A Time to Kill
Director Joel Schumacher
Sandra Bullock, Samuel L. Jackson, Kevin Spacey
USA 1996, English/Arabic sub.
In a small southern town in the 1960’s, a black man awaits
trial for murdering the two rednecks who viciously raped his 10-year-old
daughter. A young, idealistic white lawyer takes up the father’s defense,
and the incendiary case becomes a firestorm of racism and controversy,
ripping the town apart.
AlKasaba Theatre & Cinematheque
Almost Famous
Director Cameron Crowe
Billy Crudup, Kate Hudson
USA 2000, English
It is the 1970’s and a teenage reporter for Rolling Stone
Magazine winds up on the road for three weeks with a new up and coming
band. This life-altering odyssey of a boy falling in love and learning
becomes a classic expose of American rock music in it’s most psychedelic
years. This film has been critically acclaimed as one of the year’s best.
Popular Art Center
Analyze This
Director Harold Ramis
Billy Crystal, Robert De Niro, Lisa Kudrow
USA 1999, English/Arabic sub.
What happens when the worlds of the Mafia and psychiatry
collide? This outrageous farce answers that question, as mob boss Paul
Vitti (Robert De Niro) and psychiatrist Ben Sobol (Billy Crystal) are forced
to work together. When a prominent leader of the New York Mafia suddenly
starts having panic attacks, he enlists the help of a New York psychiatrist
for a fast cure. The two men suddenly find themselves struggling to understand
each other’s professional and private lives as they battle the FBI and
the impending threat of a Mafia takeover, not to mention an irritable fiancée
(Lisa Kudrow) eager to get married.
AlKasaba Theatre & Cinematheque
Baraka
More a visual feast than a film, this award winning cinematic
masterpiece races around the globe and captures images from vanishing cultures
and environments. Exotic music and dances carry this breath- taking view
of life in the most diverse corners of this planet. Don’t ask questions,
just see it.
Popular Art Center
Bedazzled
Director Harold Ramis
Brendan Fraser, Elizabeth Hurley, Frances O’Connor, Orlando
Jones
A fiery romantic comedy staring Frazer as Elliot Richards,
a bored and boring computer programmer who is in love with Alison Gardner
(O’Connor), a lovely coworker who doesn’t even know he exists. In a desperate
attempt to gain Alison’s attractions, Brendan naively strikes up a deal
with the devil (Hurley), a seductive and wickedly naughty woman who promises
Elliot seven wishes in exchange for his soul. The devil does her best to
torture Elliot’s poor soul, giving him all seven wishes, each of which
in some way goes astray.
Bethlehem Peace Center
Bring It On
Director Peyton Reed
Kirsten Dunst, Eliza Dushku
USA 2000, English
One of the surprise box office hits of 2000, Bring It
On is an inspiring high school comedy, set around a champion cheerleading
squad, the Toros. Whilst many of the recent teen comedies rely on gross-out
humour, this smart and sassy film filled theatres with its absorbing characters,
competitive story and
brilliant hip-hop dance routines.
Popular Art Center
Butterfly
Director Jose Luis Cuerda
Spain 1999, Spanish/English sub.
This drama about growing up in Spain in the 1930’s, turns
sinister and shocking as the shadow of the Spanish civil war looms. An
old and much loved teacher and one of his young pupils find themselves
on opposite sides of a viciously divided community. A deeply moving and
poignant film.
Popular Art Center
Checkpoints
Palestinian film-maker Wal Abu Dakeh presents his latest
short film, followed by a discussion on the opening night. This documentary
focuses on the Israeli
restrictions on Palestinian movement.
Popular Art Center
Chicken Run - Comedy animation film about chickens
escaping.
Popular Art Center
Coyote Ugly - Aspiring singer makes it big in New
York.
Popular Art Center
Dancer In The Dark
Director Lars Von Trier
Bjork, David Morse
USA 2000, English
The winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the Cannes Film
Festival, is a rare and powerful musical drama. Selma, a Czech immigrant
living in a small American town is going blind, and so will her son if
she cannot pay for an operation for him. As she battles poverty and injustice,
her blindness forces her to retreat into a world of darkness, which she
fills with fantasy song and dance routines.
Popular Art Center
Double Jeopardy
Director Bruce Beresford
Ashley Judd, Tommy Lee Jones, Bruce Greenwood
USA 1999, English/Arabic sub.
Libby Parsons (Judd) is a young woman with a seemingly
happy marriage and a prosperous life. While on a weekend sailing trip,
she wakes up in the middle of the night to find the boat covered in blood
and her husband Nick (Greenwood) missing. Since she’s found holding a knife
covered in her husband’s blood, Libby’s quickly indicted and convicted
of murder. Her lawyer suggests that she give up her son, and he’s soon
adopted by her friend, Angie (Gish), who promptly disappears with the child.
