2010 Abu Dhabi Film Festival Catalog English by Abu Dhabi Film Festival

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Table of Contents 03

Welcome to ADFF

ADFF team

How to Festival

Program overview

13 awards juries

15 25

Opening and Closing Galas

Narrative Feature Competition

Documentary Feature Competition

New Horizons / Afaq Jadida Competition

â&#x20AC;&#x153;What in the World Are We Doing to Our World?â&#x20AC;?

Showcase

Special ProgramS

109

Short Film Competition

123

Emirates Competition

137

SANAD Fund

138

Schedule

143

Index

150 how to festival

Content Guidelines The Abu Dhabi Film Festival recognizes that some films contain subject matter that is not suitable for all audiences. Not all films the Festival screens have been officially rated. The guidelines below are intended to help patrons in selecting films that are appropriate for themselves and their families. G

suitable for viewers of all ages

12+ suitable for viewers 12 or older 15+ suitable for viewers 15 or older. Films may treat subject matter which may not interest young children or may contain

brief sequences depicting violence or containing occasional coarse language 18+ suitable for viewers 18 or older. Films may include brief images depicting either the violence of war or the unclothed

Welcome The Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage (ADACH) is proud to present the fourth annual Abu Dhabi Film Festival (formerly known as the Middle East International Film Festival). ADACH is committed to preserving Abu Dhabiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s heritage and to fostering new cultural movements in the Emirate through intercultural dialogue. It is the leading cultural development organization in the region and was established to promote access to the arts, encourage new Emirati and international talent, and support their development throughout the Emirate. Internationally, ADACH is contributing to the appreciation of different cultures by developing projects that encourage the sharing of cultural traditions and experience. The Abu Dhabi Film Festival is an important part of this year-round program of cultural projects which includes the Abu Dhabi Classics, the Prince of Poets Competition, and the Sheikh Zayed Book Award. This program of events clearly expresses the uniqueness and originality of Emirati Arab and Islamic identity as well as providing an important intercultural exchange of ideas and global understanding. We invite all our guests to join us in celebrating our culture and heritage. We hope that you will enjoy the rich diversity of the people of Abu Dhabi and experience our sincere hospitality whilst discovering the wealth of Emirati and international cinema that the Festival has to offer.

H.E. Sheikh Sultan bin Tahnoon Al Nahyan Chairman, Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage (ADACH) Chairman, Abu Dhabi Film Festival

Welcome The Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage (ADACH) is delighted to continue its commitment to encouraging the development of our local film community by presenting the fourth Abu Dhabi Film Festival. Since ADACH was founded in 2005, the capital of the UAE has gained cultural momentum. Abu Dhabi is turning into an important global forum for arts and culture within the framework of the strategy set to transform Abu Dhabi into a cultural renaissance centre. This strategy will launch leading artistic projects and preserve the ancient cultural heritage of the UAE, as well as strengthening activities that encourage openness to all cultures and provide a unique platform for intercultural dialogue. The Abu Dhabi Film Festival is one of these important initiatives and demonstrates our support for local, regional and international filmmakers. Film is a powerful form of communication that makes us aware of the world around us and gives us an opportunity to experience different cultures and traditions. The Festival is an excellent showcase of the talent and creativity of our local and regional filmmakers and a wonderful chance for them to exchange idea and viewpoints with their peers gathering here from around the world. We are proud to once again have the opportunity to play host to this annual gathering which welcomes an impressive gathering of notable figures from the international film scene to Abu Dhabi. Their presence, and the exciting events of the next ten days, are sure to mark another plateau in Abu Dhabiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s emerging prominence on the international film scene.

H. E. Mohamed Khalaf Al-Mazrouei Director General, Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage Vice-Chairman, Abu Dhabi Film Festival

Welcome At the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage (ADACH), we recognise that cinema is an important part of the cultural development of a society and its heritage. That is why I am very pleased to present the fourth Abu Dhabi Film Festival which firmly establishes the film sector in the UAE and provides motivation and encouragement to our talented Emirati filmmakers. The Festival offers a great chance to encounter some of the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most important filmmakers and film professionals. It sets up channels of cultural exchange and dialogue by creating an interactive atmosphere for Emirati and international filmmakers which, in turn, fosters cultural and artistic development. It also provides opportunities for established filmmakers to share their experiences and knowledge with the new generation. I am delighted that the Festival will offer a rare opportunity to introduce local audiences to a wide variety of films that they may not otherwise get to see. Even though the Festival is only in its fourth year, we have a very eager and enthusiastic audience. We look forward to continuing our work to engage them and others, in the hope that their unforgettable experiences of the Festival will prompt them to return to the future film events that are planned throughout the year in Abu Dhabi.

Eissa Saif Rashed Al Mazrouei Director of Special Projects, Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage (ADACH)

Welcome As we proudly display our new name for the first time, I’m happy to join my colleagues and staff in welcoming you to the Abu Dhabi Film Festival! The name change, which we announced six months ago (from Middle East International Film Festival), was motivated principally by pride in the wonderful city where we’re based, and by the fact that film festivals around the world are customarily named after their city. (Did somebody say “Yes, and A comes a long time before M?” Well, that’s true, come to think of it.) But our focus remains unchanged from last year – we’re still passionate about showing the best new work made throughout the region this past year, as well as to giving our viewers a chance to discover some remarkable works from the past. And this year, we launched SANAD, (see page 137) our new fund dedicated to helping generate even more exciting work from Arab filmmakers in the future. Five SANAD projects were completed this year and are featured prominently in this catalogue. At the same time, we’re still dedicated to presenting outstanding new international films, and to bringing the people responsible for creating them here to Abu Dhabi. That includes new work from Bollywood and Hollywood, of course, but it isn’t limited to those two giant production centres, influential though they are. In fact, since it’s work from those places that has a near-monopoly on local screens throughout the rest of the year, our festival is designed to be an opportunity to catch up with what’s been happening in the rest of the world, to see other kinds of films – like documentaries and shorts – which are almost never shown here – and to have a look at what Emirati filmmakers are doing. To that end, we’ve invited the Emirates Competition, long a sidebar event, to be “inside the tent” this year, to give a greater opportunity for Emirati filmmakers to meet their counterparts from the rest of the world as they come to town for the Festival, to see their work and to show them what they’ve been up to. Have a great Festival! Peter Scarlet Executive Director, Abu Dhabi Film Festival

Welcome to ADFF About the Abu Dhabi Film Festival The Abu Dhabi Film Festival (formerly the Middle East International Film Festival) was established in 2007, with the aim of helping to create a vibrant film culture throughout the region. Presented each October by the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage (ADACH) under the patronage of H.E. Sheikh Sultan Bin Tahnoon Al Nahyan, Chairman of Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage, the event is committed to curating exceptional programs to engage and educate the local community, inspire filmmakers and nurture the growth of the regional film industry. With its commitment to presenting works by Arab filmmakers in competition alongside those by major talents of world cinema, the Festival offers Abu Dhabi’s diverse and enthusiastic audiences a means of engaging with their own and others’ cultures through the art of cinema. At the same time, a strong focus on the bold new voices of Arab cinema connects with Abu Dhabi’s role as a burgeoning cultural capital in the region and marks the Festival as a place for the world to discover and gauge the pulse of recent Arab filmmaking.

About ADACH The Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage (ADACH) is the institution in charge of conserving and promoting the heritage and culture of Abu Dhabi. Established in October 2005 as an authority of the Government of Abu Dhabi, it is administered by a board of directors chaired by H.E. Sheikh Sultan bin Tahnoun Al Nahyan. ADACH has far-sighted aspirations – to harness the pride of the people of the UAE through the development of its cultural heritage, and to be the leading cultural development organisation in the region. Internationally, it is contributing to the strengthening of intercultural dialogue and the appreciation of different cultures by developing projects that encourage the sharing of cultural traditions and experience. ADACH’s holistic vision of culture, which embraces both tangible and intangible heritage. It commits all its resources to the preservation of architectural and archaeological assets as well as to the development of Emirati and international arts, music, literature and cinema. This vision is open to everyone – in the Arab world and beyond. 7

Abu Dhabi Film Festival Team 2010 Senior Team Executive Director

Peter Scarlet Deputy Director

Kellen Quinn Managing Producer

Jeanne LeSage Marketing & Sponsorship Director

Huda Al Shamsi Programming Director

Teresa Cavina Director, Sanad

Marie-Pierre Macia

Programming Programmers:

Intishal Al Timimi, Rasha Salti, Alice Kharoubi, Jim Browne, Denis DeLaRoca, Mohammad M. Khawaja Emirates Competition, Director & Programmer:

Ali Al Jabri

Programming Consultants: Uma da Cunha,

Adrienne Mancia

Sanad Selection Committee: Teresa Cavina,

Marie-Pierre Macia, Eissa Al-Mazrouei, Kellen Quinn, Rasha Salti, Peter Scarlet, Intishal Al Timimi Program Administration

Industry Coordinators: Kseniya

Zhornokley, Nadja Wohlleben Industry Assistant:

Reham Samy

Industry Viewing Library Assistant: Waleed Qadir

Sheikh

Jury Manager: Nagila

Guimaraes

Jury Coordinators:

Dina Ghandour, Irakli Gioshvili, Melanie Claire Young Silva, Patricia Lockard, Esther Wilkes

Jury Assistant: Juman Jarallah Protocol Manager: Raja

Enzminger

Programming Manager:

Protocol Coordinator: Sarah

Özge Calafato

Al Gabani

Programming Assistants: Charlotte Youlten,

Zayed University Intern:

Program Administration Manager: Alyssa Orvis Senior Filmmaker Liaison:

Ben Thompson

Filmmaker Liaisons:

Adel Saeed Al-Jabri, Frida Marzouk, Maud Amson, Rawia Hawissa, Sana Rizvi, Sarah Lancaster Assistants: Aldus D’Sousa,

Yaseen Madani, Zeinab Louati

Research and Materials Coordinator: Adrian Barci Senior Talent Liaison:

Paige Harris

Talent Liaisons: Betty Sadek,

Nancy Rosa, Neeraj Khanna

Arabic Editor: Rasha Salti Managing Editor, Festival Daily: Lizette van Hecke Designers: Nada Baroudy,

Ali Cherri

Publications Coordinator:

Jim Poe

Publications Assistant:

Program Administration Director: Jane Ivey

Teyama Alkamli, Youstina Iskander

Industry Manager: Stephanie Fischette

Maisoon Abdulhameed Mukhtar Special Events

Athina Pereira

Copywriters: Samer Abou

Hawwach, Jim Browne, Uma da Cunha, Nicholas Davies, Denis DeLaRoca, Mohammad M. Khawaja, Sarah Lancaster, Kate Lawrie Van de Ven, Jim Poe, Rasha Salti, Peter Scarlet, Glen Sheppard, Alissa Simon, Tammy Stone, Lucy Virgen

Translation: Samer Abou

Hawwach, Loubna Amer, Elias Hamcho, Sahar Mandour Press Office

Head of Press Office:

Doris Longoni

Accreditation Press Officer: William Royce

Special Events Director:

JoJo Dye

Press Office Coordinator: Cécile Airaud

Festival Tent Manager:

Publicists: Gunnar Gilgen,

Jane Ali Knight

Special Events Coordinator:

Martina Hakim

Opening & Closing Producer: David Plail

Publications & Content Managing Editor, Publications: Nicholas Davies Content Producer: Rashid Humaid Al Marri Managing Editor, Website: Rima Mismar

Steven Grenyo, Abuzar Ikkery, Claudia Rische, Zeina Toutounji-Gauvard

Copy Writers / Editors:

Lisa Reinisch, Sawsan Salameh Red Carpet: Thomas Castaneda Local Press Officer:

Haneen Sasa

Press Materials Coordinator: Nour Jeghel TV& Photo coordinator:

Hadia Nehme

Talent Teams coordinator: Christine Sreih

Database Consultant:

Zayed University Intern:

IT Consultant: James Dutcher

Iman Nawfal Abdulla

Pavla Kormosova

Marketing & Sponsorship Shaikha M. AL Khayyal Marketing Manager:

Peyman Sharifi

& Website Manager:

Ephram Sarkis

Audience Development Manager: Cliodhna Fullam Online Marketing Officer: Touseef Ashraf Advertising & Media Coordinator: Utkarsh Talati

Production Coordinator: Sandra Hodnett

IT Assistant Manager: Marianne Campbell

Venues Manager: Tina Meister

Special Projects Office:

Reem Al Shamy, Shaima Abdullah Al-Shamsi Assistant to the Executive Director: Nada Ghosn

Travel Office Travel Manager:

Neil Thomson

Operations Manager:

Derick Oosthuizen

Merchandise Coordinator: Jason San Juan

Travel Coordinators:

Graphic Designer:

Maie Atabani

Operations Coordinator: Sherin Al Alami

Design Manager:

Visa Coordinator:

Vishal Vaid, Jehan Buhary

Nada Baroudy

Fares Al Sakka

Administrative Coordinator:

Transportations Coordinator: Monty Sanchez

Hadeel Al Sahnawi

Zayed University Intern: Aysha Musabah Khalifa Musabah Ahmed

Administration Operations

Vikram Vaid

Administrative Assistant:

Haris Khan

Volunteer Department Manager: Elvie Choi-Bhagat

Senior Manager Operations: Sanette Coetzee

Assistant Manager:

Operations Coordinator: Amer

Coordinator: Sara Al Nuaimi

Al Sbiei

Administrative Runner: Kussai

Tilouney

Festival Personnel Manager: Sheren Abbas Festival Personnel Coordinator: Haneen Sawan Festival Personnel Assistant: Doaa Awadallah

Hans Burgschmidt

IT Administrator:

Abdullah Bazarah Sponsorship Manager:

Production Production Director:

Lisa Plekhanova

Assistants: Kavin Ujjainwala,

Bashar Al Abadi

Special Thanks to our office Volunteers: Maxine Youlten,

Saif Awadh, Sarah Busia, Mustafa Dameh, Jumana Jarrar, Elize Morin

Assistant Venues Manager: Paul Mark Venue Representatives:

Deann deGruijter, Donna Dwyer, Crystal Skinner Head Representatives:

Dan Hunt, Simar Halwany, Mohammed Rahme Venue Staff:

Allyson Jackson, Amr Diab, Dalia Salem, Debora Zoli, Dina Gad, Fady Kirakides, Gulcin Perringerrard, Hortense Clement, Lina Shinnar, Marya Askarrov, Muhammed Osman, Noeline Saunder, Hala Awad, Shah Zia Butt, Majed Khalial, Farish Qafour, Beverlie Fernandes, Samah Fujali Ushers: Angel Yanni, Lesley Griffin, Salwa Daif, Kathy Mracek, Ali Aloub, Amal Qalais Box Office and Customer Service Manager: Victor

Correia

Box Office Assistant Manager: Glen Sheppard Ticketing and Accreditation:

Saieesh Gandhi, Adi Tunovic, Ashley Rodrigues

Box office Supervisors:

Amama Chinoy, Enas Ebrahim, Kavin L Ujjainwala, Yusra Yusuf Box office Staff: Blanchy

Dodd, Mansour Ahmed, Efna Ebrahini Kutty, Aminata Diaby, Faiza Abdallah Omer, Ali Al Ghasana, Farah

Mohmad, Mahmoud Touman, Mohamed Harith Sharif, Narcisco B Ragas, Nawal Khouildi, Saad Bitar, Shanaya Joseph Alvares, Smriti Shroff, Vishnu Vimal, Zarina D’souza Technical Director:

Darren Brown

Cinema Technicians:

Mohammad Safdar Chaudhry, Ian Freer Head Film Revisor:

Sam Wilkin

Assistant Film Revisor: Warren

Sharon

Print Traffic Manager:

Nina Rodriguez

Print Traffic Assistant:

Heinz Kahler

Logistics Coordinator:

Ahmad Nabelsi

Logistics Runner:

Samaleh Elmi Guessod Subtitling Coordinator:

May Iskandarani

Projectionists: Charlie Allen, Martin Baker, Alasdair Blaikie, Dave Callaghan, Phil Deblasi, Rob McPherson, Blair Stewart

ADACH The Festival wishes to thank the entire staff of the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage under whose auspices the Festival is presented each year. Very special thanks go to staff members of the Communications, Finance, Human Resources, Legal, and Operations & Logistics departments whose invaluable support makes it possible for the Festival to fulfill its mission and develop its plans for the future.

Thank you to all of our Volunteers, for giving us your time and talents to make this festival a great success.

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Program Overview Competitions

Out-of-Competition Selections

Films in these sections are eligible for Black Pearl Awards.

“What in the World Are We Doing to Our World?”

Narrative Feature Competition

Films devoted to broadening awareness of significant environmental issues.

Exciting vision and original storytelling in work from international filmmakers.

Showcase Documentary Feature Competition Non-fiction films that explore remarkable stories and issues in the world around us.

A selection of recent outstanding feature films from around the world. Films in this section are eligible for the ADFF Audience Award.

Special Programs New Horizons / Afaq Jadida Competition Fresh styles and challenging ideas in narrative and documentary work by first- and second-time directors from around the world.

