The 22nd of October will begin the fifth edition of the International Euro Arab Film Festival AMAL 007. In the Aula Sociocultural Caixa Galicia will take place the inaugural ceremony of this unique festival in Spain and one of the most important of its kind in Europe. This V Edition is still working towards a better understanding between West and East through cinema, creating bonds among both cultures. At this ceremony there will be present, Ánxela Bugallo, Responsible of Culture and Sports in the Galician Government, Xosé Sánchez Bugallo, Mayor of Santiago de Compostela, Fernando Salgado, General Secretary of Communication, Ghaleb Jaber Martínez, Curator of the Festival and Cristina del Valle President of the Jury, who is well-known as an artist and also due to her involvement in human rights projects that lead her to travel an know first hand reality in many places as Iraq, Sahara and Palestine.
AMAL means hope in Arabic, the same hope that guides the work of the Araguaney Foundation since 1984, promoting cultural exchanges and making Santiago de Compostela a lace that links Spain with Latin America and the Arab world.
The inaugural act will take place at 10 pm, after which two films selected for the Festival will be shown: Colourist in Wartime, a documentary about the international painter from Iraq, Jaber Anwal. Exiled to Rome 30 years ago, this artist uses colours to praise the beauty of life, while his country is still in war. The Exhibition Room of the Meliá Araguaney Hotel holds the first exhibition of this artist in Spain. Jaber Anwal will be among us during the showing. Heart Edges, by Hicham Ayouch, tells the story of Tafdnar, a small fishing village outside Agadir where fishing is no longer practiced. Seven years ago most of men got lost at sea, and since then the normal, usual life stopped. The old Amghar tries to teach fishing to the local children and Daoud, a young man, is fixing a little boat to go sailing. Two ways of trying to restore normality in a village where there’s no hope for tomorrow.