The Sparrow (15*)

Part of Collective Visions season

,Barbican Cinema 2
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A young police officer and a journalist join up to search for corrupt high officials who are stealing war weapons in Youssef Chahine's seminal film

A young police officer and a journalist join up to search for corrupt high officials who are stealing war weapons in a small village in Upper Egypt.

Set against the background of a seminal moment in Arab history, the Six Day War in 1967 between Israel and Egypt, in which Israel’s victory was followed by the resignation of Egypt’s well-regarded leader, Gamal Abdel Nasser.

Youssef Chahine, one of the most important voices in Arab Cinema, delivers a self-critical and complex story that investigates a nation’s failures at the end of the Pan-Arab project, leading to its banning by the Egyptian censorship board for two years, and a call for continued resistance

Tagged with: Cinema Collective Visions

Egypt 1972 Youssef Chahine 105 mins

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Photo of director Horace Ove

ScreenTalks Archive: Horace Ove

Moving from photographing leaders of the Black Power movement to directing film, Horace Ove became the first black British filmmaker to direct a feature film – Pressure in 1975. Here, he talks to his friend, experimental filmmaker, John Akomfrah. 

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Barbican Cinema 2