Short Film Competition Inspired narrative, documentary and animated shorts by emerging and esteemed international filmmakers.

Emirates Competition Short films from the UAE and the GCC countries, featuring work from established directors and talented new discoveries.

ADFF is proud to partner with New York’s Museum of Modern Art to present Mapping Subjectivity: Experimentation in Arab Cinema. Other special programs include a Family Day screening of Charlie Chaplin’s The Circus and the long-awaited restoration of Metropolis, Fritz Lang’s science-fiction classic.

Subtitles ADFF screens all non-English-language films with English subtitles. Non-Arabic-language films are screened with Arabic subtitles in the Emirates Palace, the Abu Dhabi Theater and cinemas 1 and 8 at the CineStar Cinemas, Marina Mall. See schedule at the end of this guide for further information.

We’ve got the stars covered We’re running special features on the Abu Dhabi Film Festival on the 9th and 16th October. We’ll have exclusive face to face interviews with Drew Barrymore and local film director Ali F. Mostafa, as well as sneak previews of the VIP lounge, all in our weekly M magazine with The National on Saturday.

m TheNational 09.10.10

saturday magazine

TRUE DREW

AMERICA’S SWEETHEART ONCE MORE, DREW BARRYMORE GOES THE DISTANCE

ADFF 2010 Awards Films in competition contend for Black Pearl Awards in the following categories: Narrative Feature Competition: • Best Narrative Film • Best Narrative Film from the Arab World • Best Actor • Best Actress Documentary Feature Competition: • Best Documentary • Best Documentary from the Arab World Afaq Jadida/New Horizons Competition: • Best New Narrative Film • Best New Narrative Film from the Arab World • Best New Documentary • Best New Documentary from the Arab World Short Films Competition:

• Best Narrative Short • Best Documentary Short • Best Short from the Arab World • Best Animated Short • Best Student Shorts

Emirates Films Competition: • Best Narrative Short

• Best Emirati Narrative Short • Best Script • Best Cinematography • Best Documentary Short • Best Student Short Narrative • Best Student Short Documentary

Productions and co-productions from the following countries are eligible for the awards for films from the Arab world: Algeria, Bahrain, Comoros Islands, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, UAE and Yemen. Films in competition from the above-mentioned countries are eligible for all awards within their section. Films in the Showcase contend for the Audience Choice Award.

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Narrative competition Jury

President Luis Puenzo was born in Buenos Aires. He has had a long and successful career in feature films, advertising and documentaries both at home and internationally. He founded his own production company at a young age. As a writer and director he is best known for The Official Story (1985), which was the first Latin American film to win the Academy Award® for Best Foreign Language Film. His other films include Old Gringo (1989), The Plague (1992) and The Whore and the Whale (2004). He also produced his daughter Lucía Puenzo’s Festival de Cannes selection XXY (2007). His company, Historias Cinematográficas, is involved in production and postproduction services in Spain and a number of Latin American nations, and forms a group with his advertising company, Puenzo Hnos.

Jurors Karim Aïnouz is a filmmaker and visual artist from Brazil. His feature-film debut, Madame Satã, premiered in 2002 at the Festival de Cannes. Suely in the Sky, premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2006. His films have received numerous international awards. His art installations have been shown in the Whitney Museum of American Art Biennial (1997) and the São Paulo Biennial (2004).

Siddiq Barmak was born in Afghanistan in 1962. He earned an MA in cinema from the VGIK institute in Moscow. His debut feature, Osama (2003), won awards at the Festival de Cannes and the Pusan Film Festival and was named best foreign-language film at the Golden Globe Awards. His second film, Opium War (2008), was named Best Film at the Rome Film Festival.

Faouzi Bensaïdi was born in Morocco. He made his first short film, The Cliff, in 1997; it won 23 prizes at festivals around the world. In 2000, he directed two shorts: The Wall, which won a prize at the Festival de Cannes, and The Rain Line, which won a prize at the Venice Film Festival. His first feature film, A Thousand Months, won two prizes at Cannes and WWW – What a Wonderful World (2006) was selected for the Venice Film Festival.

Sulaf Fawakherji is one of Syria’s most celebrated film and television personalities. She has appeared in five feature films and over 50 television shows, garnering several awards for her work as well as participating in numerous film festivals, including visits to Cannes in 2006 and 2008 for her films Halim and Baby Doll.

documentary competition Jury

President Born in Syria in 1954, Oussama Mohammad graduated from the Russian State Institute of Cinematography (VGIK) in Moscow in 1979, where he directed the short documentary Step by Step (1978). He returned to Syria and directed the short documentary Today Everyday (1980) for the National Film Organization for Cinema. He worked as assistant director for Mohammad Malas on Dreams of the City (1983) and directed his first fiction feature, Stars in Broad Daylight in 1988. Deemed by many to be the most scathing critique of contemporary Syrian society, the film has never been allowed a public screening in Syria. Selected for the Directors’ Fortnight of the Festival de Cannes, it earned him great critical praise. His second feature, The Sacrifice, was selected for the Un Certain Regard section at the Festival de Cannes.

Jurors Behrooz Hashemian was born in Iran and earned a degree in film production from Hunter College in New York. He is the cofounder of Silkroad Productions, based in Paris, which specialized in international co-productions with up-and-coming directors. He has produced crucial films by some of the most highly-regarded auteurs working today, including Derviş Zaim, Yeşim Ustaoğlu, Rashid Masharawi, Michael Winter bottom, Amir Naderi, Bahram Beyzaie and Bahman Ghobadi.

Salah Marei was born in Egypt and graduated with a degree in art direction for films from the Cairo Cinema Institute. He has worked as an art director on 38 Egyptian feature films, including The Mummy / The Night of Counting the Years (Shadi Abdel-Salam, 1969 - see page 101). His many accolades over the years include prizes from the National Film Festival of Egypt and the Arab Film Festival of Rotterdam.

Louie Psihoyos was born in Iowa. He worked as a photographer at National Geographic magazine for many years, becoming one of the most renowned photographers in the world. He is especially known for his undersea work. This, along with his interest in ocean activism, led to his motion-picture directorial debut, The Cove (2009), a documentary about dolphin advocate Ric O’Barry, which played at the Festival, which won an Academy Award® for Best Documentary.

Samir was born in Baghdad and grew up in Switzerland. He writes, directs and produces film, video and electronic cinema. His work includes the documentary essay Babylon 2 (1993) and the documentary Forget Baghdad (2002). Snow White (2005) won a number of festival awards. In 1994 he co-founded Dschoint Ventshr Filmproduktion. He is currently working on a documentary entitled Iraqi Odyssey, about his own family living in diaspora.

new horizons competition Jury

President Elia Suleiman was born in Nazareth. In the 1980s, he lived in New York, where he directed his first two award-winning short films, Introduction to the End of an Argument (1990) and Homage by Assassination (1992). Later he ran the Film and Media department at Birzeit University in Jerusalem and published essays about film in English, Arabic and French. His first feature film, Chronicle of a Disappearance (1996), won the prize for best first film at the Venice Film Festival. Divine Intervention (2002) won the Jury Prize at the Festival de Cannes. His latest film, The Time that Remains (2009) won the Black Pearl Award for Best Middle Eastern Narrative Film at the Festival. In 2009 he was named Middle East filmmaker of the year by Variety.

Jurors Khaled Abol Naga studied engineering in Cairo and spacecraft design at the University of Surrey. But his passion was for theater and he moved on to study acting and directing in Egypt and the USA. He has been involved on both sides of the camera since co-producing 2009’s Heliopolis (Ahmed Abdallah) which played at over a dozen festivals (including this one in 2009). He was appointed a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador in 2007.

Nandana Sen grew up in Europe, India and America, and was deeply influenced by Indiana Jones, U2, Marvel Comics and Salman Rushdie. She studied acting at the Lee Strasberg Theater Institute and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and also attended Harvard University. She is well known as a star of Bengali cinema. In addition to acting, she is a dancer and a UNICEF ambassador for child protection.

Lita Stantic is an Argentine producer, writer and director. She is one of the key figures of the New Argentine Cinema. Her production credits include Crane World (1999), The Swamp (2001), Red Bear (2001), Suddenly (2002), The Holy Girl (2004) and Lamb of God (2008).

Debra Zimmerman has been the executive director of Women Make Movies, the world’s leading non-profit distributor of films made by and about women, since 1983. Women Make Movies have consistently worked with important directors such as Kim Longinotto, Louise Carré, Laura Mulvey and Julie Dash. The company distributes Longinotto’s Pink Saris (2010) and Laura Poitras’ The Oath (2010), both of which are screening at the Festival this year.

short film competition Jury

President Shirin Neshat is an Iranian-born visual filmmaker who lives in New York. Her work has been presented in numerous solo exhibitions at major galleries and museums all over the world, including: National Museum of Contemporary Arts, Athens; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Serpentine Gallery, London; Museo de Arte Contemporaneo, Leon; Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin; Musee d’Art Contemporain de Montréal; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Castello di Rivoli, Turin; and Kunsthalle Wien. She was awarded the Golden Lion at the 48th Venice Biennale in 1999 for her video work and a decade later her feature-film debut, Women Without Men won the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival.

Jurors Suheir Hammad layed the lead in Annemarie Jacir’s Salt of this Sea (2008). She is the author of breaking poems, and the recipient of a 2009 American Book Award and the Arab American Book award for Poetry 2009. Her other books are Zaatar Diva, Born Palestinian, Born Black and Drops of this Story. Her work has been widely anthologized and also adapted for theater. Her produced plays include Blood Trinity and breaking letter(s), and the libretto for Re-Orientalism.

Ali Mostafa earned an MA from the London Film School. He gained attention at a number of international festivals with his graduation film Under the Sun (2006), which was named Best Emirates Film at the Emirates Film Competition. His debut feature film, City of Life (2010), established him as one of the pre-eminent filmmakers from the UAE.

emirates competition Jury President Nouri Bouzid was born in Tunisia. He studied film at IDHEC and then at INSAS in Brussels. He was tried and convicted by the Tunisian government for his involvement with a socialist organization and spent five years in prison. After his release he worked as an assistant director on numerous productions. His debut feature, Man of Ashes (1986) won awards at the Festival de Cannes and the Carthage Film Festival. Golden Horseshoes (1989) and Bent familia (1997) were also widely screened and acclaimed. Since then he has become one of the most respected writers and directors from the Maghreb. His other films include Clay Dolls (2002) and Making Of (2006). He was awarded the Tunisian Presidential Award for Film in 1990.

Jurors

Kasim Abid was born in Baghdad and is based in London. His acclaimed films include Amid the Alien Corn (1991); Naji an Ali: An Artist with Vision (1999); Surda Checkpoint (2005) and Life After the Fall (2008), which was named best film at the Munich International Film Festival and the Arab Film Festival of California..

Abdullah Hassan Ahmed is a prominent Emirati filmmaker. He has won awards at the Gulf Film Festival, the Arab Film Festival in San Francisco, the Emirates Film Competition and the Dubai International Film Festival. He was named Best Young Film Director by Digital Studio magazine. He is the co-founder of Faradees Group and Reflective Art Group.

Ahmed Salmeen Al Ali is an award-winning screenwriter and editor who has enjoyed a long and successful career. His films have been screened in festivals around the world and have won several awards, including a Bronze Muhr Award at the Dubai International Film Festival for his screenplay The Mattress. He is a founding member of Breaths Productions.

Haifaa Al Mansour is one of the first Saudi woman film directors, and has always strived to offer Saudi women a voice through her work. Haifaa received her MA in Directing and Film Criticism from the University of Sydney, and currently fills her time working on the television show More than a Woman, which is broadcast by the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation.

emirates script competition Jury

ADFF’s ongoing aim is to develop the skills of the local film industry. Among the many tools required by filmmakers is the ability to write a script that will lead to an excellent production. With this in mind, this year the Festival introduces the Emirates Script Competition. The following screenplays are competing for Black Pearl Awards: • Ah Ya Weldy (Ali Ibrahim) • Ahlam (Thabet Al Maooli) • Atar Aldam (Yasser Al Neyadi) • Ebnat Al Qadr (Mohammed Al Hammadi) • Fan Alintiga’ (Fatma Al Mazrouei) • La Yojad Anwan (Manal Bib Amro) • Laban Muthakal (Talal Mahmood, Ahmed Zain) • Mahmood Al Bareed (Manal Bin Amro) • Maktoob (Amal Abdulla) • Al Qalb Al Sagheer (Nada Ibrahim, Mohammed Al Hammadi) • Shok Ward Turab (Saeed Awadh, Ahmed Zain) Dawa Khafit (Mohammed Al Hammadi)

Jurors Ibrahim Almulla was born in Sharjah. He is a poet and screenwriter based in Abu Dhabi. His screenplays have won a number of prizes at regional festivals, including the Emirates Film Competition, and he has scripted several award-winning documentaries for Sharjah TV. He has published many articles about poetry and cinema in local newspapers and magazines, and has published two collections of poetry: Desert in Baskets (1997) and I Left My Sight in a Well (2003). Currently he works as a journalist for Al Ittihad.

Mohamad Hassan is an author and screenwriter who has been associated with the young film movement in the UAE for many years. The films he has written have been screened at festivals all over the world, and include Small Sky (Abdullah Hassan Ahmed, 2006), Blood Wedding (Saeed Salmeen Al Murry, 2007) and Bint Mariam (Salmeen Al Murry, 2008) and Paradise Evening (Juma Al Sahli, 2009), which screened at the Festival. He has also published novels and written drama for television. In 2004 he established Faradees Group, a pioneering Emirati film production company.

Saleh Karameh el-Amiri is a playwright and director who is a founding figure in the establishment of the theater scene in Abu Dhabi. Considered an auteur with a penchant for experimentalism, he has authored several plays that have been performed on stage in Abu Dhabi and in the Arab world. He has also published novels and directed several films, including Henna which screened in competition at the Festival in 2009. His work in theater and film has brought him a number of accolades. 23

netpac jury

In the twenty years since its foundation, NETPAC has established itself as the leading platform for the discovery and promotion of Asian cinema. NETPAC gave early expression to the need to acknowledge and recognise the emergence of new cinematic talent among Asians. It took under its wing a quarterly publication, Cinemaya, which provided a forum for mostly Asian critics, writers and scholars to document and evaluate Asian films and subsequently add them to the Asian cinema canon. NETPAC’s next major contribution was the institution of the NETPAC Award at international film festivals: as more Asian films were selected for exhibition for world audiences, a yardstick for quality was necessary that matched the competitive spirit fuelling the creative urges of young Asian filmmakers. The NETPAC Award is now given at 28 international film festivals in 21 countries on five continents. The jury at ADFF is chaired by Alberto Elena Díaz, Director of the Granada Film Festival “Cines del Sur.” The other jury members are Ms. Do Kyung Kim (Korea) and Cuneyt Cebenoyan (Turkey)

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Opening gala SECRETARIAT Randall Wallace

CLOSING gala Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame Tsui Hark

MIDDLE EAST PREMIERE

Opening Night GALA

Secretariat Randall Wallace G

Even the best sports movies inevitably focus

With the help of a veteran trainer Lucien

2010 | USA | 123 minutes

on the come-from-behind triumph of their

Laurin (John Malkovich, visibly enjoying the

Color | 35 mm | English

unlikely hero (think Rocky) or the hero and

chance to play a man whose second claim

Executive Producer: William

the child who together conquer the world

to fame was that he dressed badly – very

Johnson, Mike Rich | Producer:

(think National Velvet orThe Black Stallion).

badly), she navigates the perils of the male-

Mark Ciardi, Gordon Gray | Screenwriter: Mike Rich | Cinematographer: Dean Semler Editor: John Wright | Production Company: Walt Disney Pictures | Cast: Diane Lane, John Malkovich, Dylan Walsh, Scott Glenn, Dylan Baker, James Cromwell, Margo Martindale

Print Source: Italia Film International sal

Setting out to portray the career of the most famous and successful horse of all time (he won the mile-and-a-half Belmont Stakes by an unheard-of 31 lengths), the makers of Secretariat faced a tough task. They’ve succeeded handily, focusing on the true story of Secretariat’s owner, Penny Chenery (the

dominated business. Eventually, Secretariat would become the first Triple Crown winner in 25 years; his amazing records are still on the books. This is old-fashioned moviemaking at its best, and this thrilling film is likely to become an instant classic. Peter Scarlet

always astonishing Diane Lane), who agrees to take over the Virginia racing stables of her ailing father (Scott Glenn). She buys Secretariat, a large chestnut colt with a famous sire but a not-very promising track record.

Randall Wallace was born in Tennessee. He was a seminary student at Duke University before relocating to Hollywood to work as a songwriter and screenwriter. He was nominated for an Academy Award® for best screenplay for Mel Gibson’s hit Braveheart (1995). He wrote, produced and directed The Man in the Iron Mask (1998) and We Were Soldiers (2002).