AlKasaba Theatre & Cinematheque
Lost Souls
Winona Ryder, Ben Chaplin, John Hurt
Years ago, priests exorcised a demon out of young Maya
Larkin (Ryder). Now she uses her unusual sensitivity to the same demons
who once came after her to help the priests in other exorcisms. In one
such case, a serial killer named Henry Birdson (Dichl) claims to know the
name of a man who will soon be possessed by Satan, beginning a reign of
evil over the world. Maya discovers that the man in question is Peter Kelson
(Chaplin), an author of true-crime books who has both wealth and fame but
no religious faith. At first Peter is skeptical, but a series of strange
and mysterious clues indicates that he might indeed be the victim of a
massive satanic conspiracy. Maya and Peter must work together to learn
how to reverse what has already begun before time runs out. A haunting
and creepy religious horror movie featuring shocking, disturbing imagery
and a deeply rooted sense of human mortality.
Bethlehem Peace Center
Meet The Parents - Comedy about the parents-in-law
from hell.
Popular Art Center
Men Of Honour
Director George Tillman Jr.
Robert De Niro, Cuba Gooding Jr.
USA 2000, English
The uplifting story of the first African-American to
become a Master
Diver in the US Navy. Facing racial bigotry and lingering
segregation,
Carl Brashear’s true story is both moving and profound.
Gooding and
De Niro deliver powerful performances as the struggling
Brashear and
his drunken red-neck commander.
Popular Art Center
Message in a Bottle
Director Luis Mandoki.
Kevin Costner, Robin Wright Penn, Paul Newman
USA 1999, English/Arabic sub.
The story of a long distance love connection that is
made when Theresa (Penn), a divorcee and journalist for the Chicago Tribune,
discovers a love letter that Garret (Costner), a widowed sailboat repairer,
let drift into the ocean. She quickly tracks him down and an honest bond
forms between the two. When he discovers that she hasn’t been entirely
honest with him, the betrayal threatens to ruin what has been, so obviously
up to this point, a wonderful romantic thing.
AlKasaba Theatre & Cinematheque
Nurse Betty
Director Neil Labute
Morgan Freeman, Renee Zellweger
USA 2000, English
Awarded the Best Screenplay at the Cannes Film Festival,
Nurse Betty is a truly original comedy with very unexpected twists and
turns. Betty is a Kansas waitress, who’s only happiness in life comes from
her obsessive watching of the daytime television soap “A Reason to Love”,
with the charismatic star, Dr. Ravell. When unfortunate events cause her
life to go horribly wrong, she slips into a fantasy world where she becomes
“Nurse Betty”, and heads to LA to find her long-lost television lover.
Popular Art Center
Remember the Titans
Director Boaz Yakin
Denzel Washington, Will Patton, Donald Faison, Wood Harris,
Ryan Hurst
The film captures the heart of high school football while
tackling the sins of its fathers, chronicling the true story of the undefeated
1971 T.C. Williams team of Alexandria, Virginia, which was the first integrated
high school team in the state. Washington brings his ever-powerful presence
to the role of the coach, who is brought in to oversee the transition to
integration. Though he is eventually successful as a coach, the townspeople
dissaprove of him because he replaces the popular entrenched former coach
Yoast. At first coach Yoast resents being supplanted while Washington is
told that his promotion was just for show—to help the integration—and that
he’s likely to be lifted if the team loses a game. Will the coaches and
players be able to overcome their adversity and make T.C. Williams a beacon
for integration in sports? Those viewers who follow history already know
the answser.
Bethlehem Peace Center
Romeo Must Die
Director Andrzej Bartkowiak
Jet Li, Aaliyah, Russell Wong
USA 2000, English/Arabic sub.
Romeo Must Die is the story of fathers and sons, of the
importance of blood, of star-crossed lovers willing to risk their loves
for their love. Two warring families, one Chinese, one African American,
are fighting for control of the Oakland waterfront. It’s an eye as members
of each gang keep turning up dead—including the son of Ch’u Sing, the Chinese
gang leader, which escalated the war to epic proportions. Into this fray
comes Han Sing (Jet Li), Ch’u’s other son, a cop who has escaped from Hong
Kong prison where he was serving time for not arresting his father and
brother. Han soon becomes a little too friendly with Trish O’Day (Aaliyah),
the daughter of Isaak O’Day (Lindo), the leader of the African American
gang. The growing romance between Han and Trish parallels the growing body
count.
AlKasaba Theatre & Cinematheque
Shall We Dance
Director Masayuki Suo
Koji Yakusho, Tamiyo Kusakari
Japan 1997, Japanese/English sub.
On his evening journey home, bored accountant Sugiyama
always looks for the beautiful woman who stares out the window of the Kishikawa
School of Dance. One night he gets off the train, walks into the studio
and signs up for a class. Soon Sugiyama is so enthralled by dance that
he is practising steps on the train, under his desk at work, and becomes
good enough for competition. A warm and romantic comedy, contrasting the
formality of Japanese society with the passions of ballroom dancing.
Popular Art Center
The Bread of those Early Years
(Das Brot der frühen Jahre)
Director Herbert Vesely
Germany 1962, German/Arabic sub.
Based on the novel of the same title by Heinrich Böll.
