Twin Cities Arab Film Festival: Seeking Haven for Mr. Rambo + Chinatown Cowboy

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About

19th Arab Film Festival

Friday, September 26 at 9:30 PM

The screening of Seeking Haven for Mr. Rambo (102 min) is preceded by Chinatown Cowboy (13 min).

ABOUT Seeking Haven for Mr. Rambo

Dir. Khaled Mansour • Egypt, Saudi Arabia • 2024 • Arabic • 102 min
Hassan, an Egyptian man in his twenties, embarks on a journey to save his dog and best friend Rambo after a dispute with his neighbor/landlord turns violent. While the film’s aesthetic is seedy, dark, and grainy, depicting the corruption at the core of any society built on hierarchies of wealth and power, the film explores the importance of friendship and empathy for others. Sweet and avoidant Hassan learns to face his fears and his past by learning to care for and find a safe haven for Mr. Rambo.

FILMMAKER BIO

Khaled Mansour studied filmmaking and screenwriting at several prestigious cinema workshops in Egypt. He is also self-taught, enrolling in several online tutorials and film schools after graduating from the Faculty of Arts at Cairo University. He directed the short film Berry Island (2018), which participated in several international and national festivals. Mansour has also directed a number of short documentaries and commercials for television and social media platforms. His latest feature film Seeking Haven for Mr. Rambo was an official selection at the Venice IFF.

ABOUT Chinatown Cowboy

Dir. Jaafar Alnabi • USA • 2024 • English and Yue Chinese (Cantonese) • 13 min
Inspired by Hong Kong crime films and set in New York City’s Chinatown, this short, genre-blending film follows the Cowboy, a bounty hunter, as he navigates the city, capturing the people, colors, and sounds in all their gritty splendor.

FILMMAKER BIO

Jaafar Alnabi is an Iraqi filmmaker based in NYC. He has worked as a visual effects artist on popular television shows like Succession, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, A Murder at the End of the World, and more.

Content warning: These films include depictions of violence.

PRESENTED BY MIZNA

Mizna is a critical platform for contemporary literature, film, art, and cultural production centering the work of Arab and Southwest Asian and North African artists. For more than 25 years, Mizna has been creating a decolonized cultural space to reflect the expansiveness of our community and to foster exchange, examine ideas, and engage audiences in meaningful art.