Arpa Film Festival Brings the Latest in World Film to Los Angeles

Andrew Wertz

The 18th annual Arpa Film Festival will continue its tradition of exhibiting fascinating films from around the world. The festival’s schedule showcases many shorts, documentaries and feature films that are rarely seen and represented on screen. The selections come from countries around the globe, and span nearly every genre imaginable. 

“Lost Birds,” a Turkish Drama, will be the festival’s opening night screening. The Turkish-Armenian film shows young children in 1915 dealing with the aftermath of the Armenian Genocide and the loss of their family and friends. The film, like most of the works screened, will be followed by a Q & A with the film’s creators and producers. The opening night will also include a courtyard ceremony and a cocktail reception.

The Arpa Festival runs for three days and plays films at both of the Egyptian Theatre’s screens. Although the feature films play alone, the documentaries and shorts are grouped into programs allowing audiences to see several productions at once. Along with CSUN student films, the festival screens unique shorts such as “Tamara,” a Romanian surrealist black comedy, “Welcome,” an Ecuadorian dramedy about children discovering the Internet, and “Ablution,” an Iranian drama following a woman’s struggle with her sexuality.

Arpa also screens documentaries, showing one or two per program depending on each film’s running time. The documentaries cover a broad range of topics – a profile of a music legend in “Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry’s Vision of Paradise,” a look at troops leaving Afghanistan in “Tell Spring Not to Come,” “Superunit,” which deals with a Polish apartment complex that houses thousands of people.

The Arpa Festival’s crown jewel is “En Avant,” a French/English science fiction thriller about a group of astronauts who find themselves stranded in their spaceship after Earth is destroyed. The feature film slate also has other genre films like the Serbian drag racing drama “Off,” and “Three Windows and a Hanging,” a film about the aftermath of a brutal war in Kosovo.

The Arpa Film Festival is a great way to get familiar with the latest in world cinema and its eclectic mix of films allows audiences to experience many unique cultures that are often ignored or stereotyped.

The 18th Arpa Film Festival will be at the Egyptian Theatre Nov. 13-15. Tickets, schedules and film information are available here.