Captain Abu Raed- FPS
The Fabulous Picture Show

Captain Abu Raed

FPS hosts a special screening of Jordan’s first feature film in 50 years.

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Director Amin Matalqa and lead actor Nadim Sawalha
join Amanda Palmer to talk about Captain Abu Raed 

The film is Jordan’s first feature in 50 years and most recently won the World Cinema Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival.

Telling the story of Abu Raed, a lonely janitor at Amman’s International Airport, it is a story of dreams, friendship, forgiveness and sacrifice. 

Having never realised his dreams of seeing the world, Abu Raed experiences it vicariously through books and brief encounters with travellers. One day, he finds a captain’s hat amidst the trash at the airport and is followed by a neighbourhood boy who spots him wearing it. The next morning Abu Raed wakes up to find a group of neighbourhood children at his door, who believe that he is a pilot. And thus, their friendship begins. 

Director Amin Matalqa and lead actor Nadim Sawalha join Amanda Palmer in a Q&A to talk about Captain Abu Raed as a story of everyday people intersecting across social boundaries.

Academy Awards 2008

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No Country for Old Men was this year’s big winner

In tune with what might have been the best year ever for quality cinema, this year’s Oscars featured perhaps the most respected roster of nominees in its history.  But these fine films were also, with one exception, quite grim.  And it was this one exception, the independent comedy Juno, that also just happened to be the one break-out box office success from amongst the major nominees.

The Fabulous Picture Show asks what this year’s winners and nominees might tell us about the state of cinema, and bemoans, as always, the Academy’s woeful and archaic treatment of foreign-language films.

Julian Schnabel

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The Diving Bell & the Butterfly is an emotionally
stunning piece directed by Julian Schnabel

Amanda Palmer meets Julian Schnabel, one of the most lauded and financially successful artists of his generation, to discuss his third foray into filmmaking, The Diving Bell & the Butterfly.

Although Schnabel’s previous films were well-received, nothing could have prepared viewers for this visually and emotionally stunning depiction of a man who had it all, then lost it all after a stroke left him a prisoner in his own body, then dictated his memoirs with 200,000 blinks of the eye – the only muscle in his body he could still control.

Be Kind Rewind

Director Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), one of the great fantasists of modern cinema, takes the Fabulous Picture Show briefly into his head to discuss his latest film, Be Kind Rewind, in which a video store clerk (Mos Def) and his accidentally magnetised pal (Jack Black) are forced to re-create dozens of popular films in order to re-stock their video store.

Jodhaa Akbar

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Jodhaa Akbar is a lavish production set in the
16th century, directed by Ashutosh Gowariker

The Bollywood director, Ashutosh Gowariker, behind 2002’s Oscar nominated Lagaan, has decided to bring to life the Indian Mughal era in Jodhaa Akbar.

The lavish production, set in the 16th century, tells the story of a marriage between a Muslim emperor and a Hindu princess – a marriage of alliance between two cultures and religions, for political gain.

Jodhaa Akbar stars Bollywood heart-throb Hrithik Roshan as the Mughal emperor Akbar and glamorous Aishwarya Rai as the Rajput princess Jodhaa, but aside from such names attracting attention, the epic romance is also igniting controversy in Rajasthan, the land of princess Jodhaa, where Rajputs have accused director Gowariker of distorting historical facts.

Watch part one of this episode of The Fabulous Picture Show on YouTube

Watch part two of this episode of The Fabulous Picture Show on YouTube

This episode of The Fabulous Picture Show will broadcast at the following times GMT:

Saturday 23rd February 14:30, 22:30; Sunday 24th February  02:30, 12:30; Monday 25th February 00:30, Tuesday 26th February 13:30; Wednesday 27th February 19:30; Thursday 28th February 05:30; Friday 29th February 03:00, 10:30, 16:30; Saturday 1st March 06:30.


Click here for Amanda Palmer’s biography

 
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