Tsui Hark G

Di Ren Jie zhi Ton Tian Di Guo Grafting a detective story onto the

Uncertain of Dee’s loyalty, the wary Wu sends

China, Hong kong | 2010 | 120

martial-arts action film, Detective Dee

her beautiful and feisty protégée Jing-er (Li

minutes

and the Mystery of Phantom Flame is a

Bingbing), a talented martial artist, to watch

Color | 35 mm | Mandarin

lavish historical whodunit set around the

over Dee. Also on the case is hotheaded

executive Producer:

controversial coronation of ancient China’s

albino court official and co-investigator

chen kuofu, shi Nansun |

only empress regnant.

Donglai (Deng Chao), who gradually warms

Print Source/sales: Huayi Brothers Media Corp.

The film simmers with imperial intrigues as well as baroque murders. Its central character,

to Dee as the latter proves his strength, intelligence and integrity.

Detective Dee (Andy Lau) was a real-life Tang

Tang court costumes and protocol are

Dynasty official; when the film opens in 689

marked by outré visual touches; shot in wide

AD, he has been imprisoned for eight years

screen and choreographed by Hong Kong

for opposing Wu Zetian (Carina Lau), who is

action king Sammo Hung, Detective Dee’s

about to accede to the throne. But now the

fight sequences are marked by director Tsui’s

future empress orders Dee’s release so that he

usual inventiveness.

can investigate the deaths of two high-ranking court officials, both of whom burst into flame

closing Night GALA

MIDDLE EAST PREMIERE

Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame

Alissa Simon

when they were exposed to sunlight.

Tsui Hark was born in Saigon and graduated from the University of Texas. He is renowned for bringing Hollywood production values to traditional Hong Kong action and fantasy genres in hugely successful features. His production company, Film Workshop, has produced international hits by John Woo and others. His films include The Butterfly Murders (1979), Aces Go Places III: Our Man from Bond Street (1983), Peking Opera Blues (1986), Once Upon a Time in China (1990) and The Seven Swords (2005).

Narrative Competition CARLOS

Olivier Assayas

CHICO & RITA

Fernando Trueba, Javier Mariscal, Tono Errando

CIRKUS COLUMBIA Danis Tanović

THE DITCH Wang Bing

HERE COMES THE RAIN Bahij Hojeij

IN A BETTER WORLD Susanne Bier

INCENDIES

Denis Villeneuve

The LIFE OF FISH Matías Bize

MESSAGES FROM THE SEA Daoud Abdel Sayed

MIRAL

Julian Schnabel

NEVER LET ME GO Mark Romanek

POTICHE

François Ozon

SILENT SOULS

Aleksei Fedorchenko

TAMING

Nidal Aldibs

VIRGIN GOAT Murali Nair

Narrative Competition

Carlos Olivier Assayas 18+

Olivier Assayas’s portrait of Ilich Ramirez

him a world-famous figure - and a fugitive

France, Germany | 2009 |

Sánchez, strikes a delicate balance

with a bounty on his head – one of the

159 minutes

recounting the story of the controversial

highest at the time – from several states and

Color | 35 mm | Arabic, French,

figure who, as “Carlos the Jackal” made

intelligence agencies.

German, Spanish

headlines all around the world over the final

Executive Producer: Raphael

three decades of the past century.

Cohen | Producer: Daniel Leconte | Screenwriter: Olivier Assayas, Dan Franck | Cinematographer: Yorick Le Saux, Denis Lenoir | Editor: Luc Barnier, Marion Monnier | Sound: Nicolas Cantin | Production Company: Film en Stock | Cast: Edgar Ramirez, Alexander Scheer, Nora Von Walstätten, Christoph Bach, Ahmad Kaabour, Julia Hummer, Rodney El-Haddad, Fadi Abi

Carlos faithfully follows the cadences in Carlos’s life; it draws on the contradictions

Terrorist, assassin and mercenary in the

of his temperament, affiliations and destiny;

eyes of some; revolutionary, dreamer and

it relays his passion, but never indicts. In

victim in the eyes of others, the insurgent

the masterful hands of Assayas, judgment

Venezuelan hailed from a wealthy family. He

is left to the viewer. The director’s feat is to

spoke seven languages – Arabic among them

have resurrected, in the present moment

– was fascinated with firearms, enamored

and without affect, a figure and a debate

with women, addicted to danger and was a

– in their full complexity and ambiguity –

fierce defender of the Palestinian cause. He

that epitomize an era not long past, whose

crossed continents clandestinely, executing

representation in cinema until now has been

some remarkably perilous commando

flat and mercenary.

operations, including the infamous attack on OPEC headquarters in Vienna that made

Rasha Salti

Samra

Print Source: Gulf Film sales: studio canal

Olivier Assayas was born in Paris. He wrote for Cahiers du Cinéma and directed short films in the 1980s. His first feature film, Disorder (1986), won a prize at the Venice Film Festival. He has won numerous other awards at festivals worldwide. His films include Irma Vep (1996), Late August, Early September (1999), Sentimental Destinies (2000), Demonlover (2002), Clean (2006) and Summer Hours (2008).

Fernando Trueba, Javier Mariscal, Tono Errando

Passion is what led to the creation of Chico

just compilations, while the legendary Bebo

and Rita, an animated feature film which

Valdés – whom Trueba adores – lends his

Spain, United Kingdom | 2010 |

director Fernando Trueba, designer Javier

musicianship to Chico’s own cartoon piano.

90 minutes

Mariscal and animator Tono Errande spent

Color | HDCAM | Spanish

half a decade creating. It is a tender love

Executive Producer: Marc

story between a Cuban pianist trying to make

Samuelson, Steve Christian |

his name in the New York jazz world and a

Producer: Cristina Huete, Santi

singer with a beautiful voice.

18+

Mariscal, Martin Pope, Michael Rose | Screenwriter: Fernando Trueba, Ignacio Martinez De Pison | Editor: Arnau Quiles | Sound: Pelayo Gutierrez | Music: Bebo Valdes | Production Company: cinema nx, fernando trueba producciones cinematográficas, magic light pictures | voices: Limara Meneses, Eman Xor Oña, Mario

The classic narrative format of a Warner Brothers film of the 1940s is seamlessly wedded to the sensual, colorful and cleanstroked modernity of Mariscal’s drawings. The streets of Havana, as Mariscal draws

A love song that moves between sensual

them, are prettier than the real thing. A more

Havana and the ebullient New York musical

joyous tribute to the people, culture and

hotspots of the 1940s and 1950s, its musical

music of Cuba could not be found.

backdrop is the great bands and orchestras of Charlie Parker, Chano Pozo and Dizzy

Narrative Competition

MIDDLE EAST PREMIERE

Chico & Rita

Denis DeLaRoca

Gillespie. Musicians Mike Mossman (playing Dizzy Gillespie), Jimmy Heath (playing tenor sax player Ben Webster), and Yaroldi Abreu playing (as percussionist Chano Pozo) were all asked to produce an original score – not

Guerra

Print Source: Schedule II Sales: Hanway Films

Fernando Trueba is a veteran film director, producer, and writer. He won an Academy Award® for best foreignlanguage film for Belle époque (1992). His Miracle of Candeal (2004) also features Bebo Valdés, and he co-produced Old Man Bebo (2008), which was awarded Best Documentary Feature at the Tribeca Film Festival. Javier Mariscal has worked as an artist and designer in many fields; his design was chosen as the mascot for the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona. Tono Errando has directed music videos, commercials and animated television programs.

Narrative Competition

Cirkus Columbia Danis Tanovi 15+

The year is 1992, on the eve of the outbreak

The village, with its petty concerns and feuds,

Bosnia | 2010 | 113 minutes

of the war that led to the dismemberment

is a microcosm of the nation, consumed by

Color | 35 mm | Bosnian

of Yugoslavia. In Cirkus Columbia, Danis

opportunism, greed and the lust for power

Producer: Mirsad Purivatra,

Tanović’s familiar blend of black humor and

and revenge. Essentially, the tragedy is how

Marc Bachet, Čedomir

gravity is ingeniously calibrated, but the

the pivotal questions people in what is now

Kolar, Amra Bakšić Čamo |

film’s power lies in the nearly forensic way it

the former Yugoslavia asked themselves after

Screenwriter: Danis Tanović,

reconstitutes the calm before the storm.

the fall of the Communist regime were lost

Ivica Dikić | Cinematographer: Walther Vanden Ende | Editor: Petar Marković | Sound: Dirk Bombey, Samir Fočo, Martin Steyer | Production Company: 2006 Sarajevo, A.S.A.P Films, Autonomous, Studio Maj, Razor Film, Man’s Film Productions | Cast: Miki Manojlović, Mira Furlan, Boris Ler, Jelena Stupljanin, Milan Štrljić, Mario Knezović, Miralem Zubčević

Print Source/sales: The Match Factory

After two decades of exile in Germany, where he has made a small fortune, Divko, now a successful businessman, returns to his native

in the fray of inconsequential disputes, or muffled by the approaching drums of war, never to be examined or answered.

village in Bosnia to retire. His wife, Lucija, had

Civil wars carry a badge of shame. The

refused to accompany him to Germany; now,

critical revisiting of the moment that

to avenge his bruised ego, Divko flaunts a

precedes the explosion of violence is like

stunning young woman as his next intended.

the catharsis provided by confession; it is

Adding insult to injury, he throws Lucija and

also a lucid reckoning that promises a new

his son out of their home, moves in… and

beginning.

then busies himself and the entire village with the search for his lost cat.

Rasha Salti

Danis Tanović was born in Zenica in the former Yugoslavia. He studied engineering and music before attending the Sarajevo Film Academy. He spent two years of the Bosnian war capturing widely-seen footage of the siege of Sarajevo. He later moved to Belgium and began making short films and documentaries. His debut feature No Man’s Land, a narrative about the war, won the Academy Award® for Best Foreign Film. His other films are Triage (2003) and Hell (2005).

MIDDLE EAST PREMIERE Jiabiangou Wang Bing 18+

At the end of the 1950s, during the “Great

that most inmates die of illness, exhaustion

China, Belgium, France | 2010 |

Leap Forward,” the Chinese government

and starvation. Simply finding food is a

109 minutes

condemned thousands of its citizens, whom

constant preoccupation.

Color | DCP | Mandarin

they considered “right-wing dissidents”

Executive Producer: K. Lihong,

due to their past activities, criticisms of the

Mao Hui, Wang Bing, Philippe

Communist Party or simply their middle-class

Avril, Francisco Villa-Lobos |

backgrounds and families, to live and toil at

Producer: K. Lihong, Mao Hui,

forced-labor camps. Laying bare a dramatic

Wang Bing, Francisco Villa-

hidden chapter of Communist Chinese

Lobos | Screenwriter: Wang

history, The Ditch offers a powerful treatment

Bing | Cinematographer: Lu

of what life was like in these horrific prisons.

Sheng | Editor: Marie-Hélène Dozo | Sound: Ren Liang | Production Company: Will Productions Ltd, Les Films de L’Etranger | Cast: Lu Ye,Lian Renjun, Xu Cenzi, Yang Haoyu, Cheng Zhengwu, Jing Niansong

Print Source/Sales: Wild Bunch

Set over a three-month period in 1960,

This first fiction film by much-praised documentary maker Wang Bing is based on a novel by Yang Xianhui, as well as interviews Wang conducted with the few living survivors of the camps – one of whom appears in the

Narrative Competition

The Ditch

role of a prisoner. This masterful piece of cinema is essential viewing. Alissa Simon

the film follows a new group of arrivals at the Mingshui annex of the Jiabiangou Re-education Camp in the middle of the Gobi Desert. The complex was built to hold 50 inmates; within it, more than 3,000 people are subjected to brutal working circumstances. Conditions are so inhumane Wang Bing was born in Shaanxi Province, China. He studied photography at the Lu Xun Academy of Fine Arts and cinematography at the Beijing Film Academy. He began his film career in 1999 with the award-winning West of the Tracks, which established his reputation for creating very long experimental documentaries and installations. His other films include: Brutality Factory (2007), Fengmeing, A Chinese Memoir (2007), Crude Oil (2008) and Coal Money (2008).

WORLD PREMIERE

FUNDED BY SANAD

Narrative Competition

Here Comes the Rain shatti Ya Dini Bahij Hojeij 12+

In Lebanon, it is estimated that more than

publishes desperate pleas in a newspaper,

Lebanon | 2010 | 100 minutes

10,000 people remain missing, or with fates

searching for signs of the boy to no avail. The

Color and Black and White |

unknown, since the end of the war was

other women’s husbands are missing, but the

DCP | Arabic

declared in 1991. They were kidnapped, held

film brings a new twist when one of the men

Producer: Bahij Hojeij |

in captivity, sometimes tortured, sometimes

is released. His reintegration into his home,

Screenwriter: Bahij Hojeij,

executed, by warring militias and armies

family and social world is, understandably,

Sam Bardawil, Imane Humaydan

of states directly involved with the 17-year

tenuous and befuddled; his only relief is

| Cinematographer: Maxime

long conflict. Nearly 20 years have gone

contact with the third woman, who lives with

Heraud | Editor: Michele Tayan

by since the official cessation of violence

the ghost of her husband.

| Sound: Mouhab Shanesaz

and this as yet unresolved question has

| Music: Wissam Hojeij |

become a symbol of the war’s open-ended,

Production Company: Online

burdensome legacy.

Films – Beirut | Cast: Hassan Mrad, Julia Kassar, Carmen Lebbos, Bernadette Hodeib, Elie Mitri, Diamand Bou Aboud

Print Source: Screen Institute Beirut

In spite of the dramatic potency of these stories, Hojeij’s direction is carefully calibrated with a strong script and stellar

The yearning for closure, living with absence

performances from his cast. Here Comes the

and the suspension of time that this limbo

Rain is the first film to imagine the saving

brought about has resulted in a number of

grace of closure – not only for those who do,

contemporary films and works of art. Inspired

indeed, return, but for those whom they help

by real life, Here Comes the Rain tells the

mourn their dead.

story of three women. The first is a mother whose child was taken without a trace; she

Rasha Salti

Bahij Hojeij earned an MA in film from Louis Lumière College in Paris and studied cinema history at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales. He has been a film professor at the Lebanese University Institute of Fine Art and has produced and directed numerous short documentaries. His debut feature, the narrative Ring of Fire (2004) screened at many international festivals and won a FIPRESCI Prize. Here Comes the Rain is his second feature film.

MIDDLE EAST PREMIERE Hævnen Susanne Bier 15+

Award-winning director Susanne Bier carved

torn Kenya, where he works as a physician

Denmark, Sweden | 2010 | 113

her place in the film canon with Brothers and

in a field hospital. A violent act instigates

minutes

After the Wedding–fearless, prescient films

a series of events which culminate in a

Color | 35 mm | Danish, English,

that boldly tackle some of the political and

terrifying confrontation with the nature of

Swedish

social issues of our day. Now, the searing

anger, hurt and brutality.

Producer: Sisse Graum

In a Better World takes a no-holds-barred

Jørgensen | Screenwriter:

approach to filmmaking and cross-cultural

Susanne Bier, Anders Thomas

commentary.

Print Source: Danish Film Institute Sales: Trustnordisk

Watching this film, one has the impression that nothing less is at stake than the ability of the human race to evolve in the face of

The lives of two families in small-town

horrifying socio-political realities. Susanne

Denmark become fatefully intertwined

Bier has crafted a relentlessly suspenseful

when Elias and Christian develop an uneasy

ride with this gripping, brilliantly acted film,

friendship at school. Christian, who has been

Denmark’s Oscar® entry this year.

living in London with his family, just lost his mother, and resents his frequently absent

Narrative Competition

In a Better World

Tammy Stone

father for reasons his father is unable to decipher. Elias, meanwhile, has a more loving relationship with his separated parents; his father Anton travels back and forth from war-

Susanne Bier was born in Denmark and studied at the National Film School of Denmark. She received plaudits for her debut feature, Freud Leaving Home (1990), and Like It Never Was Before (1995) won the Critics’ Award at the Montreal World Film Festival. Brothers (2004) won the audience award at the Sundance Film Festival and After the Wedding (2006) was nominated for an Academy Award® for best foreign-language film. Her other films include Family Matters (1993), The One and Only (1999), Open Hearts (2002) and the US production Things We Lost in the Fire (2007).

MIDDLE EAST PREMIERE

Narrative Competition

Incendies Denis Villeneuve 18+

When Nawal (Lubna Azabal) dies, her cryptic

retribution. Slowly, she uncovers a story that

Canada, France | 2010 |

will introduces her two grown twins, Jeanne

begins with Nawal’s escaping an honor killing

130 minutes

and Simon, to the inconceivable prospect

at the hands of her own brothers – an event

Color | 35 mm | French, Arabic

that the father they thought had died a

that sets the young woman on a tortured

Producer: Luc Déry, Kim Mc

heroic death is alive, and that they have a

path of deception, pain and perseverance

Craw | Screenwriter: Denis

brother they never knew about. Her lawyer

against a backdrop of civil strife and religious

Villeneuve | Cinematographer:

hands them each a letter, accompanied by

violence.

André Turpin | Editor: Monique

their mother’s dying wish: that they deliver

Dartonne | Sound: Sylvain

them to these hitherto unknown relatives.

Bellemare, Jean Umansky,

The siblings differ on whether to accept

Jean Pierre Laforce | Music:

these revelations as truth, or to bury a messy

Grégoire Hetzel | Production

history along with their grief.

