***UPDATE*** The Jaffa Theatre will present the Yafa Festival for Contemporary Arabic Culture from July 16 – 18, 2020 – broadcast online on the Jaffa Theatre facebook page. The festival was originally scheduled to take place primarily outdoors, in the courtyard of the Jaffa Theatre. However, due to the new regulations the festival will take place entirely online.
Now in its 5th edition the festival will feature events in Arabic and Hebrew, with original productions, theatre premieres, plays for children, workshops, films and literary events. Yemei HaTanzim, starring Rauda Suleiman, Israel Prize Recipient Makram Khoury, and Yosef Abu Varda, was originally scheduled to be shown at the Jaffa Theatre, but it too will be shown on the facebook page on Friday, July 17th at 20:30. There may be other changes to the schedule, check the Jaffa Theatre facebook page for updates.
Among the events at the festival will be a screening of Rami Loevy’s film The Dead of Jaffa. Sensitively and poignantly weaving the personal and the political, past and present, the film stars Yussuf Abu-Warda and Ruba Bilal-Asfour as George and Rita, a childless couple living in Jaffa, who take in three children smuggled in from the West Bank, who may or may not be their relatives. Rita and George are taking on a serious risk, but the children’s mother is dead, their father is serving a life sentence, and there is no one else to care for them. Meanwhile in the neighborhood, a British director (Jonny Phillips) is making a film about his parents’ romance at the time of the British Mandate in Palestine. As events unfold, the two plots intertwine, leading to a climax that reflects the painful issues, conflicts and dilemmas of our time, place, and peoples.
A video work of the internationally renowned dancer Iman Safiah will be shown in the foyer of the Jaffa Theatre. The talented dancer met his untimely death this past May, yet the beauty of his work will live on forever.
The Yafa Festival is made possible through the support of the Bracha Foundation, the Ministry of Culture, and the Old Jaffa Development Company. Artistic Direction: Rauda Sliman and Igal Ezraty; Production: Ravid Sevil; Artistic Committee: Rauda Sliman, Punta Jaber, Gabi Aldor, Hana Vazana Grunwald, Igal Ezraty, Ravid Sevil; Consultant: Eli Greenfeld.
For tickets and additional information about the festival, contact the Jaffa Theatre:
Jaffa Theatre website www.jaffatheatre.org.il
Email: info@jaffatheatre.org.il
Address: 10 Mifratz Shlomo, Old City of Jaffa, 03-5185563
