São Paulo – Actress Hiam Abbass of Palestine will be honored during an event that will mark the launch of the Beit21 platform next week at the Alliance Française theater in downtown São Paulo. The event will last three days (the 17th, 18th and 19th), including film screenings, a theater play and conversations with the world-renowned artist, who’s also a director and playwright with a lengthy track record in film, theater and TV. She has been featured in Hollywood productions of the likes of Steven Spielberg’s Munich, Ridley Scott’s Exodus: Gods and Kings, Denis Villeneuve’s Blade Runner 2049, and in series including Netflix’s The OA and HBO’s Succession. She recently starred in the motion picture Insyriated, which was shown in the latest Arab World Film Festival in São Paulo. This will be Abbass’ first time in Brazil.
Beit21 is an artistic and cultural mobility platform for artist residency programs and production of new content on contemporary art, involving artists from the Southern Hemisphere, fostering cultural interchange between Latin America, Africa and the Middle East.
“The platform came from the idea of creating a means for permanent interaction, for getting artists in touch for projects and promoting cross-cultural gazes, i.e. different artforms with artists from different countries, cultures and religions,” explained Geraldo Campos, one of the creators of Beit21 alongside Arturo Hartmann and Ahmed Zoghbi, the three of whom do research on Palestinian culture and art.
An opening cocktail party will be held at 6:30 pm on Monday (17), followed by a masterclass with Abbass on her career and Arab cinema. A music and poetry performance will ensue, featuring the Brazilian-born, Lebanese descendant artist Sami Bordokan. The Beit21 website is expected to go online this evening.
Tuesday (18) at 7 pm will see the premiere of Against the Robots, adapted from the eponymous text by George Bernanos, with subtitles in Brazilian Portuguese, followed by a conversation and interaction with the audience. Abbass conceived the monologue, which also features acting by Jean-Baptiste Sastre. Following the premiere, the play will tour Brazil. “The text is from 1944, a critique of totalitarianism and dehumanization by machines, thereby conversing with contemporaneity,” said Campos.
At 7 pm on Wednesday (19), there will be a showing of Inheritance, a feature film directed by Hiam Abbass. After the film, the director will Brazilian actresses Letícia Sabatella and Fernanda Azevedo for a conversation.
The whole event will be held at the Alliance Française theater in the Vila Buarque neighborhood, in downtown São Paulo. It will be open to the public and simultaneous translation will be available. The event is organized by Alliance Française in partnership with the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce and the Federation of Muslim Associations in Brazil (Fambras).
Festival
The event will also mark the launch of “48-18 – 1st Contemporary Palestinian Art Festival in Brazil,” slated to take place in November featuring fine arts, theater, music, cinema, curators and researchers who focus on Palestine. “We are bringing in Palestinians who live in Palestine and elsewhere, including refugee camps, to promote this meeting of a people who build their vision of society based on the prohibition from entering their own land. We will reunite the people who can’t go back to their homeland and showcase their art that comes from exile, from the Diaspora,” said Campos. The researcher also emphasized the symbology of the 70th anniversary of the “Nakba” (Arabic for “the catastrophe”), which is how Palestinians term the creation of the State of Israel, which led to 800,000 Palestinians being driven away from their land, in 1948.
Quick facts
Beit21 platform launch and tribute to actress Hiam Abbas
September 17, 18 and 19 – 7 pm
Alliance Française Theater – Rua General Jardim, 182
Vila Buarque – São Paulo
Free ission – tickets available at venue an hour prior to start of event
www.teatroaliancasa.com.br
Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
