Featuring in the Room’s Movie Nights Program, MAD has organized a lineup of women-centric festival bangers that includes (in order) GOODBYE JULIA, SALMA’S HOME, DAUGHTERS OF ABDULRAHMAN, and THE ANGER, with all screenings scheduled to take place every Monday at 8 pm.
Starting off the roster is Mohamed Kordofani’s 35-time award-winning debut Sudanese feature film and laureate of the Cannes Film Festival’s Freedom Prize GOODBYE JULIA, which will be playing on July 8th.
Wracked by guilt after covering up a murder, Mona — a Northern Sudanese retired singer in a tense marriage — tries to make amends by taking in the deceased’s Southern Sudanese widow, Julia, and her son, Daniel, into her home.
Unable to confess her transgressions to Julia, Mona decides to leave the past behind and adjust to a new status quo, unaware that the country’s turmoil may find its way into her home and put her face to face with her sins.
Next is Hanadi Elyan’s Jordanian drama SALMA’S HOME — screening on July 15th — which which world premiered at the Cinequest Film and Creativity Festival, where it snagged a Global Vision Award for Best Feature Film, and has been to a litany of prestigious film festivals, including the Atlanta, Malmö Arab, Heartland International, and Boston Palestine film festivals.
The film follows three Arab women living in modern-day Jordan who must put their differences aside and work together.
Wherein, after Bakri’s passing, his ex-wife, daughter, and new wife are shocked to find out that the only way they can guarantee their share of the inheritance is to live together under one roof.
After that will be Zaid Abu Hamdan’s seven-time award-winning Jordanian film DAUGHTERS OF ABDULRAHMAN, which world premiered at the 43rd Cairo International Film Festival, where it won the Youssef Cherif Rizkallah Audience Award, and stars the prolific Jordanian actress Saba Mubarak. The film will be playing on July 22nd.
The film follows the storyline of Zainab, who wakes up to a shocking discovery that could defame her in the neighborhood. She quickly calls for her sister Amaal's aid. However, fiery Amaal has her own problems with their other sister Samah – who is too busy to be there – while Khitam, the fourth sister, is busy with her own goals in life.
Rounding out the lineup will be Marie Surae’s Lebanese film THE ANGER, which follows Ida, a young Lebanese girl in post-war Lebanon who flees her small village and her alcoholic mother and goes to the big city. There, she starts dating a European man not knowing what is in store for her.
THE ANGER world premiered at the 32nd Carthage International Film Festival and went on to make its way to the Yasmine Hammamet, Beirut International Women, San Diego Arab, Kazan International Muslim, Dublin International Short Film and Music, and the Lebanese Independent film festivals, the last of which it won the Best International Feature Fiction Award. The film will be screened on July 29th.
