Malmö – May 4, 2022
The activities of the 12th edition of Malmö Arab Film Festival (MAFF) kicked off on Wednesday May 4th evening in the Swedish city of Malmö, in the presence of a large number of Arab and Scandinavian stars, filmmakers and film industry professionals.
On the red carpet for the opening, which was held in front of the historic Malmö municipality building, festival guests walked including Egyptian stars Hisham Magid, Ahmed Fathi, Sherry Adel and Naglaa Badr, Syrian star Jamal Suleiman, Jordanian stars S Saba Mubarak, Farah Bseiso, Hanan Hilo, Mariam Basha and Munther Al-Rayhaneh, Palestinian star Ashraf Barhoum, CEO of the Saudi Film Commission Abdullah Al Eyyaf Al-Qahtani, Palestinian director Rashid Masharawi and others.
The guests were welcomed by Malmö Mayor Carina Nilsson at a dinner party in the Royal Hall. The mayor gave a welcoming speech, in which she expressed her happiness with the obvious growth of the festival, which has become the largest festival dedicated to Arab cinema in Europe. She hoped that the guests would repeat their visit to the city, whether to attend the upcoming festival editions or enjoy the city of Malmö.
MAFF founder and president, Mouhamad Keblawi, welcomed the guests, and gave a speech in which he referred to the steps taken by the festival during its previous editions, and the ability of the team to deal with the difficult challenges imposed by the Corona pandemic, which did not prevent the festival from coming to light every year, reaching the point of happening physically with full capacity, with a large edition in which the city of Malmö is hosting nearly two hundred guests”.
The ceremony also witnessed handing the guest of honour tribute to Saudi Cinema, represented by CEO of the Saudi Film Commission, Abdullah Al Eyyaf Al-Qahtani, who received the tribute and thanked the city of Malmö for the warm hospitality, emphasizing the cultural renaissance that Saudi Arabia is undergoing, embracing creativity, and nurturing talent, which resulted in an amazing growth in the film industry.
After the dinner party, the guests moved to the Storgatan SF cinema, which witnessed the presentation of the jury members before the screening of the opening film “Daughters of Abdulrahman”, in the presence of its director, Zaid Abu Hamdan, the film’s stars and producers. Abu Hamdan presented his film to the Malmö audience, expressing his enthusiasm for screening the film for the first time in Sweden, after a successful journey started last year since the film participated in Cairo international film festival, when it won the Audience Choice Award.
In “Daughters of Abdulrahman”, stars Saba Mubarak, Farah Bsaiso, Hanan Hillo and Maryam Basha play the roles of four different sisters who are forced by circumstances to return to the family home after years of isolation to solve the mystery of their father’s sudden disappearance. But the secret search trip reveals to them new secrets, and more question marks. The film was written and directed by Zaid Abu Hamdan, produced by Pan East Media (Saba Mubarak and Aya Wuhoush), Lagoonie Film Production and Arab Media Network.
The activities of the 12th Malmö Arab Film Festival will continue from 4 to 9 May, in which 67 films will be shown, 35 features and 32 short films. The festival continues as the largest platform dedicated to Arab cinema outside the Arab world. Malmö Film Industry Days (MID) platform also continues its efforts to support Arab films, encourage co-production between the Arab world and the Nordic countries, and build communication bridges between filmmakers on both sides. Industry Days activities open at 10:30 am on Thursday, May 5th.
