On Monday April 8th, Habibi (2011) will be screened as part of the Ethics Film Series. Young lovers Qays and Layla are university students in the West Bank who are forced to return home to Khan Yunis, Gaza before completing their courses. In conservative Khan Yunis, their relationship can only be sustained through marriage, but Qays is too poor to convince Layla’s father that he can provide for his daughter. As the couple struggles to be together, Qays paints verses from the classical Sufi poem Majnun Layla all over Khan Yunis, a rebellious act that angers Layla’s father and the local self-appointed moral police. Lyrical and passionate, Habibi depicts a reality where personal happiness must be weighed against society’s opinions, and a choice sometimes made between one’s people and one’s heart.
The film will begin at 7:00pm in the Griffith Film Theater in Duke University’s Bryan Center, followed by a post-film discussion with faculty.
The screenings are free and open to the public. Refreshments and free parking passes provided.
The theme of the 2013 Ethics Film Series is “Love and Justice.” This year, the film series will be in collaboration with the Human Rights Watch Traveling Film Festival. Each spring, the Kenan Institute for Ethics sponsors a film series in collaboration with Duke’s Screen/Society, the Center for Documentary Studies, and the Arts of the Moving Image Program. The films provide popular and accessible vehicles for talking about ethics around a particular theme, and each series as a whole offers rich opportunities for debate and discussion on ethical issues for audiences from both the Duke and Durham communities.