It's a Nouri

New Arab Film: Retrospective of the Carthage Festival 1996

“No place, nowhere” could be a motto for the “Cinéma Arabe” festival in the House of World Cultures: Many films depict characters who no longer find a foothold in the modern Arab world. The title of a Tunisian film is significant: “Keswa “The Lost Thread” tells of a fairy-tale nocturnal wandering of Nozha, who returned from the north to her Tunisian homeland. The Algerian films in the retrospective of the 1998 Carthage Festival, on the other hand, almost exclusively take place in France, a country of exile, in the suburbs, where family traditions meet modern Western ones Ways of life come into contradiction: In “L Honneur de ma Famille”, for example, the daughter’s little freedoms come to an end when she becomes pregnant unintentionally and the parents rush to marry her off in order to preserve their honor. Another focus introduces a new film country: Morocco’s Maghreb microcosm, in which a corrupt, modern north confronts an increasingly depopulated, lost south. “Mektoub”, based on an authentic case, tells of the long-suffering abuse of power by a police chief; nominated for the Oscar as best foreign film, it opens the festival here. (es.)Cinéma Arabe opening Friday, 7 p.m., with “La Falaise” and “Mektoub”, followed by a concert with Cheb Sahraoui.