Company: micro_scope, TS prods | Cast: Lubna Azabal, Mélissa Désormaux-Poulin, Maxim Gaudette, Rémy Girard, Abdelghafour Elaaziz, Allen Altman, Mohamed Majd, Najib Sawalha, Baya Belal, Bader

As Villeneuve weaves the siblings’ storyline back and forth with that of Nawal, and as the narrative traverses conflicts and broad territories of land and time, the revelation of the reality of their history is nothing short of

Unable to leave the question unresolved,

devastating. Ultimately, Incendies (the term

Jeanne agrees to attempt to honor Nawal’s

translates as “scorched”) is a lament about

request and journeys on a daunting search

the true inheritance of violence – which is

through the past from Montreal, where her

never anything other than more of itself.

mother had brought her as a child, to a land in the Middle East torn apart by violence and

Kate Lawrie Van de Ven

Alami, Karim Babin, Youssef Schweihat

Print Source: ECS FIlms Sales: E1 Entertainment

Denis Villeneuve was born in Canada and studied film at the University of Quebec in Montreal. He directed acclaimed videos and short films before before his debut feature August 32nd on Earth (1998). His next two films, Maelström (2000) and Polytechnique (2009) both won Genie Awards for Best Director, among many other accolades.

MIDDLE EAST PREMIERE La Vida de los peces Matías Bize 15+

We have all had the experience of attending

claustrophobia in the film’s only setting, Bize

Chile | 2010 | 83 minutes

a party that we feel we ought to leave, but

keeps his characters moving around inside a

Color | 35 mm | Spanish

for some reason aren’t able to – a feeling

crowded house during a birthday party.

Executive Producer: Adrián

captured unforgettably by master filmmaker

Solar | Producer: Adrián Solar

Luis Buñuel in his film The Exterminating

| Screenwriter: Julio Rojas,

Angel. Nearly 50 years later, Chilean

Matias Bize | Cinematographer:

filmmaker Matías Bize plays with the same

Bárbara Álvarez | Editor:

theme in The Life of Fish. As in his previous

Javier Estévez | Sound:

films Saturday, In Bed and About Crying, Bize

Felipe Zabala | Music: Diego

is interested in the relationships of couples

Fontecilla | Production

and in exploring them at a leisurely pace, as if

Company: Ceneca Producciones

in real time.

| Cast: Santiago Cabrera, Blanca Lewin, Antonia Zegers, María Gracia Omegna, Luz Jiménez, Víctor Montero

Print Source: Cachoeira Films Sales: Ceneca Producciones

Bize has a special touch for writing dialogue

The film is sure to move any audience the world over, while remaining true to its South American roots. Its melancholic rhythm, with the help of the music by Inverness, guides us through a road of memories and

Narrative Competition

The Life of Fish

discovery. The drama is there, but mixed with expectation, joy and sadness. Just as in real life. Lucy Virgen

that is interesting and believable; he has a keen understanding of how a couple – former lovers separated 10 years ago – would speak to each other; at the same time, he knows the worries of teenage boys. To avoid

Chilean director Matías Bize directed his first feature film, Saturday, in 2003. It premiered at the International Film Festival Mannheim-Heidelberg, where it won four awards, and went on to win acclaim at several other festivals. His next two films, In Bed (2005) and About Crying (2007) continued this success.

gala

Narrative Competition

Messages from the Sea Rasa’el El Bahr Daoud Abdel Sayed 18+

In a trope familiar to auteur director Daoud

transformations of her hometown, she

Egypt | 2010 | 134 minutes

Abdel-Sayed, the plot of Messages from

dreams of leaving for good. Qabeel, a night-

Color | 35 mm | Arabic

the Sea is animated by several characters

club bouncer who has secretly vowed never

Executive Producer: Ehab

and threads that are woven together to

to hit anyone, fantasizes about deliverance

Ayoub and Emad Mourad |

tell a larger story. Here, this is the story

from misery; and Yehya’s mysterious

Producer: Esaad Younis |

of Alexandria, the ancient Mediterranean

paramour, a woman of many secrets, simply

Screenwriter: Daoud Abdel

port city. Once a vibrant, sophisticated

wants to break away from it all.

Sayed | Cinematographer:

cosmopolitan center, its present seems

Onsy Abou Seif | Editor: Mona

shrouded in shadowy uncertainty.

Rabie | Sound: Gomaa Abdel Latif | Music: Rageh Daoud | Production Company: Al Arabia Cinema | Cast: Asser Yassin, Basma, Mohamed Lotfy, Samia Asaad, Mai Kassab, Nabiha Lotfy

Print Source/Sales: Al Arabia Cinema

These characters, estranged and distraught, seek to be rescued; they witness the

A cryptic letter rolled into a glass bottle is

extinction of elements of the history of

picked up by a young man on the shores

Alexandria as the city’s landmark turn-of-

of the Mediterranean. He is Yehya, an

the-century buildings are destroyed to make

Alexandrian, whose promising career as

space for soulless malls. Yehya desperately

a physician was cut short because of his

tries to decipher the letter’s script and

stutter. He moved back into his family’s

content, in the hope that it might deliver a

old apartment and took up as a fisherman.

message: an answer from the sea.

Carla, Yehya’s neighbor, a couture designer of Greek descent, is so alienated from the

Rasha Salti

Daoud Abdel Sayed was born in Cairo. He began his film career as an assistant director to Youssef Chahine. The Vagabonds (1985) established him as a pioneer of New Realism in Egyptian cinema; since then he has made a number of commercially successful films. The Land of Fear (1999) won Best Arabic Film at the Cairo International Film Festival. Selected filmography: Al KitKat (1991), Land of Dreams (1994), The Wedding Thief (1995) and A Citizen, a Detective and a Thief (2001).

MIDDLE EAST PREMIERE

gala

Julian Schnabel 18+

A sweeping multigenerational saga about

Brought up safely inside the Institute’s

France, India, Italy | 2010 | 112

four Arab women living under Israeli

walls, she is naïve about the troubles that

minutes

occupation, Miral, the latest from director

surround her. Then, at the age of 17 (played

Color | 35 mm | Arabic, English,

Julian Schnabel (director of the Academy

by Slumdog Millionaire’s lovely Freida Pinto),

Hebrew

Award®-winning The Diving Bell and

the passionate and intelligent young woman

Executive Producer: François-

the Butterfly) is adapted by Palestinian

is assigned to teach at a refugee camp,

Xavier Decraene | Producer:

journalist Rula Jebreal from her own semi-

where she is awakened to the reality of her

Jon Kilik | Screenwriter: Rula

autobiographical novel.

people’s struggle. When she falls for Hani

Jebreal | Cinematographer: Eric Gautier | Editor: Juliette Welfling | Sound: Adam Wolny Production Company: A. Jon Kilik Production | Cast: Freida Pinto, Alexander Siddig, Hiam Abbass, Yasmine Al Massri, Ruba Blal, Omar Metwally, Willem Dafoe, Vanessa Redgrave

Jerusalem, 1948. On her way to work, Hind Husseini (Hiam Abbass) comes across 55 orphaned children in the street. She takes them home to give them food and shelter. Within six months, those 55 had grown to almost 2000, and the Dar Al-Tifel Institute was born. Years later, seven-year-old Miral is sent to

(Omar Metwally), a political activist, she finds

Narrative Competition

Miral

herself torn between the fight for the future of her people and Mama Hind’s belief that education is the road to peace. Filming with sensitivity and compassion, director Schnabel draws impressive performances from his ensemble cast. Alissa Simon

the Institute by her cleric father (Alexander Print Source: Pathé

Siddiq) following her mother’s death.

Distribution Sales: Gulf Films

Julian Schnabel was raised in Texas. He began his career as an artist, holding his first solo exhibition at the Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston in 1975. By the 1980s he was a key figure of Neo-Expressionism. His filmmaking career began with the highly regarded Basquiat (1996), and this critical success was continued with Before Night Falls (2000). The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007) won best director prizes at the Cannes Film Festival and the Golden Globe Awards.

MIDDLE EAST PREMIERE

Narrative Competition

Never Let Me Go Mark Romanek 15+

A blend of superlative cinematic ingredients,

their early adulthood in a series of fits and

United Kingdom, USA | 2010 |

Never Let Me Go has the pedigree of being

starts, but when they leave Hailsham for the

105 minutes

adapted from Kazuo Ishiguroâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s popular

even remoter Cottages, the strength of their

Color | 35 mm | English

contemporary novel, described by Time

bonds of friendship is tested to its limit.

Executive Producer: Alex

magazine as the best of the decade. Its

Garland, Kazou Ishiguro,

lush pastoral setting provides an ironic

Tessa Ross | Producer: Andrew

background as it slowly reveals itself as a

Macdonald, Allon Reich |

haunting, dystopic work of science fiction.

Screenwriter: Alex Garland Cinematographer: Adam Kimmel ASC | Editor: Barney Pilling | Sound: Glenn Freemantle | Music: Rachel Portman | Production Company: Fox Searchlight Pictures | Cast: Keira Knightley, Carey Mulligan, Andrew Garfield, Charlotte Rampling, Sally Hawkins, Andrea Riseborough

Print Source: Empire International Sales: Fox Searchlight

Director Mark Romanek fully realizes the potential of his gifted cast to engender a story with dark and fascinating allure. Intensely dramatic, stunningly shot and

Hailsham is a remote, deceptively tranquil

compelling from start to finish, Never Let Me

English boarding school decorated

Go mirrors its confining, institutional setting

by a gorgeous, if austere, faĂ§ade. The

in the inability of its characters to conceive

headmistress (Charlotte Rampling) runs

of a life beyond their ominous, pre-ordained

a disciplined facility where students are

future.

allowed no contact with the outside world. Best friends Kathy (Carey Mulligan) and Ruth

Tammy Stone

(Keira Knightley) meet Tommy (Andrew Garfield), an earnest, sensitive young man who lacks basic social graces but yearns for companionship. These three arrive at Mark Romanek was born in Chicago and studied film at Ithaca College. He has had a successful career directing music videos for artists including Madonna, Johnny Cash, Michael Jackson, REM, Jay-Z and Sonic Youth. In 1997 he was presented with a career achievement award at the MTV Awards. His feature films include Static (1985) and One Hour Photo (2002).

MIDDLE EAST PREMIERE

gala

François Ozon 15+

Set in a colorfully wacky version of

factory, disarming everyone with her savoir-

France | 2010 | 90 minutes

1977, Potiche provides the magnificent

faire and feminine charm.

Color | 35 mm | French

Catherine Deneuve with what is perhaps

Producer: Eric Altmayer,

one of her best roles in a decade as a

Nicolas Altmayer |

trophy wife-turned-triumphant factory boss.

Screenwriter: François Ozon

In this sparkling adaptation of a French

| Cinematographer: Yorick Le

boulevard-theater play, Deneuve plays

Saux | Editor: Laure Gardette

Suzanna Pujol, a well-off housewife in thrall

| Sound: Pascal Jasmes | Music:

to her pompous male chauvinist husband

Philippe Rombi | Production

Robert (Fabrice Luchini).

Company: Mandarin Cinema | Cast: Catherine Deneuve, Gérard Depardieu, Fabrice Luchini, Jérémie Renier, Judith Godrèche, Karin Viard

Print Source: Shooting Stars Sales: Wild Bunch

When labor trouble erupts at the provincial umbrella factory that Suzanna’s father founded, Robert, the company CEO, is taken hostage. Suzanna calls upon her former lover, Babin (Gérard Depardieu), now the Communist local mayor, to help her negotiate with the workers. Freed after his ordeal,

Director François Ozon keeps the mood light and the dialogue fast and funny, and the plot leaves room for three impressive supporting turns by Jérémie Renier as Suzanne’s Kandinsky-crazy son, Karin Viard as Robert’s secretary and mistress, and Judith Godrèche

Narrative Competition

Potiche

as the household’s daughter. Costumes and production design are simply brilliant and the music track offers a delicious selection of French period songs. In French, potiche refers to a decorative trophy wife – a state of being to which the buoyant Suzanna is unlikely to return. Alissa Simon

Robert is ordered by his doctor to go on a cruise and Suzanna assumes the reins at the François Ozon was born in Paris. He earned a master’s degree in cinema from Paris I, then studied at La Fémis. He directed a number of award-winning short films before his well-received debut feature, Sitcom (1998). 8 Women (2002) and Swimming Pool (2003) were internationally successful and established him as an exemplar of the new school of French cinema. His other films include Under the Sand (2001), 5x2 (2004), Time to Leave (2005), Angel (2007), Ricky (2009) and Hideaway (2009).

MIDDLE EAST PREMIERE

Narrative Competition

Silent Souls Ovsyanki Aleksei Fedorchenko 18+

The heritage and rituals of the Merja people,

of west-central Russia still bear their Merja

Russia | 2010 | 75 minutes

an ethnic minority once resident in the Volga

names – Volga among them. Merja people

Color | DCP | Russian

region of Russia, form the backbone of this

feel great respect for the water, the film

Producer: Igor Mishin & Mary

dreamlike, lyrical film about love and loss.

explains, and there is no death better than

Nazari | Screenwriter: Denis

After his wife Tanja dies, Miron calls on his

by drowning — although no Merja would ever

Osokin | Cinematographer:

best friend, Aist, to help him with his final

drown themselves, as it would be improper

Mikhail Krichman | Editor:

farewell to his beloved. As the ravishingly

to pass in front of others on the way to

Sergei Ivanov | Sound: Kirill

photographed story unfolds, it becomes

heaven. Along the way, the Merja myths and

Vasilenko | Music: Andrei

apparent that Aist and Tanja were once more

traditions transform the film into a haunting

Karasyov | Production

than friends.

fairy tale.

Tanja’s body is lovingly prepared by the two

Alissa Simon

Company: April Mig Pictures Films Company | Cast: Igor Sergeyev, Yuri Tsurilo, Yuliya Aug, Ivan Tushin

Print Source/Sales: Memento Films International

men, who wordlessly and expertly observe the ancient rituals. Wrapped in a blanket and laid in the back seat of the car, Tanja is made ready for the long trip to the river bank where her remains will be cremated. Water plays a central role in the film, as it does in Merja life. The rivers in the region

Aleksei Fedorchenko was born in Siberia. He studied engineering and worked on space defense projects before becoming a managing director of the Sverdlovsk Studio, overseeing the production of more than 80 films. He also studied at the Russian National Film Institute and has been awarded prizes at festivals worldwide for his documentary scripts. His first feature, First on the Moon (2005), a mockumentary about a 1930s Soviet moon landing, won the Venice Horizons documentary award. Silent Souls is his third feature film.

WORLD PREMIERE Rodage Nidal Aldibs 15+

Set in Damascus, Taming begins as a love

Trapped in fear, anguish and sorrow; haggard,

Syria | 2010 | 100 minutes

story. A young man is in love with a young

humiliated and pathetic, he comes across

Color | 35 mm | Arabic

woman who loves him back. But there is a

an older man, whose story eerily echoes

Executive Producer: Faher

hitch: her brother, a stern policeman, thinks

his own. Together they mourn the loss of

Alrahbi | Producer: Haitham

she can find a suitor who is more well-off.

their loves. The film tracks the young man’s

Hakki | Screenwriter: Nidal

He actively intervenes, hoping to ensure this

journey of reckoning, his coming to terms

Aldibs | Cinematographer: Joud

romance blossoms no further.

with powerlessness, and his acquiescence

Korani | Editor: Raouf Zaza Music: Kinan Al Admeh - Isam Rafeh | Production Company: Reelfilms - Haitham Hakki | Cast: Salloum Haddad, Mohanad Kotesh, Kamar Khalaf, Eyad Abou Al Chamat, Doha Al Dibs

Print Source/Sales: Reel Films Company

The young man is a mechanic and one fine day the lovers “borrow” a car from the auto shop and go for a joy ride to the arid countryside at the outskirts of the city. The woman revels in the open horizon; she spreads her arms wide like an eagle and runs;

to the social order and his heart’s calling. Taming is a meditation on freedom and

Narrative Competition

Taming

conforming, on courage and cowardice, and on manhood as it plays out in patriarchal societies and regimes of fear. Rasha Salti

in a charming moment, she draws a dream house in the sand, a fantasy of the hoped-for happy family life. As the pair drive further, there is an accident. He awakens, bruised and drowsy; she, his love, has disappeared. What has become of her? Nidal Aldibs was born in Syria. He studied architecture in Damascus before graduating from the VGIK film institute in Moscow. His short film, Ya Leil Ya Ein (1999) played at several international festivals; his debut feature, the narrative Under the Ceiling (2005) won multiple awards. His other films include the feature documentary Black Stone (2007).

