TUESDAY 4th FEBRUARY | 7pm | £10 advance tickets
Sandpit Collective presents Other Asias, a film programme inspired by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak’s challenge to rethink "Asia" and the ethnic classification ‘Other Asian’ used in the UK to describe individuals who self-identify as Asian but do not fit within the four largest Asian ethnic categories. This programme seeks to explore the complexities of identity, and otherness, disrupting what has been under and misrepresented within mainstream narratives.
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The Sandpit Collective, in partnership with the University of Sussex, presents, 'طوق الحمامة المفقود, Le Collier Perdu de la Colombe, The Dove's Lost Necklace of the Desert,' by artist, poet and cineast Nacer Khemir.
The second part of Khemir's desert trilogy is situated in Medieval Spain, 11th Century Andalucía, where the story revolves around Hassan, a student of Arabic calligraphy under a grand master. After coming across a fragment of a manuscript, Hassan goes in search of the missing pieces, believing that once he finds them, he will learn the secrets of love. With the help of Zin, a lovers' go-between, he meets the beautiful Aziz, Princess of Samarkand. After encountering trials reminiscent of a 1001 nights he learns the true nature of love.
On his film Khemir says, "This is not an Andalusian love story, but Andalusia as the very essence of love, through its perfumes, poetry and gardens."
Mirrors for Princes: Within classical Arabic literature this genre served as pragmatic guidance for administrative and procedural aspects of governance while stressing the role of rulers as moral exemplars. This film makes reference to both one of the famous books of this genre 'العقد الفريد The Unique Necklace' composed by Ibn ʿAbd Rabbih (860–940) writer and poet from Córdoba and the novel 'The Doves Necklace' (2016) by Raja Alem, the first woman to win the International Prize for Arabic Fiction.
In our journey into Maghrebi Feminist Post-Colonial cinema we showcase the male directors that prepared the way for these female luminaries not only by examining tropes of masculinity, gender roles and identities within societal convention but also by providing opportunities for these pioneering women to gain the skills and the confidence to develop their craft.