The Middle East Center kicked off its film series, “The Middle East Through its Films,” Thursday night with the showing of “Women (Nashim),” a film by Mos he Mizrahi.
Prof. Ibrahim Karawan made some statements regarding the upcoming films in the series prior to the showing.
“The series will discuss important issues regarding politics, society, culture, history and gender in Israel, Turkey, Iran, Tunisia and Morocco,” he said.
Prof. Laurence Loeb insisted that when he helped put the series together, he wanted to stay away from movies dealing with national politics because people get enough of that through the media.
“What’s important is what can be brought from these films in terms of understanding people and the societies that they’re a part of,” he said.
Linda Adams, director of the Middle East Center’s outreach program, reiterated, “Really its [purpose is] to break down stereotypes and expose people to different cultures.”
The film “Women” was released in 1997 in Mizrahi’s native language, Hebrew. The movie was presented at the U with English subtitles.
The film is a romantic drama which takes place in 19th century Jerusalem and involves one woman’s struggle to bear children and the sacrifices she makes to ensure her husband may continue his family line.
Loeb led a discussion following the film. “The idea here is to explore what happens when a woman is barren in a society in which it’s always a woman’s fault,” he said.
Mizrahi’s past films have won him prestigious awards, including the 1977 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film with “Madame Rosa” and first prize in the Cannes Film Festival for “I Love You Rosa” in the late 1970s.