Lucien Bourjeily’s Heaven Without People to Open Arab Film Festival

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Mon, 09/17/2018 - 11:41 -- Nick Dager

The 22nd Arab Film Festival in San Francisco will open October 12 at the historic Castro Theatre with director Lucien Bourjeily’s Heaven Without People (Ghada El Eid). 

The 22nd Arab Film Festival in San Francisco will open October 12 at the historic Castro Theatre with director Lucien Bourjeily’s Heaven Without People (Ghada El Eid). As the oldest and largest-running festival of Arab films and filmmakers in North America, the Arab Film Festival annually spotlights as many as 70 films from more than 28 countries, including 15 Arab countries. This year’s festival runs through October 21.

Heaven Without People (Ghada El Eid) is Lucien Bourjeily’s first feature film and has received noteworthy acclaim as an audience favorite around the world. The film follows Josephine, the matriarch of a sprawling family, whom is delighted to gather everyone for Easter lunch for the first time in two years. While they all share a joyful meal, an incident ignites underlying tensions between the family members and leads them gradually into chaos.

“Heaven Without People (Ghada El Eid) explores important issues of our time including, pride, hate and forgiveness through interpersonal relationships with our family and our current political climate,” said AFMI executive director, Serge Bakalian.

The Arab Film Festival arabfilminstitute.org/festival

The Arab Film and Media Institute arabfilminstitute.org