
IN THE SHADOW OF BEIRUT

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SIMA’S SONG
Director: Roya Sadat
Afghanistan in 1972 is a cauldron of opposing political forces. Suraya, part of an influential political family, becomes head of the dominant Communist Party’s women’s organisation, believing it is the best hope for equal rights. Her friend Sima is sceptical of all politics and, as a talented musician, is dedicated to her traditional art and its romantic themes. Despite their differences, these two young women remain best friends through university, even when Sima marries and starts attending Muslim Youth meetings. When the army starts arresting Muslim activists, Suraya helps her friends escape to the mountains and the protection of the mujahadeen, but war follows them. The film is a marvellous testament to the courage and loyalty of Afghani women in the face of constant adversity.

In-Conversation with Nick Jonas
Director: Nick Jonas
Nick Jonas is a Golden Globe-nominated American singer, songwriter and actor. Jonas began acting in theater at the age of seven before forming a band with his older brothers, Joe and Kevin, known as the Jonas Brothers. Jonas starred in the widely successful films Camp Rock (2008) and its sequel Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam (2010). In 2017, he also starred in the adventure comedy film Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, which became one of the highest-grossing films of the year. He also starred in The Good Half, Midway and Chaos Walking, and can next be seen in the upcoming film Power Ballad.

TASTE THE REVOLUTION
Director: Daniel Klein
For nearly 25 years one of Oscar winner's Mahershala Ali's earliest, craziest and most brilliant performances has been hiding in a vault. Director Daniel Klein shot a film in the year 2000 about a group of revolutionaries putting on a world summit to counter political apathy and encourage America to stand up to capitalism but then world events got in the way and the film vanished. Now, after a call from Ali, who plays a revolutionary leader, the director has gone back over the footage and reimagined the film as a mockumentary about a documentary film crew trying to capture an event that they hope will be a modern-day Woodstock, but turns out to be more Fyre Festival.

MONSIEUR AZNAVOUR
Director: Mehdi Idir
Charles Aznavour, the son of Armenian immigrants who became a defining voice of France, died in 2018 aged 94. Two years later, his sons, Mischa and Nicolas, announced they had been working with their father on a biopic to be released this year: Aznavour’s centenary. This stunning musical drama is an intimate portrait of the artist’s life that's packed with biographical information. Growing up in poverty gave him an unswerving determination to reach the top; by the 1940s, he was playing cabarets with Pierre Roche, but his ambition was a solo career and a mass audience. Tahir Rahim plays Aznavour in a drama punctuated with disarmingly honest anecdotes from family members, giving us both the man and, of course, his music.