Event

Nazra: Room For A Man

Eyes Wide Open Cinema presents the penultimate screening in a season of films exploring queer representation in Arab cinema.

ROOM FOR A MAN

Director: Anthony Chidiac | Lebanon/USA | 2017 | 77 minutes
In Arabic, French, and Spanish with English subtitles.

A young Lebanese filmmaker who shares a Beirut apartment with his mother and pet dog sets about reconstructing his identity by renovating his bedroom. But as the Syrian construction workers come and go in the freshly embattled household, new questions, old arguments, and unexpected passions get stirred. A womans voice speaks the words the man cannot and what emerges is a heartbreaking portrait of an abused life, marked by a desire to flee but with nowhere to go.

+ ANYA KNEEZ: A QUEEN IN BEIRUT (SHORT)

Director: Mohamad Abdouni | Lebanon | 2017 | 11 minutes
In Arabic with English subtitles.

In 2012 drag queen Anya Kneez left Brooklyn, where she had called home for fourteen years, to return to her home of Beirut, Lebanon. In this frank and nuanced portrait, Anya discusses the decision to move from the US to the Middle East. While challenging homonationalist assumptions of an easier life in the US, Anya also explores the difficulties of working as a drag queen in conservative Lebanon.

+ Skype Q&A with Mathew Gagné.

Mathew is completing a PhD in Anthropology from the University of Toronto. His dissertation explores gay sex in the digital age among queer men in Beirut, to explore how new media has impacted intimacy and socio-political life in Beirut.

We have a limited amount of tickets available for free for those who cannot afford the regular ticket price. Please email tickets@eyeswideopencinema.co.uk to reserve these.

This event has been made possible by BFI's Film Audience Network, with the support of The National Lottery.