01.1The Festival

Amal was born in 2003 as an example of the Arabic audiovisual market to open up a path through which culture could travel in the most fascinating way it can: through cinema.

The second event held by Amal, Amal 04, was a resounding success with the public and also for enriching the Spanish audiovisual structure. The II Arabic Audiovisual Festival chose 18 works that had not been shown in Spain for its exhibition in Santiago de Compostela. The highpoint was the Palestinian/Swiss documentary “Al-Sabbar” (Cactus) which was premiered simultaneously in Nazareth and Santiago de Compostela, uniting the two holy cities in the middle of the Año Xacobeo (a year celebrating St. James).

And in 2005 Amal took a definitive step by becoming the first International Film Festival for Arabic Cinema to be held in Spain.

Amal 06 saw Foundation Araguaney’s objectives and hopes fulfilled. Some three thousand spectators attended the festival, demonstrating not only their interest in the current realities faced by the Arabic world, but also their interest in the film industry.

Amal 07 saw the festival consolidated as an international one. Three times the number of films were entered, and the official section was made up of 47 works: 30 short films, 9 long films and 8 documentaries; with the majority of them being shown in Spain for the first time. An international jury, representing the audiovisual sector, chose the winners in this event. Two parallel activities were developed during this event to strengthen the Festival’s cultural offer: an exhibition of paintings “Colourist in Wartime” with works from the Iraqi painter Jaber Alwan, which were exhibited for the first time in Spain; and the special program for projections, “From the Middle East with Love” gave us the experimental work of a group of creative young Arabs on the current artistic circuit

More than ever Amal 08 wants to collaborate with developing inter-cultural dialogue, to promote mutual understanding, to develop projects together - between our land and the countries of the Arabic world.

We would like to thank you all and to welcome you to AMAL 08

01.2 Photos