Human Rights Watch Film Festival - London

Jehane Noujaim’s award-winning documentary The Square (2013) serves as the Festival’s fundraising benefit at Curzon Mayfair on 18 March. Noujaim follows a group of young activists, including British-Egyptian actor Khalid Abdalla (United 93, The Kite Runner), as they demonstrate in Cairo’s main square and campaign for political change. They witness and document the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak’s 30-year-long dictatorship in 2011, the military’s brutality during the protests, the rise in popularity of the Muslim Brotherhood and the military’s removal of Mohamed Morsi, Egypt’s first democratically elected president, in 2013.

On 20 March, the Opening Night of the festival at the Curzon Soho will see the UK premiere of Madeleine Sackler’s Dangerous Acts Starring the Unstable Elements of Belarus. The Belarus Free Theatre is an underground collective of performers who used to hold guerrilla performances in Belarus, critical of President Lukashenko and his repressive policies. Using smuggled footage and uncensored interviews, Sackler follows the attempted censorship and imprisonment of various members and the eventual flight into exile of founding members, Nikolai Khalezin and Natalia Koliada.

Another memorable feature is the UK premiere of Before Snowfall (Wednesday 26 March 20.45 | Barbican and Thursday 27 March 20.45 | Ritzy Brixton), Hisham Zaman’s extraordinary film about honour killing. An Iraqi Kurd, Siyar, the oldest son in his household, follows his older sister, Nermin, through Europe to Oslo, Norway after she flees an arranged marriage. The film is damning indictment of this barbaric tradition and also exposes the various criminal connections that help to sustain the practice.
The HRW film festival has fast become one of the best showcases for documentaries and features that draw attention to the various human rights abuses and crimes being committed around the world with impunity. This year, it’s organised around five themes: Armed Conflict and the Arab Spring; Human Rights Defenders, Icons and Villains; Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Rights; Migrants’ Rights and Women’s Rights and Children’s Rights.
Originally published by Cine-Vue.com