Banned in the Middle East, now showing in S'pore

THE Middle East Film Festival returns to The Projector for its second edition from Friday. Curated with the support of the Middle East Institute-NUS, this year's line-up features six titles that are banned in their own countries despite being critically acclaimed overseas.

"This festival serves to highlight the films coming from the Middle East, with one film from each country in the region wherever possible," shares The Projector's programme director, Gavin Low. "The stories paint a varied picture of people across the region - rich in history and diversity - who are currently struggling against political and social changes, with a lot of resilience."

The titles also seek to explore and raise questions of identity within several complex social and political environments - from the struggles borne by women to social prejudices surrounding seemingly archaic traditions. These, for example, are explored in "two audaciously-made women-centric works" - Rayhana Obermeyer's I Still Hide to Smoke and Ayat Najafi's No Land's Song.