MIDDLE EAST PREMIERE

Narrative Competition

Virgin Goat Laadli Laila Murali Nair 18+

In this unique entry in the growing pantheon

and foibles of modern India: religious

India | 2010 | 87 minutes

of independent cinema from South Asia,

pilgrims, tech nerds, corrupt policemen,

Color | HDCAM | Hindi

director Murali Nair draws a textured portrait

political zealots. The screenplay is an

Executive Producer:

of life in rural India with ribald wit and sharp

irreverent and occasionally rude look at

Raad Ismael | Producer:

social satire.

society through the eyes of the poor; Nair’s

The story follows the travails of Kalyan Singh, a poor but proud farmer. Put-upon by his family and abused by authority, he undertakes a journey with the love of his life:

vision is blackly comic, venturing into outright surrealism at times. He’s clearly unafraid of the dark side. Jim Poe

a beautiful female goat named Laila. Laila is the last in a long lineage of royally bred goats, and Kalyan is determined to have her mated at all costs. Ignoring the scorn his devotion brings from family and neighbors, he limps off into the countryside, Laila in tow, in search of a willing and able billygoat. Along the way, Singh encounters a colorful

Print Source/Sales: Unlimited

mix of characters who reflect various facets

Films

Murali Nair was born in Kerala. He studied geology at university before joining the Bombay film industry as an assistant director. His first film was the prize-winning short film Tragedy of an Indian Farmer (1993). Throne of Death (1999), won the Camera d’Or for best first feature at Cannes; his 2007 film UNNI, Life Is All About Friends won the City of Venice Award at the Venice Film Festival. His other films include Coronations (1995), A Dog’s Day (2001) and A Story that Begins at the End (2003).

Documentary Competition CHE – Un Hombre nuevo Tristán Bauer

CHILDREN OF THE STONES – CHILDREN OF THE WALL Robert Krieg

CHINA, THE EMPIRE OF ART? Sheng Zhimin, Emma Tassy

EARTH MADE OF GLASS HOMELAND George Sluizer

HOW BITTER MY SWEET! Mohamed Soueid

NOSTALGIA FOR THE LIGHT Patricio Guzmán

A MAN’S STORY Varon Bonicos

PINK SARIS

Kim Longinotto

QUEEN OF THE SUN: WHAT ARE THE BEES TELLING US? Taggart Siegel

Documentary Competition

Deborah Scranton

TEARS OF GAZA Vibeke Løkkeberg

WE WERE COMMUNISTS Maher Abi Samra

out of competition work-in-progress

IN MY MOTHER’S ARMS

Atia Al-Daradji, Mohamed Al-Daradji

MIDDLE EAST PREMIERE

Documentary Competition

Che - un hombre nuevo Tristán Bauer 12+

Is there something we have yet to learn

from view, so the film could very well be a

Argentina | 2010 | 120 minutes

about Ernesto “Che” Guevara? Argentine

meeting between Che and the audience.

Color | 35 mm | Spanish

director Tristán Bauer thinks so. Of his eight

Producer: Otilio Garcia,

films, Bauer’s best-known is Blessed by

Josetxo Moreno, Pedro

Fire (2005) a fiction about the Falklands

Zaratiegui, Camilo Vives, Carlos

(Malvinas) War. But the director is no

Ruta | Screenwriter: Tristán

stranger to creating documentaries, nor to

Bauer, Carolina Scaglione

searching for alternate aspects of Argentine

Cinematographer: Javier Juliá

celebrities, as he did in Cortázar (1984) and

| Editor: José María del Peón,

Evita, A Graveyard Without Peace (1997).

Carolina Scaglione, Gabriel Golzman | Sound: Martín Grignaschi | Music: Fredrico Jusid “Metronome” | Production Company: GOLEM, ICAIC, Centro de Estudios Che Guevara, Incaa

Print Source/Sales: The Match Factory

It turns out that what we haven’t heard about Che comes from his own words. Bauer has the passion – and the stamina - to search

The resulting portrait is perhaps not one of a “new man,” but rather of the philosopher and revolutionary’s constant struggle to become that new man – the perennial rebel we know well, but also someone whose other attributes are less celebrated. For Che was a caring son, a disciplined writer, a thoughtful lover, a concerned father – but always, as you may suspect, a legend. Lucy Virgen

for new materials, and the wisdom to take advantage of historical footage. In Che – Un Hombre nuevo, Bauer uses a variety of sources, from family albums to military archives. He has the ability to hide his hand

Tristán Bauer is from Argentina. He worked with Latin American directors Estela Bravo, Jorge Denit and Miguel Littin before directing his own critically acclaimed films. Blessed by Fire (2005) won the jury prize at the San Sebastián Film Festival and was named Best Narrative Feature at the Tribeca Film Festival. His other films include After the Storm (1991) and The Books and the Night (2000).

WORLD PREMIERE Robert Krieg G

Kinder der Steine – Kinder der Mauer The film stems from a photograph captured

construction of those structures. Meanwhile,

Germany | 2010 | 87 minutes

in 1989. In Bethlehem, six young Palestinian

the daunting shadow of the separation wall

Color | DigiBeta | Arabic

boys playfully brandish the V for Victory.

looms over their present and future.

Executive Producer:

Twenty years later, the boys are grown up

Monika Nolte | Producer:

with families of their own. Director Robert

Robert Krieg, Monika Nolte

Krieg returns to Bethlehem to track each of

| Cinematographer: Peter

them.

Petrides | Editor: Robert Krieg | Sound: Musa Al-Sha’er, George Jaraiseh | Music: Michael Götz | Production Company: Krieg & Nolte GbR World TV

Print Source/Sales: Krieg & Nolte GBR World TV

If the settlements have gnawed away at land, trees and the livelihood of the West Bank, the wall has devastated its economy. As one man says, from the cramped detention camps that

The boys in the photo belong to a generation

were a feature of the First Intifada, they have

shaped by the First Intifada – the civilian

been moved to what amounts to a very large

uprising of 1987 that eventually led to

prison. The children of the stones are now

negotiations to end the Israeli occupation

the fathers of the “children of the wall.” They

of the West Bank. Their only weapons were

speak to Krieg’s camera without affect or

pebbles and rocks; they came to be known

posturing, conveying despair and a horizon

as “children of the stones.” Today, reflecting

of possibilities blocked from view.

on the relentless expansion of settlements around the city, one of the subjects

Documentary Competition

Children of the Stones – Children of the Wall

Rasha Salti

whimsically notes that it is as if every stone thrown was picked up and used for the

Robert Krieg was born in Germany. He holds degrees in sociology, journalism and ethnology and taught at university before writing and directing documentaries. In the 1990s he headed efforts to develop Palestinian radio and television in Jerusalem and Ramallah. Selected filmography: Intifada (1989), On the Borderline (1991), Carta de Cuba (1992), Adiós General (1999), Europe Was So Close (2000), White Gold (2001), Unworthy of Life (2005) and A Village in Europe (2007). His I Came to Palestine showed at the Festival in 2008.

INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE

Documentary Competition

China, the Empire of Art? Chine, l’empire de l’art? Sheng Zhimin, Emma Tassy 12+

A fascinating investigation into the world

interesting peak since the turn of the 21st

China | 2009 | 56 minutes

of contemporary Chinese art, China, Empire

century.

Color | DigiBeta | French,

of Art? is driven by two questions that

Mandarin

have intrigued aficionados: How did the

Executive Producer: Olivier

contemporary generation of Chinese artists

Mille | Producer: Olivier Mille

emerge, thrive and come to occupy such a

| Screenwriter: Emma Tassy

leading position in the art market, build such

| Cinematographer: Tian Li |

a wide audience and earn such high critical

Editor: Ermanno Corrado |

acclaim?

Sound: Tao Yiran | Music: Dou Wei | Production Company: Artline Films

Print Source/Sales: Artline Films

From the commentary, two events emerge as having played a pivotal role. The first was the inaugural exhibition at the modern art museum in Beijing in 1989, where most of that founding generation’s work was shown. Discontent, the government shut the show down. The second was the crackdown at

The directors choose a number of

Tiananmen Square, after which artists’ work

interlocutors, including the artists themselves,

became critical, sarcastic and subversive;

critics, private collectors, and museum

a tone that became prevalent. Thus, while

curators in Beijing, Paris, New York and

the systems, forms and idioms of western

elsewhere to offer their insight into the

art seem to be borrowed without qualm or

phenomenon. The film covers an impressive

complex, they are nonetheless the means

array of issues, but a focus is the relationship

to realize a thoroughly Chinese expression

between the West and the generation of

of a critical subjective representation and

Chinese artists deemed to have founded

demystification of discourse.

the movement in the 1980s that has hit an

Rasha Salti Sheng Zhimin produced Jia Zhang-ke’s Platform and Fruit Chan’s Durian Durian (both 2000) and made his directorial debut in 2006 with Bliss, which won awards at the Locarno and Shanghai film festivals. Night of an Era (2009) covered the Chinese rock scene. Emma Tassy is an author and freelance journalist. She lived in China in the 1990s and worked in the contemporary arts scene there. China, the Empire of Art? is her directorial debut.

INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE Deborah Scranton 15+

From the director of The War Tapes comes

killer. As Kagame fights to free Rose from

USA | 2010 | 89 minutes

a powerful new film that looks at the horrific

France and expose the truth about what

Color | HDCAM | English, French,

1994 genocide in Rwanda from both personal

really happened in Rwanda 15 years earlier,

Kinyarwandan

and political perspectives.

Jean-Pierre journeys to the scene of the

Executive Producer: Channing Tatum, Jenna Dewan Tatum | Producer: Reid Carolin, Deborah Scranton | Screenwriter: Reid Carolin, Deborah Scranton | Cinematographer: P. H. O’Brien Editor: Seth Bomse | Music: Johan Soderqvist | Production Company: Clover & A Bee Films

On August 6, 2008, against the backdrop of one of the world’s deadliest wars in

crime, and to a killer’s doorstep, to uncover the chilling facts behind his father’s death.

neighboring Eastern Congo, Rwandan

As each man relentlessly pursues the truth

President Paul Kagame released a report

– with the fates of a family and a country

detailing the French government’s hidden

hanging in the balance – they find themselves

role in planning the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

faced with a choice: exact vengeance or turn

Three months later, his closest aide, Rose

the other cheek. Deborah Scranton crafts this

Kabuye, was arrested by the French on

dark material into an inspiring and uplifting

charges of terrorism.

examination of the search for truth beyond

| Cast: H.E. President Paul

Meanwhile, Jean-Pierre Sagahutu, a genocide

Kagame, Jean-Pierre Sagahutu,

survivor haunted by his father’s unsolved

Rose Kabuye, Serge Sagahutu,

murder, scours the Rwandan countryside on

Gaspard Bavuriki

a 15-year search for clues, ultimately finding

Documentary Competition

Earth Made of Glass

justice and the long road to redemption in Rwanda. Jim Browne

himself confronted with his darkest desire, Print Source: Clover & A Bee Films Sales: ro*co films international

which is to be face-to-face with his father’s Deborah Scranton was a member of the US ski team, graduated from Brown University with a degree in semiotics and was a reporter for major TV networks. Her feature-film debut, The War Tapes (2006), shot by US soldiers in Iraq, was named best documentary at the Tribeca Film Festival and best film at BritDoc. Her “Bad Voodoo’s War” was a further look at Iraq produced for the documentary TV series Frontline.

WORLD PREMIERE

Documentary Competition

Homeland George Sluizer 15+

The Palestinian refugee camps of Beirut are

Accords, the desperate impasse of the peace

The Netherlands | 2010 |

familiar territory to Dutch filmmaker George

talks today – but also the stories of family

76 minutes

Sluizer, who directed three documentary

members who have been killed, and those

Color | HDCAM | French, Spanish,

films there between 1974 and 1983. Those

who have emigrated to the West.

English, Hebrew, Dutch, Arabic

films follow the lives of two families in the

Producer: Anne Lordon |

camps – families who eventually adopted

Cinematographer: Bernd

Sluizer as one of their own.

Wouthuijsen | Editor: Jan Dop and Srdjan Fink | Sound: Hens van Rooij & Harold Jalving | Music: Olger Star and Edward Said National Conservatory of Music | Production Company: Sluizer Films

Print Source/Sales: Sluizer Films b.v.

Sluizer films those who have stayed in the camp, searching for what remains of their dreams, ambitions and hopes. It is no surprise

Recently, after a devastating accident,

that the same questions persist: returning to

Sluizer returned to the camps to track these

the homeland, living with dignity. Homeland

families’ destinies more than 25 years later.

is not intended to be epic in its scope, yet

On crutches, he treads the winding narrow

when the history of a people is scaled down

streets of the camp, resolute in spite of

so masterfully to the fate of a family and its

the hardship. Now 92, the elder of the two

individuals, the simplicity and profundity of

fathers is moved to tears at their reunion, and

the chronicle delivers an emotional charge

greets Sluizer like a son coming home.

that resonates deeply.

Footage from the earlier films narrates the

Rasha Salti

families’ stories, the traumatic chapters of Lebanon’s civil war, the Oslo Peace

George Sluizer was born in Paris and attended IDHEC. His first film, Hold Back the Sea (1961), won an award at the Berlin International Film Festival. The awardwinning thriller The Vanishing (1988) brought him wider recognition. His other films include Joao and the Knife (1971), Twice a Woman (1979), Utz (1991), Crimetime (1995), The Commissioner (1979) and Stoneraft (2002). His production credits include Werner Herzog’s Fitzcarraldo (1982). His trilogy about a Palestinian family, The Land of the Fathers (1974 – 1983), was screened at the Festival in 2008.

Print Source/Sales: 03 Productions

In many ways, How Bitter my Sweet

the film. For instance, there is the “King,”

epitomizes Mohamed Soueid’s signature style

who lives in his own world in the old city of

in its fragmentary chronicle of six characters

Sidon, compulsively collecting newspaper

who recount the quirks of their personal

and magazine clippings, and listening to old

histories, spontaneously laid bare for the

songs that everyone seems to have forgotten.

camera. A larger narrative begins to emerge,

Tamtam, a Palestinian refugee, wizened with

about cities and their people’s love and

age, recalls her past with a stinging sense of

pain, war and memory, cinema and fantasy.

loss, yet still daydreams when she listens to

These six are everyday folk, but Soueid’s raw

Um Kalthoum.

portraiture transforms them into the stuff of novels, and the film begins to blend non-

The film is a poetic tribute to cities and the

fiction with fiction.

faces that people its winding streets – those

Documentary Competition

How Bitter My Sweet!

who take the bitter and the sweet that Some are Palestinian, Sudanese and

life has served them and continue on with

Syrian immigrants to Beirut and Sidon

resilience.

(the provincial capital of south Lebanon), others are Lebanese. They speak of the city

Rasha Salti

where they live, daily difficulties, and love; and these are the chapters that structure

After studying chemistry at the Lebanese University, Mohamed Soueid began a career in film criticism and wrote a collection of books and studies on Lebanese cinema. He directed his first film, Absence, in 1990, and then went on to create a series of documentaries and television works, including his autobiographical trilogy Tango of Yearning (1998), Nightfall (2000), and Civil War (2002).

Documentary Competition

WORK-IN-PROGRESS

Funded by Sanad - out of competition

In My Mother’s Arms Fi Ahdan Ummi Atia Al-Daradji, Mohamed Al-Daradji

The plight of a generation of orphans is

These are just two of the boys brought

12+

too often overlooked amidst all the other

together under one roof by Husham, a

Iraq | 2010

problems facing post-Saddam Iraq. In a small

student who has dedicated himself to

Color | DigiBeta | Arabic

rented house we find several football-crazed

protecting these youngsters from the

Producer: Isabelle Stead,

children who must live, sleep, eat and study

dangers that seethe on the streets of

Mohamed Al-Daradji, Atia

all in the same room.

Baghdad. When the landlord demands they

Al-Daradji | Screenwriter: Mohamed Al-Daradji, Atia Al-Daradji | Editor: Mohamed Jabarah, Ian Watson, Ali Mahdi Motar | Production Company: Iraq Al-Rafidain, Human Film | With: Sayef Husam Sayef, Mohamed Waael, Husham La Dhabe

Print Source/Sales: Human Film

These are kids whose parents were either killed or kidnapped as a result of the war or

vacate his house, the only sanctuary these children know is about to be lost.

sectarian violence. They live together in this

In My Mother’s Arms marks producer Atia Al-

small, makeshift orphanage that is barely

Daradji’s first time out in the director’s chair;

able to fund itself; otherwise, they have no

joining him as co-director on this feature

one to care for or support them. We meet

documentary is his brother Mohamed. Shot in

15-year-old Mohamed, who wound up on the

the summer of 2010, it documents an urgent

streets after his parents were killed en route

story that still awaits resolution.

from Basra to Baghdad. His friend is sevenyear-old Saif, who was found when he was

Mohammad M. Khawaja

just four years old in the burnt remains of a car – the result of a suicide bombing that killed his parents. Atia and Mohamed Al-Daradji were born in Baghdad. Atia graduated from the Final Art Academy, while Mohamed studied at the Media Academy in Hilversum and at the Northern Film School in Leeds. After Saddam Hussein’s regime was overturned in 2003, Mohamed returned to Iraq and made Ahlaam (2005), with Atia producing and Mohamad in his directorial debut. The follow-up feature Son of Babylon (2009) premiered at the Festival and won two prizes at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2010.

