Damascus cinema festival starts today

The 11th session of the Damascus international cinema festival is due to open today 6pm local time at the Umayyad's palace for conferences, in the outskirts of Damascus, and it will last for one week.

The opening film is by the Egyptian filmmaker Redwan al-Kashef, under the name "Araq al-Balah" ( the Sweat of the palm).

Taking part in the biannual festival's short and feature film competition retrospectives are films from Colombia. Venezuela, Chile, India, China, Japan, Malaysia, Iran, Philippine, Algeria, Egypt, Lebanon, Sudan, Tunisia, Morocco, Libya and Syria.

A large number of Syrian artists will present the festival's inauguration ceremony. It will include three shows for belly dance, ballet and modern dancing, while other artistic sketches will be performed relating to the new millennium.

Moreover, this time it will be directed by Syrian cinema critic Marwan Hadad, raising the slogan of "For progress and liberation."

Its arbitration committee is headed by Chinese Director Hwang Shawkeen, and its members include Iraqi director Kaiss El-Zobaidi, Syrian actor Thnaa Debssi, Syrian scenarist Mohamoud Abdel Wahed, and Egyptian actress Assar El-Hakein.