The young electrician Walter Fendrich has started a promising
career. Everything seems to be on the right track. As the future husband
of his employer’s daughter Walter even can hope to once succeed him
as head of the company. All of a sudden, the visit of a girl from his home
town, whom he last saw seven years ago, changes his entire life. Walter
realizes that his entire life so far has been all wrong. He breaks out
of his former “reasonable“ life and gives up and the wonderful security
of the affluent society. He simply disapperas without a farewell or explanation...
The Bread of those Early Years expresses the concepts of concern to German
intellectuals in the early sixties: criticism of the petrified conditions
in the society of the economic miracle and the search for new forms of
expression, life and thought. Vesely’s film is an attempt not only to describe
such a search as Walter Fendrich gradually becomes conscious of his life,
but it is a search in itself.
Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center
The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum
(Die verlorene Ehre der Katharina Blum)
Director Volker Schlöndorff, Margarethe von Trotta
Germany 1975, German/Arabic sub.
Based on the novel of the same title by Heinrich Böll.
The divorced housemaid Katharina Blum meets a young man
at a carnival ball and takes him home with her not knowing that he is wanted
by the police as a terrorist. At the next morning, a police squad appears
and searches her flat. Suspected as a terrorist sympathizer, Katharina
becomes the victim of terror created through the frighteningly rapid interplay
between police, judiciary and the sensationalist press. During humiliating
cross-examinations it becomes clear that two different worlds meet: the
morality of the judiciary, blinded by office, is confronted with the totally
different morality of an individual fighting for her honor. During the
plot, Katharina undergoes a thorough transformation: the incomprehension
with which she responded to the first police actions gradually gives way
to a feeling of indignation until she finally responds with despairing
violence. “Die verlorene Ehre der Katharina Blum” was Böll‘s most
controversial book, criticizing strongly the way how violence is created
and where it may lead. At the same time it became one of the New German
Film’s biggest successes: angry and provocative but also sensitive, honest,
thrilling and sometimes even positively comic.
Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center
The Negotiator
Director F. Gary Gray
Samuel L. Jackson, Kevin Spacey, David Morse
USA 1998, English/Arabic sub.
Danny Roman (Jackson) is a cop who anxious to clear himself
of false accusations takes a group of people hostage and requests the presence
of a fellow officer from another precinct. Chris Sabian (Spacey), a hostage
specialists, The Negotiator, who comes in to try and defuse the situation
and bring Roman in. He is not prepared for what he hears and the city isn’t
ready for what they do.
AlKasaba Theatre & Cinematheque
The Storm
Director Khaled Youssef
Youssra, Hisham Salim, Hanan Turk, Hany Salama
Egypt, 2000, Arabic
The events take place in 1989, recounting the story of
a struggling Egyptian mother “Hoda”, whose husband left her more than ten
years ago, since he could not stand the new realities after signing the
peace accords with Israel which he counted responsible for the death of
his family members and friends and for his physical disability. After the
absence of her husband, she is wholly dedicated to raising up her sons
“Ali” and “Nagui”. “Ali” goes to Iraq under the pressure of a financial
distress, which causes his lover’s dissertation. In search for more money,
he joins the Iraqi army and is chosen to be one of the soldiers going to
Kuwait in 1990. “Ali” refuses to take part in killing the Kuwaitis, he
even sympathizes with the resistance. Tragedy escalated when “Nagui” joins
the Egyptian army and goes to Kuwait, among the Egyptian deterrent troops
sent to Kuwait. “Hoda” loses control on her feelings of the possibility
of having the two brothers face-to-face in battle.
AlKasaba Theatre & Cinematheque
The Story of Us
Director Rob Reiner
Bruce Willis, Michelle Pfeiffer, Tim Matheson
USA 1999, English
Willis and Pfeiffer star as Ben and Katie Jordan juggled
family, careers and tuna casserole until something finally tumbled from
their grasp. Now, 15 years after saying “I Do,” each is thinking, “I’m
Done.” Can marriage survive 15 years of marriage???
AlKasaba Theatre & Cinematheque
Three To Tango - Comedy about architect pretending
he’s something he’s not.
Popular Art Center
Under Suspicion
Director Stephen Hopkins
Morgan Freeman, Gene Hackman
USA 2000, English
Set during the visually spectacular St. Sebastian Festival
in Puerto Rico, this mystery thriller brings two of America’s greatest
actors together. Victor Benezet (Freeman), a police captain investigating
a child killing, with his old friend Henry Hearst (Hackman) as the new
murder suspect.
Popular Art Center
Wonder Boys
Director Curtis Hanson
Michael Douglas, Tobey Maguire, Robert Downey Jr
USA 2000, English
More goes wrong for Professor Grady Tripp in a single
weekend than in most people’s whole lives. As the writer of one best-selling
novel, Professor Tripp has spent seven years struggling to finish a second
one. Suddenly his wife leaves him, his mistress is pregnant, his editor
is demanding results and his protégé student is creating
havoc. A darkly funny tale.
Popular Art Center/ Bethlehem Peace Center