Programme of the 9th international literature festival berlin 2009

Sat, 12.09. at 7 pm, Babylon
Specials
Berlin Film Premiere: Disgrace with John Malkovich, based on the novel by John M. Coetzee
Australia/South Africa 2008 | Colour | 120 Min. | English w/ German subtitles.
Director: Steve Jacobs
David Lurie (Malkovich), 52 years old and twice divorced, teaches Romantic Literature at Cape
Town University. The young-at-heart Don Juan seduces one of his students, but the affair soon
takes an unpleasant turn and Lurie loses his job. The film adaptation of the international bestseller
by the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature J. M. Coetzee grants us moving and unsparing
insight into the personal depths and political conditions of a ruptured society. Coetzee’s novel won
the renowned Booker Prize in 1999. at The film adaptation of Disgrace won the International Critics
Award at the 2008 Toronto Film Festival. Admission: €7.50
Sat, 12.09. at 7 pm, Zentral-Landesbibliothek Berlin
Focus Arab World_Reflections
City world – World city III: Alexandria
Omar Akbar in discussion with Youssef Ziedan (Egypt)
Alexandria, founded by Alexander the Great in 331 BC, has been conquered many times and
therefore influenced by many cultures. Today it is the second largest city in North Africa. It is
famous for the Royal Library of Alexandria, which boasts the largest and most highly regarded
collection of Greek and Roman antiquities. Professor Dr. Youssef Ziedan, director of the
department of manuscripts at the library of Alexandrina, which was opened in 2002, and winner of
the Arab Book Prize 2009, will speak with Omar Akbar, urbanist and former director of the Bauhaus
Foundation, about Alexandria.
Sat, 12.09. at 7.30 pm, Haus der Berliner Festspiele / Side Stage
Poetry Night IV
PRESENTER: Silke Behl SPEAKER: Astrid Gorvin and Frank Arnold
Inam Bioud (Algeria). Bioud grew up in Damascus, where she studied Architecture. The multifaceted
poet, novelist, and painter currently runs the High Arab Institute of Translation in Algiers.
Hala Mohammad (Syria). Colours, smells, and movements are connected in her poetry with everrecurring
themes. This corresponds to memory, which also plays a special role in the author’s film
work.
Fatima Naoot (Egypt). Naoot is one of the most famous Egyptian poets. Her poems are often
dedicated to the powerless. Her language is rich in metaphors, is rhythmic and melancholic in tone.
Amjad Nasser (Jordan/ Great Britain). As well as two books of travel writing, he has published six
collections of his poetry. His poems have appeared in German in the anthology Die Farbe der
Ferne (2000, t: The colour of distance). He has lived in London since 1987, where he co-founded
the famous Arabic newspaper al-Quds al-Arabi, where he is the editor of the cultural pages.
Dalia Taha (Palestine) was born in Berlin in 1986, but grew up in Ramallah (West Bank). Her first
collection of poetry, published this year with the title Shurfa wa-la ahad (t: A balcony and no-one
there), combines themes of farewell and death in recurring metaphors in a quiet, melancholic tone.
Sat, 12.09. at 7.30 pm, Haus der Berliner Festspiele / Upper Foyer
Focus Arab World
Short-listed: Arab Booker Prize
PRESENTER and SPEAKER: Hartmut Fähndrich
Mekkawi Said (Egypt). The author won the Egyptian State Prize for Literature in 2008 and landed
on the short-list for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction with his second novel, Cairo Swan
Song. He writes about homeless and orphaned street kids in Cairo, a former student activist
Mustafa, who would like to help, and his American girlfriend.
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