Nicholas Jacob and Michael Aloni in “Out in the Dark" at the Figge Art Museum -- June 30.
Sunday, June 30, 4 p.m.
Figge Art Museum, 225 West Second Street, Davenport IA
Hailed by New York Observer reviewer Rex Reed as “one of the most powerful films about the Arab-Israeli conflict that has ever been attempted on the screen” the award-winning dramatic romance Out in the Dark will be presented as the fourth and final Pride Month event in the Figge Art Museum's 2024 Free Film at the Figge series, its June 30 screening treating audiences to what the Los Angeles Times deemed "an edgy tale fueled by do-or-die sociopolitical intrigue."
The directorial debut of Israeli filmmaker Michael Mayer, Out in the Dark is set in Israel and Palestine, where Palestinian student Nimer Mashrawi (Nicholas Jacob) is heading to Tel Aviv to meet his friend Mustafa N'amnais (Loai Nofi) at a gay bar. While at the bar, he meets a Jewish lawyer named Roy Scheffer (Michael Aloni). They fall in love, though Nimer struggles with the reality of their relationship. As their love progresses, Palestinian society rejects Nimer because of his sexual orientation, whereas initially Israeli society rejects him due to his nationality. Yet the situation is soon made even worse for Nimer when he realizes that his brother Nabil Mashrawi (Jamil Khoury) is hiding a weapon stockpile for his militant friends.
Mayer's feature-length debut premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September of 2012 and in Israel in the Haifa International Film Festival the following month. A GLAAD Media Award nominee for Outstanding Film - Limited Release, Out in the Dark also received awards for Best International Feature at FilmOut San Diego, the Audience Award at the Berlin Jewish Film Festival, and Best First Feature at the San Francisco International Lesbian & Gay Film Festival. The recipient of numerous international raves, the movie was praised by Ella Taylor of NPR, who wrote that "Tel Aviv and the West Bank may be worlds apart in terms of culture, politics and religion, but Mayer cleverly merges them into a single claustrophobic continuum of paranoia, violence and corruption that corrodes everything it touches. ... As the movie gathers steam, it deepens into an examination of the way politics and tribalism can contaminate everyday life."
Out in the Dark will be screened at the Davenport venue on June 30, admission to the 4 p.m. showing is free, and audiences are invited to discuss the film afterward over a complimentary glass of wine. For more information on this Free Film at the Figge presentation, call (563)326-7804 and visit FiggeArtMuseum.org.
