Aflam guests enjoying time together before the movie
On Saturday March 19th, the Arabic Language and Culture Association of South Australia(ALCASA) brought together members from varied cultural backgrounds for aflam, an afternoon to celebrate the work of an internationally acclaimed artist and poet, Gibran Khalil Gibran. His bestselling poetic novel, The Prophet, has been adapted into a feature-length animation directed by Roger Allers (The Lion King) and was screened by ALCASA in association with the Lebanese Film Festival Association Inc. (LFF Sydney).
The cinema was packed to capacity. Respected members of the South Australian Arabic speaking community, young families, ALCASA members and a broad variety of interested others mingled together in the foyer of the Mercury cinema. They shared complimentary traditional Arabic coffee and sweets as they exchanged introductions and stories and most importantly contributed to the celebration of inter-cultural awareness, social harmony and multi-cultural appreciation. Once seated in the theatre, attendees were welcomed by ALCASA Secretary, Hassan Mekawy, who shared his particular love for the literary work of Khalil Gibran and gave a reading from The Prophet. Fayrouz Ajaka, ALCASA Chairperson, then addressed the audience sharing her passion for the Arabic language and culture and expressed her gratitude to those present, ALCASA members, volunteers and major sponsors.
Zaffit SA then erupted onto the stage with their energetic performance of some traditional Arabic song and dance. They wowed the crowd with an extraordinary sword dance and then managed to get a crowd participate in dabke, a traditional dance; they brought the room to life with drumming, clapping and foot stamping; this set the mood perfectly. We were very lucky to have in attendance Camille Lattouf, Director and Co-Founder of the LFF, who flew in from Sydney to speak to the full-house. He gave us a brief introduction into the film and his appreciation of again collaborating with ALCASA.
The audience was then silenced from the very beginning of the film. Khalil Gibran’s The Prophet Movie opened with an enchanting scene filling our senses with art, calligraphy and music and from then we were hooked into the wonder of the film. The film was a powerful adaptation of the classic tale and made an extraordinary attempt to weave the wisdom of the poems into a great narrative. The audience were particularly inspired by the amazing artwork and music which captured the power of Gibran’s work so accurately.
ALCASA and its members could not have been more proud of the success of the aflam event. We would like to thank all those that attended the event and their contribution to enhancing cultural harmony in SA. We must thank our volunteers who have been dedicated and supportive of every event we participate in. And we would also like to thank our sponsors and supporters, who without them this event would not have been possible.
Check the event’s photos at the link.
ALCASA Aflam is supported by the Minister of Multicultural Affairs South Australia
ALCASA Committee 2015 – 2016
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