AFS Film Series Abraham/Ibrahim Highlights Diversity and Common Ground
Spotlight on the cinema of the Middle East, North Africa
By Dex Wesley Parra, 8:00AM, Fri. Feb. 17, 2023
How much do you know about the Middle East and North Africa? Like, really know?
For Karen Grumberg, director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at UT, the answer is quite extensive. A specialist in modern Hebrew literature, among other topics, it’s not lost on her that the wider Austin community – and Americans at large – don’t have the wealth of knowledge that she possesses about the Middle East/North Africa (MENA) region.
From her fifth-floor office overlooking UT’s bustling South Mall, Grumberg rolled her eyes at the mention of predominantly negative headlines about the Middle East. In the U.S., she said, “We’re exposed to the fissures and the cracks and the disruptions and ruptures and the conflict in the region.”
That lack of familiarity, not simply an awareness of geopolitical developments, laid the foundation for the long-running Children of Abraham/Ibrahim film series, a program screened since 2007 at the AFS Cinema in partnership with the Center.
This year’s foursome of features emphasizes the diversity of cultures and languages (one each in Turkish, Arabic, Persian, and Hebrew) that define an area too often reduced to a singular image.
The series – which derives its name from the shared ancestor of Islam, Christianity, and Judaism, the three major religions of the region – has a built-in boon for those who attend every Tuesday night screening from Feb. 21 through March 21. (The series will skip March 14 as AFS Cinema plays host to SXSW Film programming.) By the end of this four-film immersion, Grumberg says, audiences should recognize not only various cultural differences from one country to the next, but also a theme of universal humanity.
She appraises the power of cultural production – art, literature, film – as being especially adept at humanizing difficult stories. “When you see characters on screen and you're able to connect with them, it's a very different experience than watching nameless faces on a TV news item at home or reading about them in the newspaper.”
Since its inception in the 1960s, UT’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies has received Education Department funding through the National Resource Center under Title VI of the Higher Education Act. The NRC expects recipients of Title VI grants to engage in community outreach, hence the collaboration with Austin Film Society. Despite 2023 marking the first year CMES failed to garner federal funding, they were adamant about carrying on the tradition of hosting Children of Abraham/Ibrahim.
“We like to have events that disseminate knowledge about the [MENA] region to the Austin community and not just within the walls of the university,” Grumberg said, adding that the series even weathered the pandemic via virtual meetings. “We have no plans of stopping [because] everybody involved is deeply committed and invested in it.”
The faculty’s passion for illuminating the sundry scenarios presented in films from the region warranted a lively debate over which films would make the cut. Ultimately, the selected quartet came down to a Turkish tale of a farmer’s Kafkaesque standoff with bureaucracy (Commitment Hasan, Feb. 21), a Franco-Egyptian true story of a woman miscredited as Europe’s first female suicide bomber (You Resemble Me, Feb. 28), an Iranian meta-cinema starring legendary auteur Jafar Panahi as himself (No Bears, March 7), and an Israeli movie about a mixed group of Arab and Jewish women studying filmmaking (Cinema Sabaya, March 21).
“Open yourself up to being surprised,” Grumberg advised newcomers to Middle Eastern cinema. “We all can stand to be reminded of the power of film: to show us cultures we don’t know.”
Essential Cinema: Children of Abraham/Ibrahim
Feb. 21: Commitment Hasan
D: Semih Kaplanoglu, Turkey, 2021
• Hosted by Jeannette Okur, Assistant Professor of Instruction and Turkish Program Coordinator, at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at the University Of Texas, Austin
• Turkey’s 2023 entry for the Oscars
Feb. 28: You Resemble Me
D: Dina Amer, Egypt/France, 2021
• Hosted by Nahid Siamdoust, author and Assistant Professor at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at the University Of Texas, Austin
• True story of Hasna Ait Boulahcen, a Parisian woman of North African descent who was falsely labelled Europe’s first suicide bomber in the aftermath of a 2015 attack
March 7: No Bears
D: Jafar Panahi, Iran, 2022
• Hosted by Babak Tabarraee, Assistant Professor of Instruction and Persian Program Coordinator at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at the University Of Texas, Austin
• Jafar Panahi plays himself, a filmmaker under house arrest in Iran, forbidden to make films
Panahi has been sentenced to six years in prison by the Iranian authorities; he was recently released from jail after going on hunger strike.
March 21: Cinema Sabaya
D: Orit Fouks Rotem, Israel, 2021
• Hosted by Uri Kolodney, Film and Video and Hebrew, Jewish, and Israel Studies Liaison Librarian at the University Of Texas, Austin
• Israel’s Oscar entry
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Children of Abraham/Ibrahim, No Bears, Karen Grumberg, Commitment Hasan, Resemble Me, Cinema Sabaya
