Biggest festival to date will include 60 screenings and events across four London venues, plus screenings in 8 other UK venues LONDON: This year’s SAFAR Film Festival will be held from June 18-30 in nine British cities, making it the largest and longest-running Arab cinema event in the UK, according to the Arab British Center. Curated by long-time SAFAR and Arab British Center collaborator Rabih El-Khoury, the 2024 program will explore the themes of dreams, hopes, and realities through stories from 15 Arab countries. The festival’s program features 60 screenings and events across four London venues, as well as cinemas in Birmingham, Cardiff, Glasgow, Hull, Liverpool, Manchester, Oxford and Plymouth. El-Khoury said the festival will include Sudanese and Palestinian cinema, and promised audiences “themes spanning family dynamics, loss, love, migration, and the harsh truths of war and politics.” He said: “Within these stories, and through challenging and captivating cinema, we aim to facilitate exchange, reflection and share strength in solidarity.” In its ninth year, SAFAR is viewed as the leading platform for showcasing Arab cinema in the UK. The program features new releases, classics, archive film, and family-friendly screenings. Highlights include the documentary “Life is Beautiful” by Mohamed Jalaby, which examines European solidarity, and the rigidity of borders, both physical and bureaucratic, amid the Gaza war in 2014. Other works include “Bye Bye Tiberias” by Lina Soualem, a poignant exploration of four generations of Palestinian women; “The Burdened” by Yemeni director Amr Gamal, which follows Isra’a and Ahmed who struggle to provide a sense of normalcy for their three young children; and “Inshallah a Boy” by Amjad Al Rasheed. “The festival forms a key part of our work to further understanding of the Arab world in the UK,” said Nadia El-Sebai, executive director of the Arab British Center. “This year we are honored to work once more with Rabih El-Khoury and our guest curators and partners across the UK to present our biggest festival to date. “Despite the shadows cast by the difficult realities faced across the region, SAFAR invites us to come together and find solace, hopes and dreams, in the universal language of cinema,” she said.