Arab films, if they are shown in Britain at all, tend to be of the "art" variety. But last month, in a refreshing break from that tradition, the Arab British Centre, in conjunction with the ICA, organised a programme of popular films – the sort that ordinary Arabs watch. As the blurb put it ...

"This week-long series of classic and contemporary popular cinema will take audiences on a journey of gripping dramas, subversive comedies and exaggerated melodramas, taking in an array of rarely seen and re-mastered cinematic masterpieces as well as new releases, many never before seen on British screens. An unmissable and irreverent slice of Arab life, full of unexpected surprises."

Along with the films there were also panel discussions and I chaired one of them, talking with Hussein Fahmy, Egyptian screen icon and star of Watch Out for Zouzou (1971), Philippe Aractingi, Lebanese film director of Bosta (2005) and Under the Bombs (2007) and Khalid Abdalla, British/Egyptian actor and star of United 93 (2006) and The Kite Runner (2007).

A video of the discussion is now online - see below.

Posted by Brian Whitaker, 2 October 2012.