Nostalgia de la luz Patricio Guzmán 12+

A woman sifts sand in Chile’s Atacama

life and his more than four decades of work

Chile, Germany, France | 2010 |

Desert. She is not looking for gold, but rather

to fight for democracy in Chile – The Battle

90 minutes

for something more precious: fragments of

of Chile, Chile Obstinate Memory and The

Color | HDCAM | Spanish

bones of her son, who went missing during

Pinochet Case are among his celebrated

Producer: Renate Sachse |

Pinochet’s regime. This is the driest place

documentaries. As it happens, he also loves

Screenwriter: Patricio Guzmán

on Earth, far from any city, and it was a

astronomy.

| Cinematographer: Katell Djian

perfect spot for concentration camps, where

| Editor: Patricio Guzmán,

prisoners vanished in nights without fog.

Emmanuelle Joly | Sound: Freddy Gonzales | Music: Miranda & Tobar | Production Company: Atacama Productions

Print Source: Pyramide International Sales: pyramide international

Nostalgia for the Light allows Guzmán to put his passions together to assemble a beautiful

But it is also the ideal location for a

film that moves us with sadness, wonder,

telescope to peer out at the very edges

horror and amazement, contrasting the work

of the universe. To bring together the

of those looking out toward the stars with

horrors of a dictatorship and the joys of

those searching through the remains of a

astronomy – along with a poignant reflection

bloody past.

on the fragility of living in the present — requires someone with more than a passing

Documentary Competition

Nostalgia for the Light

Denis DeLaRoca

knowledge of both subjects, someone with experience in both. Patricio Guzmán, Chilean documentary filmmaker, has devoted his

Patricio Guzmán was born in Santiago, Chile and studied documentary filmmaking at Escuela Oficial de Cinematografía in Madrid. He was arrested after the Chilean government was overthrown in 1973 by fascists; he later fled the country. The Battle of Chile (1975–1979) chronicled the turmoil of that time. He has won many awards and accolades. His other films include In the Name of God (1987), The Southern Cross (1992), Chile, Obstinate Memory (1997), The Pinochet Case (2001), Madrid (2002), Salvador Allende (2004) and My Jules Verne (2005).

WORLD PREMIERE

Documentary Competition

A Man’s Story Varon Bonicos G

A Man’s Story profiles charismatic, Ghanaian-

Tomorrow Never Dies, Oceans 13, Hannibal,

United Kingdom | 2010 |

born fashion designer Ozwald Boateng in

Eastern Promises, Gangster Number One,

91 minutes

his journey from the North London suburbs

Alfie, and Miami Vice. A huge fan of the

Color | HDCAM | English

to London’s posh, iconic Savile Row. Over

cinema, he has also written and directed

Producer: Rachel Robey,

his 25 years in the fashion business, Boateng

some ten short films of his own.

Alastair Clark | Editor:

has dressed the likes of Mick Jagger, Robbie

Tom Hemmings | Sound: Chad

Williams, Will Smith and Barack Obama.

Hobson | Production Company:

His personal and professional triumphs, as

Wellington Films Ltd., BBF

well as his setbacks, form the heart of this compelling documentary, which unfolds

Sales: E1 Entertainment

against a backdrop of models, movie stars

International

and fabulous locations. Boateng is also fascinating from a sociological perspective. As a black,

Director Varon Bonicos has been following Boateng for the past 12 years and has already helmed a television documentary about his subject as well as the eight-part series House of Boateng. A Man’s Story is a biographical documentary that is as unique, layered and compelling as its subject. Alissa Simon

heterosexual man he breaks the stereotypes of the fashion industry. In addition to outfitting the elite, Boateng crafted the costumes for films such as The Matrix,

Varon Bonicos’ television production credits include writing, producing and directing House of Boateng (2006) for the Sundance Channel.

MIDDLE EAST PREMIERE Kim Longinotto 15+

With the lively Pink Saris, celebrated

In focusing primarily on the one-woman

United Kingdom, India | 2010 |

documentarian Kim Longinotto adds a

phenomenon that is Sampat Pal, Longinotto

96 minutes

new chapter to her career’s master project

offers a candid portrait of a person willing

Color | DigiBeta | Hindi

– the depiction of the plight of women in

to commit herself wholesale to her ideals –

Producer: Amber Latif,

circumstances of discrimination and oppression.

but also terrifically flawed in her approach.

Print Source: Vixen Films Sales: Women Make Movies

“If girls spoke up, the world would change,” asserts Sampat Pal, the volatile leader of the Gulabi Gang, a cohort of women in India’s northern state of Uttar Pradesh who wear bright pink (some verging on neon) saris to provide a visible reminder of their quest for women’s rights. They congregate in meetings over which Pal holds court; her primary cases are women from the lower caste of “untouchables,” victims of domestic violence

Pal’s tough-love tactics are unrelenting, her interventions not always successful; as a result, she struggles to support a growing circle of dependents who have left all other options behind by following her lead.

Documentary Competition

Pink Saris

But Pink Saris wisely uses this contrast to underscore its ultimate point: emancipation is urgent work that requires individuals who are just foolish enough to defy the status quo. Kate Lawrie Van de Ven

or rape, the unwilling brides of child marriage or jilted lovers of upper-class men who are left shamed and suicidal.

Kim Longinotto was born in London and studied at the National Film and Television School in the United Kingdom. She began directing documentaries in the 1970s. Rough Aunties (2008) won the jury prize at the Sundance Film Festival. She received an Outstanding Achievement Award for her career at the 2010 Hot Docs film festival. Selected filmography: Dream Girls (1993), Shinjuku Boys (1995), Divorce Iranian Style (1998), Sisters In Law (2005) and Hold Me Tight.

Documentary Competition

INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE

“what in the world are we doing to our world”

Queen of the Sun: What are the bees telling us? Taggart Siegel G

Albert Einstein once said, “If the bee

The bond between humans and bees, once

USA | 2010 | 82 minutes

disappears from the surface of the earth, man

a sacred partnership, has become profit-

Color | HDCAM | English, Italian

would have no more than four years to live.

driven exploitation. The continued practice

Cinematographer: Taggart

No more bees, no more pollination … no more

of artificial queen-bee breeding will bring

Siegel | Editor: Jon Betz,

men!” In 1923, Rudolf Steiner, the scientist

about the demise of the species; pesticides,

Taggart Siegel | Sound: Ryan

who founded biodynamic agriculture and

herbicides and genetically engineered plants

Mauk | Music: Jami Sieber

Waldorf education, predicted that in 80 to

only exacerbate the problem.

| Production Company: A

100 years the world’s honeybee population

collective eye production

would collapse. With the advent of Colony Collapse Disorder, Steiner’s prediction

Print Source/Sales: A

appears to be coming true – disturbing news

collective eye production

if Einstein’s theory is correct.

Featuring Michael Pollan, Gunther Hauk and Vandana Shiva, Queen of the Sun is an exquisitely photographed documentary. It sheds light on both the bee problem and hopeful solutions to establish a harmonious

Queen of the Sun: What Are the Bees

balance with nature, while making a powerful

Telling Us? is a remarkable exploration of

argument for the importance of organic,

the profound importance of bees to our

sustainable agriculture.

survival as a species. Director Taggart Siegel embarks on a pilgrimage around the world

Jim Browne

to talk with some of the unsung heroes who are dedicated to the survival of the bees. Taggart Siegel is a director and producer of film and television based in San Francisco and Portland, Oregon. His documentary Between Two Worlds (1984) was nominated for an Emmy Award. The Real Dirt on Farmer John (2005), a documentary about an activist farmer, was widely praised and won awards at a number of festivals. His other films include Blue Collar & Buddha (1986) and The Split Horn (2001).

MIDDLE EAST PREMIERE Gazas tårer Vibeke Løkkeberg 18+

Some images tell such a clear story that

the carnage. Fathers mourn their children,

Norway | 2010 | 82 minutes

they form an undeniable argument simply

children remember their parents and vow

Color | 35 mm | Arabic

through their presentation. The core of the

to pursue careers as doctors or lawyers,

Producer: Terje Kristiansen

devastating Tears of Gaza is footage of

in order to be able to help or defend their

| Screenwriter: Vibeke

the 2008 to 2009 Israeli bombing of Gaza.

community in the future. And everywhere, a

Løkkeberg | Cinematographer:

Working with footage captured by several

civilian population equipped with neither the

Yosuf Abu Shreah,Saed Al

Palestinian cameramen both during the

infrastructure nor the mental conditioning

Sabaa, Marie Kristiansen |

offensive and its aftermath, director Vibeke

to respond to such an attack reels under the

Editor: Svein Olav Sandem,

Løkkeberg plunges us into the viewpoint of a

shock, and a palpable anger begins to fill the

Terje Kristiansen | Sound:

civilian population caught amid unspeakable

spaces left behind by the devastation.

Christian Schaaning | Music:

violence.

Lisa Gerrard, Marcello de Francisi | Production Company: Nero Media AS

Print Source/Sales: Norwegian Film Institute

Løkkeberg’s film is in one way intimately

The film is unsparingly graphic: it reveals

specific to the conflict in and over Gaza. On

actual scars, the cameras record as corpses

another level, it is pure anti-war manifesto.

are exhumed from beneath the rubble of

It is an emotionally gutting and profoundly

bombed buildings. We see, as it happens, the

powerful plea for the value of human lives.

horrifying effect of phosphorous bombs on human flesh. Every bit as haunting, however,

Documentary Competition

Tears of Gaza

Kate Lawrie Van de Ven

is the emotional response of the victims to

Vibeke Løkkeberg was born in Norway; she is a screenwriter, actor and director. She co-wrote and starred in Pål Løkkeberg’s Liv (1967); her directorial credits include Kamilla (1981), Vilde, the Wild One (1986) and Måker (1991).

Documentary Competition

We Were Communists Sheoeyin Kenna Maher Abi Samra 12+

At the filmmaker’s request, a band of brothers

present. From the men’s candid accounts, the

Lebanon, France, United Arab

– former comrades-in-arms affiliated with the

complexities of Lebanon’s post-war reality

Emirates | 2010 | 85 minutes

Lebanese Communist Party – gather at his

are pieced together. Particularly daunting is

Color | DigiBeta | Arabic

house to map out the new lines of tension and

the near-impossibility of weaving affiliation

Executive Producer: Jinane

potential conflict that articulate Beirut’s urban

outside the framework of one’s community.

Dagher | Producer: Jinane

fabric today. It has been nearly two decades

Dagher, Sabine Sidawi, Serge

since the official end of the civil war, but its

Lalou’ | Cinematographer:

legacy has been tangibly crippling; the so-

Claire Mathon | Editor: Ruben

called “communal peace” remains captive to

Korenfeld, Carine Doumit |

precariousness, uncertainty and tremor.

Sound: Fadi Tabbal, Stephane Rives | Production Company: Orjouane Productions, les films d’ici

Print Source/Sales: Orjouane Productions

At once artistically and politically audacious, incisive and tender, the film travels the chimeric and crestfallen reality of Lebanon’s fractured post-war landscape. As they huddle over the map to locate where they live,

The men revisit the moment of their

identify zones of security (and the lack of

adherence to the party, their engagement

it), the anguish of being placeless – and the

in the armed resistance against the

impossibility of making a home – become

Israeli occupation of the country, their

tangible.

disenchantments and their unfulfilled hopes. We Were Communists is director Maher

Rasha Salti

Abi Samra’s uninhibited examination of the legacy of Lebanon’s civil war and its post-war

Maher Abi Samra was born in Beirut in 1965. He studied at the Institut National de l’Image et du Son in Paris, and has worked as a photojournalist. He has directed several feature-length documentaries, including Chronicles of Return (1995), Women of Hezbollah (2000) and Shatila Roundabout (2004). His latest film, We Were Communists (2010), received a postproduction grant from the Festival. It was screened at the Festival as a work-in-progress in 2009, and at the Venice International Film Festival in 2010.

new horizonS / afaq jadida competition D

EL AMBULANTE

Eduardo de la Serna, Lucas Marcheggiano, Adriana Yurcovich D

BACK DOOR CHANNELS: THE PRICE OF PEACE Harry Hunkele

BILL CUNNINGHAM NEW YORK Richard Press

THE FURIOUS FORCE OF RHYMES Joshua Atesh Litle

GESHER

Vahid Vakilifar D

IN/OUT OF THE ROOM

IN YOUR HANDS

The KINGDOM OF WOMEN

LIVING SKIN

Dina Hamza

Lola Doillon

Dahna Abourahme

Fawzi Saleh N

OK, ENOUGH, GOODBYE Rania Attieh, Daniel Garcia

ONCE AGAIN Joud Said

ORION

Zamani Esmati N

QARANTINA Oday Rasheed

SLACKISTAN Hammad Khan

SUN DRESS Saeed Salmeen

WRECKED

Michael Greenspan N

ZEPHYR Belma Baş

D N

Documentary Narrative

MIDDLE EAST PREMIERE

New Horizons / afaq jadida competition

El Ambulante Eduardo de la Serna, Lucas Marcheggiano, Adriana

Cinematic art and life can at times be found

The documentary registers Burgmeister’s

in the humblest places and with a purity that

adventures and his creative process: his

sparkles. This is very much the case with

search for locations and actors, unexpected

Argentina | 2010 | 84 minutes

Daniel Burmeister, who wanders on his own

situations and accidents, the mise-en-scène,

Color | HDCAM | Spanish

through the many small towns and villages of

the editing... in short, the entire process of

Executive Producer: Adriana

his native Argentina, equipped with nothing

making a film. El Ambulante lovingly reveals

Yurcovich | Producer: Adriana

but a broken-down car, a small video camera

the life and work of a great unknown, a

Yurcovich | Screenwriter:

and a light. At each stop, in exchange for

modern wandering cinema minstrel – this is

Eduardo de la Serna, Lucas

room and board, he creates films inspired by

the spirit of the word ambulante in Spanish

Marcheggiano, Adriana

and animated with the participation of the

– whose zest and passion for the cinema are

Yurcovich | Cinematographer:

town’s inhabitants.

most admirable.

These are small-town dramas with titles like

Denis DeLaRoca

Yurcovich G

Pablo Parra | Editor: Eduardo de la Serna, Lucas Marcheggiano, Adriana Yurcovich | Sound: Damián Turkieh | Music: Atahualpa Yupanqui

Contact: Adriana Yurcovich adrianayurcovich@yahoo. com.ar

Let’s Kill the Uncle, My Friend the Doctor or The Terror of the Abandoned House. Burmeister has made dozens of these films, thus building a veritable filmography and filmed collective memory of the thousands of inhabitants living in the inaccessible interior of the country. Lucas Marcheggiano, Eduardo de la Serna and Adriana Yurcovich are from Argentina. They have frequently worked together on various short narrative films over the last decade, alternating in the roles of director, producer and assistant. The documentary El Ambulante (2010) is their feature-film debut.

WORLD PREMIERE Harry Hunkele G

Back Door Channels: The Price of Peace

USA | 2010 | 95 minutes

provides a glimpse into the recent past as

Color | HDCAM | English

it unravels the intrigue and egos behind the

Executive Producer: Donald

landmark 1979 peace treaty between Israel

Tanselle, Matthew Tollin,

and Egypt – a treaty recently put to the test

Arick Wierson | Producer:

as violence erupted along these borders with

Harry Hunkele | Screenwriter:

the conflict in Gaza.

Jonathan Hicks, Harry Hunkele, Matthew Tollin, Arick Wierson Cinematographer: William Fitzgerald | Editor: Harry Hunkele | Music: Whalehawk | Production Company: Channel Productions | With: Jimmy Carter, Boutros BoutrosGhali, Henry Kissinger, Andre Azoulay, Leon Charney, Wolf

Carter and Menachim Begin. But there was a parallel story taking place behind the scenes – a story of power and access, dangerous liaisons and men putting their reputations and careers at risk. The backstory of the Camp David Treaty involves men who risked everything – even their lives.

The threads that make up the complex

Featuring never-before-seen footage and

fabric of this documentary are land, oil and

riveting interviews, the film tells the story of

God. The Middle East has known violence,

how, despite differing personal ideologies

upheaval and conflict for millennia, but for

and religious convictions, sworn enemies –

one brief moment in time, on September

each facing immense political pressures at

17, 1978, Arabs and Jews were able to come

home – laid down their arms and embraced

together and find common ground. The

peace.

power brokers of this momentous event were titans of their time: Anwar El-Sadat, Jimmy

New Horizons / afaq jadida competition

Back Door Channels: The Price of Peace

Mohammad M. Khawaja

Blitzer

Print Source/Sales: Channel Production Films

Harry Hunkele has had a successful career as a producer and director of documentary series for US public television stations. His work as producer, writer, editor and director on the nationally syndicated series Secrets of New York has brought him accolades. He has received eight New York Emmy Awards. Back Door Channels: The Price of Peace is his feature film debut.

INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE

New Horizons / afaq jadida competition

Bill Cunningham New York Richard Press G

“We all get dressed for Bill,” says Anna

his photo spreads capture the rapt attention

USA | 2010 | 82 minutes

Wintour, Editor-in-Chief of Vogue, about Bill

of every fashion and society notable in

Color | HDCAM | English

Cunningham, the 81-year-old photographer

town. Living in the same tiny apartment for

Producer: Philip Gefter

who has two weekly columns in the Style

50 years, his monastic lifestyle is a striking

| Cinematographer: Tony

section of The New York Times. Quietly

contrast to the extravagant world of fashion

Cenicola, Richard Press

coursing through the streets of Manhattan

he is so committed to capturing.

| Editor: Ryan Denmark

on his trusty bicycle, shooting a Nikon

| Production Company:

film camera – not a digital model – he is

Submarine | With: Anna Wintour,

uninterruptedly absorbed by his quest to

Tom Wolfe, Anna Piaggi, Editta

capture the not-yet-noticed-elsewhere

Sherman, Annette de la Renta,

fashion trends of New York as they emerge

Howard Koda

before his prescient lens. It’s the clothes he’s passionate about – not the celebrity of the

Print Source: First Thought Films Sales: Submarine Entertainment

people who wear (some of) them. By his own paper, Cunningham has been

It took director Richard Press and producer Philip Gefter seven years to convince the intensely private photographer to allow them to begin filming. The result is a touching and heartfelt profile of a true New York original, which in turn becomes a magical portrait of one of the world’s greatest cities. Jim Browne

called the “hardest working reporter in New York”; his eye for detail is razor sharp and

Richard Press has written and directed several awardwinning short films and makes his feature film debut with Bill Cunningham New York. 2÷3 (2000) premiered at the New York Film Festival and received a jury prize at the Berlin International Film Festival. A follow-up, Virtual Love (2005), was developed at the Sundance Filmmakers Lab and went on to receive the Sundance/NHK Award at the Sundance Film Festival.

MIDDLE EAST PREMIERE Joshua Atesh Litle 15+

The Furious Force of Rhymes is a blast of

in frank, eloquent interviews, the musicians

USA/FRANCE | 2010 | 84 minutes

poetry and political consciousness – an

describe how this pervasive, dynamic form

Color | DigiBeta | Arabic,

inspiring, inclusive ode to global hip-hop.

transforms anger and despair, inspiring

English, French, German,

Featuring rap music in many styles and

struggles for recognition and justice.

Hebrew, Wolof

languages, this infectious documentary

Producer: Serge Lalou, Steven

portrays a phenomenon born in inner-city

Lawrence, Joshua Atesh Litle

America as it evolves into an international art

Screenwriter: Joshua Atesh

form and channel of protest.

Litle | Cinematographer: Joshua Atesh Litle | Editor: Jerome Lefdup, Martha Skolnik, Gloria Bremer | Production Company: Furious Media, Les Films d’Ici | With: Grandmaster Caz, La Fouine, Joe Rilla, Ramallah Underground, System Ali, Pee Froiss

Print Source: Furious Media Sales: DOC & Film International

With clever visual effects and interludes highlighting graffiti and breakdancing, Atesh’s style is as confident and audacious as the music he clearly loves. Pointedly ignoring

Director Joshua Atesh Litle sets the tone

the commercial, Atesh presents alert,

with classic footage of hip-hop’s “old

passionate artists in bracing performances

school” origins, then vividly illustrates its

and informal sessions, especially favoring the

legacy transformed by marginalized people

handclapping, beatboxing improvs on street

everywhere: African and Algerian immigrants

corners that make hip-hop adaptable, socially

on the troubled streets of France, Turks and

relevant and fun. Furious Force is crucial

anti-Nazi skinheads in East Berlin, Palestinian

viewing – both for fans and for those who

youth, Senegalese feminists. The film grimly

would hear the urgent voices of the world’s

acknowledges the racism, police brutality

disenfranchised.

and economic exploitation that make the ghettos of the world depressingly similar. But

New Horizons / afaq jadida competition

The Furious Force of Rhymes

Jim Poe

Joshua Atesh Litle is a Turkish-American filmmaker based in New York. His debut feature, the fictionalized documentary Ever Since the World Ended (2001), was shot with almost no budget, and won critical acclaim and several awards. He has also directed music videos and commercials. His other work includes The Price of Silence, a music video produced for Amnesty International.

New Horizons / afaq jadida competition

Gesher Vahid Vakilifar 12+

Gesher is a vivid and touching depiction

humor in these characters’ lives, focusing on

Iran | 2010 | 84 minutes

of the grinding toil and the camaraderie

daily struggles like the cleaning of a toilet or

Color | 35 mm | Farsi, Azeri,

in the day-to-day lives of migrant laborers

the transfer of cash via a stuffed toy. Vakilifar

Kurdish

in the Gulf region. Quietly fascinating and

frames the workers’ humble existence

Producer: Mohammad Rasoulof

breathtakingly filmed, the story follows three

with spectacular shots of vast industrial

| Screenwriter: Vahid Vakilifar

men who drive a beat-up car to the coast

structures, the surrounding desert and the

| Cinematographer: Mohammad-

of southern Iran to take menial, low-paying

Gulf waters – which to them represent purity

Reza Jahanpanah | Editor:

jobs at a natural gas refinery. Pathetically,

and freedom. Gesher finds odd inspiration in

Vahid Vakilifar | Sound: Hossein

they end up living in sections of unused

difficult lives. The film’s editing, which was

Mahdavi | Production Company:

pipe which face out to sea. Their jobs are by

supervised by Jafar Panahi, is exemplary.

Shargh Tamasha Media |

turns backbreaking, tedious, demeaning or

Cast: Hossein Farzizadeh,

downright filthy; at night they gather to cook

Ghobad Rahmaninassab,

dinner, talk and smoke shisha in their absurd

Abdolrassoul Daryapeyma

but cozy abodes.

Print Source/Sales: DreamLab Films

Jim Poe

Taking a documentary-style approach, firsttime-director Vahid Vakilifar has an assured touch and a dispassionate, observant – but sympathetic – eye. He finds plenty of dry

Vahid Vakilifar was born in Iran and earned a master’s degree in film from Soureh University in Tehran. He has worked as an assistant director on several features. Gesher (2010) is his directorial debut.

WORLD PREMIERE Dakhel Khareg el-Ghorfa Dina Hamza 15+

While debates about the the death

chill of the death chamber melts when we

Egypt | 2010 | 52 minutes

penalty rage the world over, in most Arab

leave the room to discover ‘Ashmawi’s other

Color | DigiBeta | Arabic

countries the sentence is still very much a

life. Hailing from the countryside, he moved to

Executive Producer: Khaled

commonplace state practice. Only recently

the capital hoping for a brighter future, found

Abdel Galil | Screenwriter:

have heated public debates among social

work as a policeman and later, to supplement

Dina Mohamed Hamza |

activists begun to surface, particularly in

his income, became an executioner. A proud

Cinematographer: Mahmoud

Egypt. In/Out of the Room approaches

father and dutiful husband, he confesses

Lotfy | Editor: Mohamed Eid

the question by following the life of an

that he could not marry the woman he loved

Sound: Khaled M. Ibrahim and

executioner in Cairo, who, at sixty-three years

because of class disparity. Without restraint

Ibrahim El Dessouki | Music:

of age, claims some thousand executions

he intimates us to the moral universe he has

Hazem Shaheen | Production

to his name – one of the highest records

constructed, his relationship to death and how

Company: Egyptian Film Center

(if record is the appropriate term) in the

his job became habitual.

country. Print Source/Sales: Egyptian Fim Center

Hamza’s film achieves what documentaries

Dina Hamza first follows ‘Am Hussein, who

do best: it makes an intelligent contribution

goes by the nickname ‘Ashmawi, inside the

to preserve the complexity of an ethical

death chamber, where he and two acolytes

debate, rather than simplify it. Compelling

describe, in clinical detail, the execution of a

cinema.

death sentence from beginning to end. The

New Horizons / afaq jadida competition

In/Out of the Room

Rasha Salti

Dina Hamza is Egyptian and studied at the Arab Film Institute in Amman. Her short narrative Eyeliner (2004) was featured at the Berlinale Talent Campus; Voices (2008), a short documentary, won a prize at the Cairo Film Festival. In 2009 she collaborated with three other directors on But Something Is Missing; the film received a special mention at the Rotterdam Arab Film Festival. She was an assistant director on Scheherezade, Tell Me a Story (Yousry Nousrallah, 2009), which played at the Festival.

MIDDLE EAST PREMIERE

New Horizons / afaq jadida competition

In Your Hands Contre toi Lola Doillon 15+

From beginning to end, In Your Hands is

moments of role reversal with her captor –

France | 2010 | 80 minutes

provocative and unsettling. The film begins

unfold in a tightly structured tempo. Drawing

Color | 35 mm | French

as Anna, a surgeon, leaves a house in a Paris

on a solid script, lead actors Kristin Scott

Producer: Saga Blanchard |

suburb, to return to her own home. Next, we

Thomas and Pio Marmaï’s deliver razor sharp

screenwriter: lola doillon

see her seated, frozen in horror at the sound

performances. The emotional charge is

| cinematographer: mathieu

of a ringing phone. When Anna decides to

captivating, bare and at times violent.

vadepied | editor: marie da

go to the police, we come to understand that

costa | production company:

she had been kidnapped, while everyone

ce qui me meut, origami films |

around her assumed she had gone on

Cast: Kristin Scott Thomas, Pio

vacation.

MarmaÏ

print source/sales: elle driver

Despite her escape, the surgeon seems at once hounded and haunted by her angry patient-captor. The gamut of emotions that binds them centers on love, with its myriad

Her abductor is in a rage due to the results

perverse faces, including the expiattion of

of a recent surgery and what he considers

guilt and the satisfaction of revenge. In Your

her cold demeanor in the aftermath of the

Hands, Lola Doillon’s second feature film,

tragedy. The kidnapping is intended as a

confirms her as a distinctively accomplished

come-uppance. Anna’s trials during the

director.

ordeal – fright, resistance, the ambiguous relationship that ensues with her abductor,

Rasha Salti

the experience of time in captivity, and even

Lola Doillon has worked in many capacities in film production since the 1990s. Her first short film, Majorettes (2005), was selected for the Director’s Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival. Her first feature film, Et toi t’es sur qui (2007) was selected for the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes and was nominated for a César Award for best first feature. In Your Hands is her second feature film.

INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE Mamlakit Al Nisa’a Ein el-Hilweh Dahna Abourahme G

In Ein el-Hilweh, the largest Palestinian

how they took charge of their destiny. This

Lebanon | 2010 | 54 minutes

refugee camp in south Lebanon, Palestinian

is a story of pride and triumph: the women

Color | DigiBeta | Arabic

women have a kingdom all to themselves,

rebuilt their homes themselves, refusing to

Animation: Lena Merhej |

established in the bleakest of circumstances

obey the Israeli army’s orders. They laugh

Cinematographer: Talal Khoury

through the sheer force of their will. In 1982,

into the camera as they recollect making a

| Editor: Dahna Abourahme |

the Israeli army that was occupying part of

kingdom for themselves.

Sound: Nadim Maalouf | Music:

south Lebanon rolled northward, eventually

Omar Khoury, Hatam Imam |

reaching the city of Sidon. People scattered

Production Company: Arab

for safety, but the city and nearby Ein el-

Resource Center for popular

Hilweh were subdued. Three days later,

Arts, Al-Jana

all the Palestinian men were rounded up and detained. The women were left with

Print Source/Sales: ARCPA

nothing but the rubble of their homes, their dependents, and the anguish that accompanies survival. With an uncanny serenity – and a good deal of humour – these women tell the story of

A delightful surprise in the film is the director’s collaboration with artist Lena

New Horizons / afaq jadida competition

The Kingdom of Women: Ein El Hilweh

Merhej, whose animated illustrations fill the gaps in archives and collective memory, allowing the film to soar poetically. Reviving a lapsed memory is a feat in itself, but a greater accomplishment is a film about Palestine that tells a story of triumph. Ground to build on. Rasha Salti

Dahna Abourahme is a Palestinian who was raised in Abu Dhabi and Amman. She received an MA in media studies at the New School for Social Research in New York, then worked as a filmmaker and youth educator. She teaches at the Lebanese American University. Her debut feature, the documentary Until When... (2004) was about Palestinian refugees in the West Bank. The Kingdom of Women is her second feature film.

WORLD PREMIERE

New Horizons / afaq jadida competition

Living Skin Jeld Hayy Fawzi Saleh 12+

Director Fawzi Saleh’s debut feature, Living

They are absorbed into the ravenously

Egypt | 2010 | 56 minutes

Skin is an unflinching investigation into the

labor-hungry, ruthlessly unsupervised

Color | HDCAM | Arabic

dire living and working conditions of children

manufacturing sectors, living their childhood

Executive Producer: Shaymaa

employed in the manufacture of natural

on the physically draining production line,

Yehia | Producer: Eman

leather products in Cairo. The film is set in

handling dangerous chemicals like sodium

Hamedda, Mahmoud Hemeda

Magra el-‘Uyun, a neighborhood in the heart

sulfate, sulfuric acid, and hydrogen peroxide

| Screenwriter: Fawzi Saleh

of the old city that claims an impressive

without appropriate protection.

| Cinematographer: Yousef

aggregation of slaughterhouses, and where

Baroud | Editor: Mohamed

more than half of the 80,000-strong labor

Samir | Sound: Mohamed Fawzi |

force - a large proportion of whom are

Production Company: Al Batrik

children under 15 - is unregistered,

Art Production

Print Source/Sales: Al Batrik Art Productions

Living Skin is a poignant reference to these tannery workers, who “process” the skin of livestock after they have been “processed” in slaughterhouses – and whose own living skin

Poverty, homelessness and the threat of

is exposed to the same chemical regimen

starvation push droves of children in Egypt to

as the skin of dead livestock. Saleh’s foray

leave school and give up their ambitions and

into socially engaged documentary cinema

their dreams of living with even a modicum

is uninhibited. It commands our undivided

of security, let alone dignity or the rarefied

attention.

privilege of shaping their own destinies.

Rasha Salti

Fawzi Saleh was born in Alexandria and studied screenwriting at the Higher Institute of Cinema in Cairo. He has worked in the Egyptian film industry in several roles, and has curated documentary film programs for non-governmental organizations. Living Skin (2010) is his debut feature film.

WORLD PREMIERE

FUNDED BY SANAD

Tayeb, Khalas, YAlla Rania Attieh, Daniel Garcia 12+

Set in somnolent, conservative and austere

critical deconstruction of manhood. The

Lebanon, united arab emirates |

Tripoli, the provincial capital of north Lebanon,

man, once all too comfortable in his self-

2010 | 95 minutes

OK, Enough, Goodbye is a caustic twist on

imposed bondage to his elderly mother,

Color | HDCAM | Arabic

the delayed coming-of-age of a man pushing

now negotiates his new-found freedom with

Producer: Rania Attieh,

40, who lives with his elderly mother and has

a great deal of reticence. He discovers, for

Daniel Garcia | Screenwriter:

consciously centered his life on caring for her.

the first time, the city in which he has lived

With the excuse of her being completely dependent on him – and in spite of her repeated objections – he has refrained from making a life for himself. One day, without warning, she moves to Beirut. Suddenly, this

all his life, but is unable to establish new relationships with people. He even employs an Ethiopian woman as a housekeeper, yet fails to find a means to communicate with her. She leaves him as well.

co-dependent has to construct daily routines,

Ok, Enough, Goodbye is a graceful meditation

a social universe, nurse his loneliness and find

on inertia, loneliness and cowardice, and the

happiness – all on his own.

sinister hold of conservatism on the human soul. Rasha Salti

Nawal Mekdad, Sablawork

Elegantly paced and beautifully filmed, Rania

Tesfay, Theodor Hakim, Nazem

Attiah and Daniel Garcia’s debut narrative

Attieh

feature is an uncanny, incisive but muted

New Horizons / afaq jadida competition

OK, Enough, Goodbye

Print Source/Sales: En Passant

Rania Attieh is from Tripoli and earned an MFA from City College of New York. Daniel Garcia is from Texas and graduated from the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. They have collaborated on a number of acclaimed short films. From the Parapet (2005) was a finalist at the Student Academy Awards. Almost Brooklyn (2007) was made as part of a workshop supervised by Abbas Kiarostami. Tripoli, Quiet (2009) was awarded Best Middle Eastern Short Film at the Festival. OK, Enough, Goodbye is their feature-film debut.

INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE

New Horizons / afaq jadida competition

Once Again Marra Oukhra Joud Said 12+

At its heart, Once Again is a love story. Majd

When the Israeli war on Lebanon broke

Syria | 2010 | 96 minutes

is the son of a high-ranking officer in the

out in the summer of 2006, Syria was the

Color | 35 mm | Arabic, French

Syrian army who was stationed in Lebanon

closest refuge for those running for safety,

Producer: Mohammad Al

throughout the civil war. Now, he works as an

and people were welcomed there with open

Ahmad | Screenwriter: Joud

IT expert for a Lebanese bank in Damascus.

arms. The destiny, history, demography

Said | Cinematographer: Joud

Joyce is Lebanese, and has recently been

and culture of Lebanon and Syria are so

Gorani | Editor: Ali Leilane,

appointed the branch manager. These two

intimately intertwined; conflicts between the

Simon Elhabre | Sound: Monceg

come to one another with reticence and

two have the temperament of an internecine

Taleb, Rana Eid | Music: Nadim

prejudice, carrying the dual burden of the

conflict – invariably political, never civil. How

Mishlawi | Production Company:

past – the deaths of parents during the war–

these conflicts are internalized by individuals

National Film Organization,

and the weight of the present, no less painful.

is a challenge few filmmakers have taken up.

