Hunger—the hunger of not knowing where one’s next meal is coming from, and the hunger for sex and love. Sakeena’s life revolves round trying to provide her family with the necessary daily bread that will stave off starvation. Her husband Zaghloul works on and off at one of the village’s cafés, but prefers to spend […]
It is the 26th day of Ramadan in the year 610, and a handsome man named Muhammad is meditating in a cave on Mount Hira. Fear grips him as he tries to sort out the visions and voices washing over him; and terrified that he is possessed, he leaves the cave to return to Mecca. […]
The Strait of Gibraltar: immigrant traffickers pit themselves against two sets of coast guards. Traffickers such as Morad who allocates passengers to boatmen and regales prospective clients with dazzling stories of life in the north. The would-be migrants are held together only by their longing to be free. Kacem has escaped from the civil war […]
Lured by Israeli intelligence into the world of espionage, Charlie, a young actress, is plunged into a deceptive and delicate trap to ensnare an elusive Palestinian terrorist.
Yahya Taher Abdullah writes with a poetic vividness that is unblurred by outside influences. His raw material is the harsh life of the peasants of Upper Egypt and of Cairo seen through the eyes of peasants who have migrated there in search of work. Few writers delve so subtly into a society that is strictly […]
Purposefully imitating Voltaire’s classic Candide, another dark comedy which derives its humour from life’s tragedies, Habiby’s The Secret of Saeed the Pessoptimist is a classic of Arab literature. The story of Saeed, a Palestinian who becomes a citizen of Israel, is a story of fact and fantasy, tragedy and comedy. At once a comic hero […]