Middle East Film Festival 2021 | Q&A with Mehdi M Barsaoui

The Middle East Film Festival 2021 taking place from 19 February to 3 March 2021 at the Shaw KinoLounge, is presented by the Middle East Institute at the National University of Singapore and supported by the Singapore Film Society.

Director Foreword

What is a film? A story. An event. A set of moving images. The sound of a train. An eavesdropped conversation. Recorded on camera. Screened in a cinema. Shown on television. Streamed via the Internet.

Movies are the window into our humanity. And they are a respite, though brief, from the challenges of navigating an increasingly complex world.

Each story told, each event recalled, allows us into a world that might mirror the one we live in or looks nothing like our own everyday. And yet something speaks to us through these films. Language and dress may differ but hopes and dreams seem somehow familiar. We are placed in situations we may never have to face. As the stories unfold, we find ourselves rooting for the main characters, willing them to find the solutions, the success or the peace that they seek.

The films we have chosen for this year’s Middle East Film Festival may sometimes be confronting, set against backdrops of family and expectation, harsh landscape, or tumultuous social change. But they each tell of the resilience of spirit, the unbowed soul. And unlike the grand scale, blockbuster films of Hollywood or even Bollywood, those from the Middle East focus more closely on individual struggles and society, giving us a more intimate look into their everyday and how they must navigate these hurdles.

We hope you enjoy the films that the Middle East Institute at NUS has curated this year in partnership with the Singapore Film Society. Thank you again for joining us.