The Lebanese Center for Human Rights (CLDH) is a local non-profit, non-partisan Lebanese human rights organization in Beirut that was established by the Franco-Lebanese Movement SOLIDA (Support for Lebanese Detained Arbitrarily) in 2006. SOLIDA has been active since 1996 in the struggle against arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance and the impunity of those perpetrating gross human violations.

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May 27, 2011

iloubnan - The “Forbidden Films Festival” from 22 -26 June will screen banned films from BIFF 2009 and 2010 - May 27, 2011

The management of Beirut International Film Festival (BIFF) announced today that it will organize from 22 to 26 June 2011 at Abraj the “Forbidden Films festival”, which will feature movies that were forbidden by Lebanese censors in the 2009 and 2010 editions of BIFF.
iloubnan.info annonced it a few month ago in our reportage about censorship in the Lebanese cinema. The management explained that the special committee and the General Security, with the support of the Ministry of Interior, authorized the screening of five movies, that were forbidden in the 2009 and 2010 editions of BIFF. Two movies will be projected every day at Planete Abraj, from 8 pm to 10pm (for further information call 70141843). "Chou Sar" by Lebanese Director Degaulle Eid, granted The Special Jury
Award in 2010 edition of BIFF, will be one of the five movies in the “Forbidden Films Festival”. The film was not screened in BIFF 2010 because of a ban by the oversight authorities in Lebanon, but after a while, the special committee allowed its screening only in cultural and academic activities. It will be screened for the first time for the large public during The “Forbidden Films Festival”.

The program of the festival also includes "Green Days" (Ruzhaye Sabz) by Iranian director Hana Makhmalbaf. The screening of the film was originally scheduled in the 10th edition of BIFF last year, but the Lebanese censorship authorities asked the organizers to postpone the two screenings because of the Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad 's two-day visit to Lebanon.
Makhamalbaf's documentary is about protests that followed Ahmadinejad's disputed re-election in June 2009, and features raw footage of the violence that erupted when Iranian forces cracked down hard on the demonstrators. Makhamalbaf, 23, is the daughter of Mohsen Makhamalbaf, who is close to leading Iranian opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi whose supporters wore green as a sign of protest against what they said was a rigged election.

Two films of the Italian director Paolo Benvenutti will be screened in the “Forbidden Films Festival”: “Confortorio” and “Gostanza Da Libbiano”, both part of Benvenutti’s "trilogy of identity" that also includes The Kiss of Judas.

Based on the real-life trial of the 60-year-old nun who was persecuted for witchcraft in 1594, Gostanza da Libbiano, starring Lucia Poli as Gostanza, traces the nun's imprisonment and cold-blooded interrogation by various church representatives.

In Confortorio, conscience, though of a rather contorted sort, prompts the churchmen holding two convicted Jewish thieves to try and convert them to Christianity so as to spare them the torments of hell when they are hanged. They were handed over to Church authorities by the rabbis of the Roman Jewish ghetto in 1736.. However, by the time the two men die, after a lifetime of disregarding their heritage and religion, they have become educated in the facts of their own Jewishness and stubbornly insist on dying
in the religion of their birth. The cast includes Emidio Siminis, Franco Pistoni, and Emanuele Carucci Viterbi.

Karin Albou’s The Wedding Song (Le Chant des Mariées), winner of the Gold "Aleph" for the Middle Eastern Best Feature Film in BIFF 2009, although not screened because of a ban by censorship authorities, is also included in the program of the “Forbidden Films festival”. The film is about two young
women who find that their differences bring them closer during a difficult time. Nour and Myriam grew up in the same neighborhood in Tunis, and as they've grown into adulthood they've stayed close friends, even though Nour is a Muslim and Myriam is Jewish. It's 1942, and Tunis is under occupation by Axis forces, which has made life difficult for both women; the German authorities have prevented Khaled, Nour's fiancé, from getting a job, forcing them to postpone their wedding, while Myriam's family must pay
exorbitant fines for being Jewish, which may lead her into a marriage of convenience to a wealthy physician, many years her senior. While Myriam sees no way out of her desp erate situation, Nour finds that the Nazi propaganda circulated throughout the community is piquing her worst suspicions about Jewish stereotypes. But as Nour and Myriam sink deeper into their personal crises, they begin to understand how badly they need one another's support.

More info: 70141843

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