ARAB FILM AND MEDIA INSTITUTE PRESENTS: DANIELLE ARBID’S ‘IN THE BATTLEFIELDS’

Arab Women in the Arts is an annual showcase to honor generations of Arab women who have excelled in and revolutionized all forms of artistic expression. This year’s event will celebrate the Lebanese-French filmmaker Danielle Arbid, a multimedia artist and director whose work explores the themes of war, memory, isolation, sexuality, and transience, primarily through the perspective of women. Her short-, medium-, and feature-length films traverse fiction and documentary – and often include elements inspired by her own life experience. For nearly three decades, Arbid’s films have been celebrated within the spheres of film festivals, while also censored and shunned for their direct confrontations of “taboo” subject matter. Arbid’s audacious determination to engage with forbidden topics, to challenge repressed pasts, and to capture intimate emotions with her lens, make her one of the most innovative Arab women artists today.

This summer Arab Women in the Arts will be presenting selected films from Arbid’s career at venues throughout New York City, including Nitehawk Cinema. Here at Anthology, we are delighted to host the opening night event, which will showcase Arbid’s debut feature film, IN THE BATTLEFIELDS (2004).

Programmed by Nanor Vosgueritchian.

Danielle Arbid
IN THE BATTLEFIELDS / MAAREK HOB
2004, 88 min, DCP. In Arabic with English subtitles.
Beirut, 1983. The secret life of 12-year-old Lina (Marianne Feghali) revolves around 18-year-old Siham (Rawya El Chab), her domineering aunt’s maid. In a precarious wartime existence where passion and frustrations overshadow everything, Lina hides and encourages Siham’s clandestine love affairs while Siham shows Lina what her life could be like. But as Lina’s dysfunctional family implodes, class tension, jealousy, and insecurity threaten their vulnerable friendship.