A Year In Review: The Dream Of Shahrazad

Mon. 9 Jan, 2017 at 7:30pm SAST
All Ages
Price: R45.00
All Ages
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Price: R45.00
All Ages
Event Description

With 2016 behind us, lets take a moment to honour the year, all the highs and lows. With a selection of the best performing Bioscope films of the past year, you will have one last chance to catch that film you might have missed. Sprinkled on top of this selection is a collection of films that best encapsulate the moments, the feelings, and general spirit of 2016.


Why? Celebrated South African filmmaker Francois Verster delivers his masterpiece, and one of the most unique depictions of Egypt’s revolution.


The Dream Of Shahrazad


A richly kaleidoscopic film by Emmy award winning filmmaker Francois Verster.


WINNER OF BEST SOUTH AFRICAN DOCUMENTARY AT THE 2015 DURBAN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL


THE DREAM OF SHAHRAZAD, described by early viewers as a documentary masterpiece and already hailed in Egypt as one of the best films about the country’s past few years, looks at recent political events in Egypt and Turkey through the lens of the famous story collection known as THE 1001 NIGHTS.  At once observational documentary, concert film and political essay, it uses the metaphor of Shahrazad (the princess who saves lives by telling stories) to explore how creativity and political articulation coincide in response to oppression.


Filmed before, during and after the Arab Spring, THE DREAM OF SHAHRAZAD weaves together music, oral storytelling and politics to produce an experience that is insightful, magical and deeply moving, and which celebrates the ways in which human beings turn important and difficult realities into art, and how art in turn impacts on reality.


In the film a Turkish youth orchestra conductor uses Rimsky-Korsakov’s SCHEHERAZADE suite as a tool for political education.  A young Lebanese actress reconciles her past by becoming an internet activist in Egypt. An older visual artist finds his “dream of Shahrazad” in the appearance of a beautiful young storyteller. An Alexandrian storyteller meets with the mothers of martyrs of the Revolution and turns their testimonies into new storytelling performances.


The film was completed in September 2014.


 

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Venue Details
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The Bioscope Independent Cinema 286 Fox Street
Johannesburg, Gauteng 2001
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