key year in Algeria’s struggle for independence from France. Shot in the streets of Algiers in documentary style, it recreates the tumultuous Algerian uprising and the escalating violence on both sides.