"From June 4 to 14, the festival will transform Barcelona into a hub for LGBTQ+ cinema, with a focus on Arab and Persian cinematographies under the theme “A Thousand and One Queer Stories.” Barcelona, May 6, 2026 - FIRE!! Festival has revealed the complete lineup for its 31st edition and announced that tickets for all festival sessions are now available. Recognised as one of the most significant LGBTQ+ film festivals in Southern Europe, FIRE!! returns with an edition that intertwines cinema, culture, and community, reinforcing its role as a space for discovery, reflection, and connection."
"When I was invited by FIRE!! LGBT Film Festival of Barcelona to create the official poster and video spot for the 2026 edition, it was in direct response to the festival's theme: queer Arab and Persian narratives. This framing immediately resonated with me, as it opened a space where identity, memory, and representation could be approached through a deeply personal visual language. For this project, I worked through my alter ego, Salma Zahore, as a way of developing a form of queer-ture that questions both gender and belief systems."
"Salma functions as a shifting figure through which I explore cultural inheritance, contradictions, and embodied memory, while opening them into something more fluid and performative. The project is also in dialogue with the Fawazeer of Sherihan, an iconic figure whose televised performances from the late 80s and elaborate Ramadan costumes carry a layered sense of theatricality, glamour, and coded subversion. In the work, the dress evolves into a larger, transforming form, while the hands, extended through gloves, become creature-like extensions."
"The eye, a recurring symbol within Arab visual culture of protection and constant watching, is also present throughout the piece. The work becomes an homage to Sherihan's presence, drawing from the way she occupies cultural imagination through spectacle and ritual."
FIRE!! Festival will run from June 4 to June 14 in Barcelona, positioning the city as a hub for LGBTQ+ cinema. The 31st edition focuses on Arab and Persian cinematographies under the theme “A Thousand and One Queer Stories.” The festival connects cinema, culture, and community through discovery, reflection, and connection, and tickets for all sessions are available. The official poster and video spot are created in response to the theme, using a personal visual language centered on identity, memory, and representation. The work develops a queer-ture through an alter ego, Salma Zahore, exploring cultural inheritance, contradictions, and embodied memory. It also draws on Sherihan’s televised performances, Ramadan costumes, theatricality, glamour, and coded subversion, with evolving dress forms, creature-like glove hands, and a recurring eye symbol of protection and constant watching.
#lgbtq-cinema #queer-arab-and-persian-narratives #fire-festival #barcelona #identity-and-representation
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