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As the director herself has stated, Palaistinian producers-filmmakers tend to shoot movies about the Occupation without realizing it. In “Villa Touma”, however, Suha Arraf tries to stray away from the usual approach to the subject, by focusing on a story that is almost Shakesperean, still managing, though, to talk about the Occupation.

“Villa Touma” screened at Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinema

The film begins in 2000, when Badia ages out of the Christian orphanage where she grew up, and is essentially forced upon her aunts, three sisters who have lost their lands and social status following the Six Day War with Israel in 1967, but continue to live as if nothing has changed, essentially in seclusion from the outside world, with the exception of the high class gatherings in thelocal Christian church. Juliette, the eldest one and “boss” of the family, greets Badia in coldness, immediately communicating that the only...

A buttoned-up young woman in 2011 Damascus is lured by the possibility of personal liberation when a brothel opens upstairs in debuting director Gaya Jiji’s fuzzily reasoned “My Favorite Fabric.” Inspired by “Belle du Jour,” though with little of that classic’s trenchant subversiveness, this thematically ambitious femme-centric drama aims to weave together the repressiveness of Syria’s regime with the limited possibilities for female self-expression within that society. The results are uncertain and artificial, full of missed chances that bode ill for a screen life outside a French release and a few festivals.

Life in Syria is becoming increasingly difficult, so for a middle-class family like that of Salwa (Souraya Baghdadi), a woman alone with three daughters, the best way of leaving behind the bombings is to find husbands for her offspring. Nahla (Manal Issa) is the oldest: Flinty and petulant, she clothes herself in dowdy garments that aim to hide an overripe sensuality.

Manal Issa stars as woman who embarks on journey of self-discovery in brothel in revolutionary Damascus.

Syrian filmmaker Gaya Jiji’s long-gestated drama My Favourite Fabric, about a young woman’s voyage of self-discovery in a Damascus brothel on the eve of Syria’s civil war, has started shooting in Istanbul.

Set against the Syrian capital in the spring of 2011, the feature revolves around 25-year-old Nahla, a young woman who feels stifled by her humdrum life.

An arranged marriage to Us-based Syrian expat Samir offers a ticket to a new existence but he unexpectedly he selects her younger sister, the more docile Myriam, to be his bride.

Following Samir’s rejection, Nahla strikes-up a friendship with a new neighbour, Madame Jiji. This mysterious figure, she discovers, runs a brothel. Fascinated by this environment, Nahla embarks on a journey of self-discovery.

”Belle De Jour was a source of an inspiration,” says Jiji referring to Luis Bunuel’s 1967 classic...

Manal Issa stars as woman who embarks on journey of self-discovery in brothel in revolutionary Damascus.

Syrian filmmaker Gaya Jiji’s long-gestated drama My Favourite Fabric, about a young woman’s voyage of self-discovery in a Damascus brothel on the eve of Syria’s civil war, has started shooting in Istanbul.

Set against the Syrian capital in the spring of 2011, the feature revolves around 25-year-old Nahla, a young woman who feels stifled by her humdrum life.

An arranged marriage to Us-based Syrian expat Samir offers a ticket to a new existence but he unexpectedly he selects her younger sister, the more docile Myriam, to be his bride.

Following Samir’s rejection, Nahla strikes-up a friendship with a new neighbour, Madame Jiji. This mysterious figure, she discovers, runs a brothel. Fascinated by this environment, Nahla embarks on a journey of self-discovery.

”Belle Du Jour was a source of an inspiration,” says Jiji referring to Luis Bunuel’s 1967 classic...

Neil Armfield.s Holding the Man, Simon Stone.s The Daughter, Jeremy Sims. Last Cab to Darwin and Jen Peedom.s feature doc Sherpa will have their world premieres at the Sydney Film Festival.

The festival program unveiled today includes 33 world premieres (including 22 shorts) and 135 Australian premieres (with 18 shorts) among 251 titles from 68 countries.

Among the other premieres will be Daina Reid.s The Secret River, Ruby Entertainment's. ABC-tv miniseries starring Oliver Jackson Cohen and Sarah Snook, and three Oz docs, Marc Eberle.s The Cambodian Space Project — Not Easy Rock .n. Roll, Steve Thomas. Freedom Stories and Lisa Nicol.s Wide Open Sky.

Festival director Nashen Moodley boasted. this year.s event will be far larger than 2014's when 183 films from 47 countries were screened, including 15 world premieres. The expansion is possible in part due to the addition of two new screening venues in Newtown and Liverpool.

As previously announced, Brendan Cowell...

The Santa Barbara International Film Festival has unveiled its 2015 line-up which includes films representing 54 countries, 23 world premieres and 53 U.S. premieres. The U.S. premiere of Niki Caro’s McFarland USA will close out the 30th fest. Based on the 1987 true story and starring Kevin Costner and Maria Bello, the film follows novice runners from McFarland, an economically challenged town in California’s farm-rich Central Valley, as they give their all to build a cross-country team under the direction of Coach Jim White (Costner), a newcomer to their predominantly Latino high school. The unlikely band of runners overcomes the odds to forge not only a championship cross-country team but an enduring legacy as well.

The festival runs from January 27-February 7.

Below is the list of World and U.S. Premiere films followed by the list of titles by sidebar categories.

World Premieres

A Better You, USA

Directed by Matt Walsh

Cast: Brian Huskey,...

A self-acknowledged "showcase for Academy Award frontrunners," the Santa Barbara International Film Festival is often overlooked for the actual films that earn it festival status. An amalgamation of international discoveries and ’merica’s circuit highlights, the Sbiff curates a week of best-of-the-best to pair with their star-praising. The 2015 edition offers another expansive selection, bookended by two films that aren’t on any radars just yet. Sbiff will open with "Desert Dancer," producer Richard Raymond’s directorial debut. Starring Reece Ritchie and Frieda Pinto, the drama follows a group of friends who wave off the harsh political climate of Iran’s 2009 presidential election in favor of forming a dance team, picking up moves from Michael Jackson, Gene Kelly and Rudolf Nureyev thanks to the magic of YouTube. The festival will close with "McFarland, USA," starring Kevin Costner and Maria Bello. Telling the 1987 true story of a Latino high school’s underdog cross-country team,...

The lineups for the Mavericks, Discovery, and Tiff Kids parts of the Toronto Film Festival were announced, wrapping up a series of lineup announcements for the Toronto International Film Festival.

With the added films, the festival’s entire slate is now a whopping 393 movies. Two hundred eighty-five of those movies are feature films, of which 143 are world premieres.

The Mavericks portion of the festival includes onstage discussions following the screening of each film. Do I Sound Gay? will be followed by a talk between director David Thorpe and sex-advice guru Dan Savage. Also premiering in that space is The 50 Year Argument,...

Bill Murray is coming to Toronto folks. Actually, the film he stars in (Theodore Melfi’s St. Vincent) is having its official World Premiere launch at the jaw-dropping 285 feature film 2014 Tiff line-up. In the final batch of items we finally get the confirmation that 2014′s Palme d’Or Winner Winter Sleep (which gets added along with a trio of others to the Masters Programme) will show, and Tomm Moore’s highly anticipated Song of the Sea (among the four item line-up for Tiff Kids) also lands. Worth mentioning are the sprinkling of add-ons to the various other sections (Marjane Satrapi’s Sundance preemed The Voices, Matt Shakman’s Cut Bank and the world preem of Danis Tanovic’s Tigers) with a Studio Ghibli docu item being fitted into the Tiff Docs, but it is the Discovery Programme that finally takes shape.

The “up-and-comers” include Berlin Film Fest (and future Nyff...