Cinema Sundays March 7, "Ajami"   Cinema Sundays Winter 2010 Series 47! Sunday March 7, 2010 Cinema Sundays at the Charles continues its 47th series on March 7th, with the Baltimore Premier of Ajami. Written and directed by Scandar Copti and Yaron Shani. Starring Fouad Habash, Nisrine Rihan, Elias Saba, Youssef Sahwani. 2009 Non Rated. In Arabic and Hebrew with English subtitles. Running time 120 minutes. Synopsis AJAMI, Israel’s Oscar nominated submission to this year’s Best Foreign Film, is the debut movie from Israeli and Palestinian co-directors Yaron Shani and Scandar Copti. Their location filming, use of nonprofessional actors and balanced perspective lend a palpable authenticity to a complex, cross-cultural drama -- set in Jaffa’s multi-ethnic Ajami neighborhood, home to Jews, Muslims and Christians. The repercussions of a revenge killing reveal the cultural and religious tensions simmering beneath the surface: two young brothers fear assassination after their uncle wounds a local criminal; a young Palestinian refugee works illegally in Israel to finance his mother’s surgery; an Israeli woman and her affluent Palestinian boyfriend dream of building a life together; and a Jewish cop is obsessed with finding his missing brother. AJAMI premiered at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival, and has won numerous prizes at festivals worldwide, including the Cannes, London, Jerusalem and Thessaloniki film festivals. --© Film Forum Click on the following for trailer and official site. http://www.kino.com/ajami/ Ladies and Gentlemen we are living large at Cinema Sundays. Last week an almost full house and Dr. Gary Vikan from the Walters, this week we have a possible Oscar winning film that has received amazing reviews from…well…everyone! Ajami is an astonishing film which blends reality and fiction in a most ingenious way. Real actors are combined with real people (are actors people!) in an intriguing mix. Our speaker for the week is Semitic linguist Robert Fradkin whose take on the film should be extremely interesting. I have tried for weeks to get him to Cinema Sundays and have finally succeeded. Don’t miss this memorable screening. Looking forward to seeing you on the 7th for what promises to be a great event. Jonathan Palevsky Jpalevsky@aol.com If you’ve never been to Cinema Sundays before, see below for our stimulating, updated, yet official description. Precisely at 9:45 on a given Sunday morning, while birds chirp in the most musical manner, the doors at the Charles Theatre swing open to reveal a lobby replete with tasty bagels, hot coffee and friendly volunteers ready to serve them to you. All of our volunteers have been pre-tested for a complete lack of morning grouchiness and provide the nicest service…within reason! Guarded carefully by the enormous lobby penguin bagels, coffee and scintillating yet improvised conversation continues until 10:30. At precisely 10:30:07 some brief opening remarks by yours truly will be followed by a few remarks from our guest speaker who will never do either of two things. First he or she will never ever give away the plot of the film and second the speaker will not go on too long…especially if the film is one of those 2.5 h our Soviet era documentaries on the Romance of the Seven Tractor Drivers. Following a brief admonition not to talk during the film and a recommendation to sublet your cell phone to a starving student from the third world the screening will take place. Upon completion of the screening a robust question and answer session featuring our guest speaker will include your fascinating observations upon the recently screened movie. This flowery description barely describes the sublime joy and excitement which is Cinema Sundays. If there is a better way to spend Sunday mornings it simply hasn’t occurred to me….yet! Jonathan Palevsky Host of Cinema Sundays and completely reachable at JPalevsky@aol.com Please feel free to visit us at… Http://www.cinemasundays.com Tickets: $15 at the door. Or buy a mini-membership. 1711 N. Charles St. 410-727-3464 info: karenskicsc@comcast.net To unsubscribe from The Charles Theatre Mailing List visit: http://www.thecharles.com/mailinglist/ To unsubscribe from The Charles Theatre Mailing List visit: http://www.thecharles.com/mailinglist/