Syrian Art Production International (SAPI) | Cast: Qays Cheikh Najib, Abdulatif Abdulhamid, Pierrette Katrib, Kinda Allouch, Jonny Komovic

Print Source/Sales: National Film Organization

In many ways, Majd and Joyce represent a generation that will write a new chapter in the history of relations between Lebanon and Syria; love is perhaps the only ground for a radical beginning to allow mourning the

Joud Saïd’s feat here is an original take on this heavily layered and chimeric subject, and to propose a love story as bridge for rewriting past, present and future. Rasha Salti

dead, and a restorative, not retributive justice where abuse, pain and forgiveness are central motifs. Joud Said was born in Syria and obtained a masters degree in film from the Université Louis Lumière. He works with the National Film Organization in Syria. His films include the short narratives Monologue (2007) and Farewell (2008). Once Again (2009), his first feature film, won the best Arabic film award at the Damascus International Film Festival. He is the youngest Syrian ever to complete a feature film.

MIDDLE EAST PREMIERE Zamani Esmati 18+

Orion’s beginning introduces a bright,

Entirely self-financed, shot on locations

Iran | 2010 | 80 minutes

beautiful young woman who is frantically

without permits and boldly filmed, Zamani

Color | HDCAM | Farsi

seeking a surgeon for reasons that aren’t

Esmati’s second feature was edited in

Producer: Zamani

immediately clear. She’s in love with her

consultation with acclaimed writer and

Esmati Namahonar |

astronomy professor, and his apparently

director Jafar Panahi. Zamani’s take on an

Screenwriter: Zamani Esmati

supportive efforts seem to indicate that

oft-treated subject is a gripping psychological

| Cinematographer: Mansour

they’re looking for someone to perform an

drama, where the young woman’s anguish,

Heydari | Editor: Zamani Esmati

abortion.

effectively conveyed in Nasim Kiani’s powerful

| Sound: Mehrdad Jelokhani | Production Company: | Cast: Nasim Kiani, Mehrdad Sheykhi, Hamed Baraghani, Mohammad Reza Farzad, Faria Samarani, Hossein Niroumand

Print Source/Sales: Nama Honar

By the time her beau manages to line up a makeshift clinic and a backstreet surgeon, it turns out she only wants to restore her virginity, to erase the outcome of a forbidden dalliance. To the couple’s misfortune, the police raid the place and round up everyone. The astronomy professor faces misdemeanor charges in court, and the woman is handed over to the custody of her father to enact

New Horizons / afaq jadida competition

Orion

performance, permeates every minute of the film. Orion is a defiant and eloquent plea against ancient traditions and social and state-enforced codes that overrule young women’s sexuality in contemporary Iran as they do elsewhere in the region; and a lucid denunciation of men’s complicity in the enforcement of these traditions and codes. Rasha Salti

appropriate punishment for the shame and dishonor she has brought upon her family. Zamani Esmati was born in Iran. He began directing short films in 1996; over the years his shorts have screened and won prizes at festivals all over the world. His first feature film, Narrow Allies (2005) was unreleased due to censorship by the Iranian government. Orion is his second feature.

WORLD PREMIERE

FUNDED BY SANAD

New Horizons / afaq jadida competition

Qarantina Oday Rasheed 18+

Qarantina, director Oday Rasheed’s second

violence and despair, which seep through the

Iraq, Germany, united arab

feature, continues his exploration of everyday

walls and taint all their interactions. The terrace

emirates | 2010 | 88 minutes

life in post-Saddam Iraq, as did his acclaimed

where Mariam finds momentary refuge from

Color | DCP | Arabic

first feature Underexposure. This time, the

her father’s abuse opens onto a horizon, but

Executive Producer: Nabil

film is almost exclusively set in a house – an

Mariam cannot see it. The family tears itself

Taha, Amar Rasheed | Producer:

abandoned building where a Baghdad family,

apart under the quiet watch of the hitman,

Dr. Shafiq Al Mahdi, Furat Al

fleeing violence. has found refuge. Saleh, or

while he plots his next job.

Jamil | Screenwriter: Oday

Abu Muhannad, the father, is an embittered

Rasheed | Cinematographer:

and often brutalizing patriarch. He lives with

Osama Rasheed | Editor:

Karimah, his significantly younger second wife;

Salwan Kamil | Sound: Ansgar

his son Muhannad, and his daughter, Mariam,

Frerich | Production Company:

who is pregnant and unwed.

The Directorate for Cinema & Theater, Enlil Film & Art, DIEBASISberlin | Cast: Assad Abdul Majeed, Alaa Najem, Hattam Auda, Hayder Munather, Sajad Ali, Rawan Abdullah, sami abdel hamid

survival delves into the intimacy of a family and a house. In many ways, they are a fragmented reflection of Iraq as it negotiates its post-war and post-occupation trauma. If the film were

To supplement their income, they have taken

to have a premonitory virtue, it would be the

in a lodger, who works as an assassin for hire.

splintering of the family. Karimah decides to

Because Mariam has dishonored the family, her

rescue Mariam and her unborn child. Early at

father does not hold back from unleashing his

dawn one day, she packs and walks away with

wrath and internalized disillusionment upon her.

her daughter. For the first time, we see a real

The family home does not seem to protect its inhabitants from the reality of Baghdad’s

print source: furat

In Qarantina, Rasheed’s chronicle of daily

horizon in the film.

Rasha Salti Oday Rasheed was born in Baghdad and has been active in the Iraqi film scene since his youth. He wrote, produced and directed his first full-length feature, Underexposure (2005), which was the first film made in Iraq after the US-led invasion; among many awards, it won the prize for best film at the Singapore International Film Festival in 2005. He is also a novelist and co-founder of the Independent Iraqi Film Center.

INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE Hammad Khan 15+

Slackistan is a colorful, funny and poignant

flirting with the gorgeous but enigmatic

Pakistan, United Kingdom | 2010 |

snapshot of (postponed) life among the

Aisha. Among his friends, he is the most

87 minutes

American-educated, middle-class kids of

pained by the emptiness of the scene and the

Color | HDCAM | English, Urdu

Islamabad – “the city that always sleeps.” It

absurdity of being a bored suburbanite in a

Producer: Hammad Khan,

might be the first movie of its kind – a youth-

troubled nation. His angst is genuine, and the

Shandana Ayub, Adnan Malik

oriented slice-of-life about boredom in sunny

film makes pointed references to Pakistan’s

| Screenwriter: Hammad

suburban Pakistan.

poverty and its tarnished image in the world.

Hasan – clearly director Hammad Khan’s

But for all the ennui and frustration, Khan

alter ego – is a moody aspiring filmmaker

makes his prefab, postmodern hometown

stuck bumming around with a group of

look fun. He gets the tone just right, from

directionless hipsters a year after university.

the Urdlish slang of the dialogue to the all-

They cruise the preplanned streets of the

Pakistani alt-rock soundtrack. The young

federal capital. They party. They certainly

actors turn in unassuming, appealing

don’t work. Mostly, they hang out at fast-food

performances; Khan’s bright, busy style finds

restaurants and wonder what’s next.

both beauty and amusing contradictions. It’s

Khan, Shandana Ayub | Cinematographer: Hammad Khan, Adnan Malik | Editor: Hammad Khan | Sound: Andrew Daynes | Production Company: Big Upstairs Film | Cast: Shahbaz Shigri, Aisha Linnea Akhtar, Ali Rehman Khan, Shahana Khan Khalil, Osman Khalid Butt, Khalid Saeed

Hasan searches for inspiration to make films, but finds none – for one thing, there is not

Print Source/Sales: Big

a single cinema in town. He spends his days

New Horizons / afaq jadida competition

Slackistan

somehow welcome to find that disaffected youth are much the same all over.

Jim Poe

Upstairs Films

Hammad Khan is from Pakistan. His first short film, Samovar (2004), gained attention at various festivals, including the Raindance Film Festival in the United Kingdom. A follow-up short, Explosions (2006), premiered at the London Film Festival. He has been recognized for creative excellence by the Pakistani government. Slackistan (2010) is his first feature.

WORLD PREMIERE

FUNDED BY SANAD

New Horizons / afaq jadida competition

Sun Dress Thawb al-Shams Saeed Salmeen Al Murry G

Set in the dry landscape of the countryside of

cousin, but for fear that she will pass along

United Arab Emirates | 2010 | 90

Damascus and in Ras al-Khaymah’s Red Island,

her disability to any children, Ahmad’s father

minutes

Sun Dress uses the attributes of the natural

refuses to permit the two to marry. Saleh,

Color | 35mm | Arabic

environment and the traditional architecture

the son of a rich merchant in the village, is

Producer: Amer Salmeen |

of its locations to depict a conservative

enamored with Halimah’s beauty; he, too, is

Screenwriter: Saeed Salmeen

and traditional social and cultural universe.

prohibited from making advances. Finally, Ali, a

Al Murry | Editor: Repair Bitar

Moreover, the film’s dramatic structure has

man who comes to the village looking for work,

Sound: Taha Al-Ajmi | Music:

echoes like a folk tale passed down over time

is also struck by the lovely Halimah. He courts

Taha Al-Ajmi | Production

by traditional storytellers. These motifs contrast

her until he discovers what he considers her

Company: Cine Vision Art

with the contemporary setting of the story,

shortcomings, then abandons his pursuit.

Production and Distribution

which is concerned with the marginalization

Cast: Habib Ghuloom, Marrai

and prejudice experienced by those with

Alhalyan, Nevin Madhi, Ahmad

physical disabilities today.

Abdullah, Sofia Jawad, Hamad Al Hammadi

Halimah seems to be sentenced to suffer for the unforgiving social prejudice against physical disability. In a parallel storyline, a young Syrian

Halimah is a beautiful, deaf and mute young

who chronicles Halimah’s tragic predicament,

woman; yet, like other women her age, she

her joys and despair, seems to identify with her.

dreams of the day she will wear her bridal

In delivering its compelling story, Sun Dress’s

gown and have her day in the sun – in Arabic,

mission is to redress injustice and dispel prejudice.

the term is “wear her sun dress” – and marry the man she loves. Halimah loves Ahmad, her

Samer Abou Hawwach

Saeed Salmeen Al Murry graduated from the New York Film Academy in Abu Dhabi. He won awards for the short film Huboob (2006) at the Emirates Film Competition and the Dubai International Film Festival, and continued this success with the short Al Ghobna (2007), which won awards at the Emirates Film Competition and screened at Dubai. Sun Dress is his debut feature film.

WORLD PREMIERE

gala

Michael Greenspan 15+

In this psychological thriller, a man gradually

using anything he can find in the surrounding

Canada | 2010 | 91 minutes

regains consciousness in a mangled car wreck

wilderness to increase his chances of survival.

Color | 35 mm | English

at the bottom of a steep cliff. He’s injured,

Confronted by overwhelming obstacles, both

Producer: Kyle Mann |

his legs are trapped, and he has no memory

real and imagined, he must rediscover his

Screenwriter: Christopher

of who he is or how he got into his current

identity – and face the consequences of what

Dodd | Cinematographer: James

predicament. His only company is a crackling

that might be.

Liston | Editor: Wiebke von

radio broadcast that describes a violent bank

Carolsfeld | Music: Michael

robbery gone wrong, and a corpse in the

Brook | Production Company:

back seat whose wallet identifies him as one

Wrecked Productions Inc. |

of the perpetrators of the heist. Mysterious

Cast: Adrien Brody, Caroline

figures periodically loom then disappear

Dhavernas

in the distance and nearby – figments of

Brody, the youngest winner of an Oscar for Best Actor in Roman Polanski’s WWII film

New Horizons / afaq jadida competition

Wrecked

The Pianist, compares his character in that film to the role he plays in Wrecked.

Alissa Simon

his imagination, or something even more print source; Sales: E1 Entertainment

disturbing? As the man (Adrien Brody) ventures out of the wreckage, he must rely on his primal instincts,

Michael Greenspan graduated from the American Film Institute’s MFA program. His thesis film, a short entitled The Legend of Razorback (2002), won a number of awards nationally. Wrecked is his debut feature film.

MIDDLE EAST PREMIERE

gala

New Horizons / afaq jadida competition

Zephyr Zefir Belma Baş 15+

Turkey’s Belma Baş makes a breathtaking

anticipation and worry in which she shrouds

Turkey | 2010 | 93 minutes

debut with her first feature, Zephyr. The

the mother-daughter relationship, giving

Color | 35 mm | Turkish

film’s protagonist, an eleven-year-old girl,

this intimate drama an epic feel. Slowly,

Executive Producer:

lives in a rural wonderland in the care of

we are provided with the keys to Zephyr’s

Cihan Aslı Filiz | Producer:

her grandparents. The landscape around

psychology; as she struggles with issues of

Seyhan Kaya,Birol Akbaba |

Zephyr is unfalteringly beautiful and darkly

abandonment and loss, the film gradually

Screenwriter: Belma Baş |

fascinating, but she views it largely with

captures the full fathom of her inner limbo

Cinematographer: Mehmet Y.

restrained indifference. Her focus is watching

and the implications of the degree to which

Zengin | Editor: Berke Baş |

the country road for the return of her mother,

she has been allowed to grow up without

Sound: İsmail Kardaş , Çağrı

an activist, to fill the parental gap in her days.

guidance.

Ayyıldız | Production Company:

(Her father is not in the picture.) When her

FilmiK Prodüksiyon/FC Istanbul

mother Ay returns, Zephyr’s world is only

| Cast: Şeyma Uzunlar, Vahide

further thrown off balance.

Gördüm, Sevinç Baş, O. Rüştü Baş, Fatma Uzunlar, Harun Uzunlar

Print Source: FC Istanbul Sales: MEDIT - Mediterranean

Kate Lawrie Van de Ven

Zephyr is marked by a patient rhythm, a profoundly detailed atmosphere and an eye to discovering the surreal amid the natural world. Baş plays the rhythm of passing nights and days against the powerful sense of

Media Rights GmbH

Belma Baş was born in Turkey. She received a BA in English literature from Istanbul University, then worked as a literary translator and managed film festivals. Her debut film, the short Poyraz (2006) premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. Zephyr is her debut feature film.

“what in the world are we doing to our world?” CANE TOADS: THE CONQUEST Mark Lewis

JANE’S JOURNEY Lorenz Knauer

QUEEN OF THE SUN: WHAT ARE THE BEES TELLING US? Taggart Siegel See page 56

SUBMISSION Stefan Jarl

THINK GLOBAL, ACT RURAL Coline Serreau

TO THE SEA

Pedro González-Rubio

WASTE LAND Lucy Walker

From the beginning of this Festival, films about the environment have been highlighted, and the rubric we invented last year for our series devoted to them, “What in the World are We Doing to Our World?” is intended to convey a down-to-earth, direct approach to many of the threats faced by humanity, many of them of our own making. The late President of the UAE, His Highness Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan, was ahead of his time in many respects, and one of the areas to which he devoted a great deal of attention was the attempt to safeguard animal species that are on the verge of extinction – the oryx, for example – and in creating green zones throughout this country. This series is inspired by his efforts.

MIDDLE EAST PREMIERE

“What in the World Are We Doing To Our World?”

Cane Toads: The Conquest Mark Lewis G

The exponential growth of the relentless cane

Australian continent. The effect of the venom

Australia, USA | 2009 | 86

toad is the subject of Mark Lewis’ follow-up

of this unattractive creature on the small

minutes

to his wildly popular 1988 documentary, Cane

pets of Australia has made it public enemy

Color | DCP | English

Toads: An Unnatural History.

number one in many parts of the country.

Producer: Mark Lewis | Executive Producer: Clarck Bunting, Dianne Weyermann, Jeff Skoll | Cinematographer: Toby Oliver, Kathryn Millis, Paul Nichola | Screenwriter: Mark Lewis | Editor: Robert DeMaio | Production Company: Radio Pictures, Participant Media, Discovery Studios

The amphibian was first introduced to Australia in the 1930s in a poorly conceived attempt to control and eradicate the sugar-

Not known for their good looks, the cane toad is reviled by many, though adored by a quirky few.

cane beetle. Female toads can lay up to

Local and regional governments have

50,000 eggs a year, and the population

devised schemes to stem the spread of the

of the pesky creature, a native of South

toad, but nothing seems to help. Despite

America, has exploded from the original

the serious ecological implications of this

102 imported 75 years ago to an estimated

phenomenon, Lewis’ injects the film with a

current population of 1.5 billion.

playful and absurd sensibility that will have

The first specialty documentary to be filmed Print Source: Radio Pictures

in 3-D, told with an engaging sense of humor,

Sales: Inferno Entertainment

The Conquest follows the migration of these

you rolling in the aisles. Jim Browne

unstoppable amphibians as they make their way in a determined march across the

Mark Lewis was born in Sydney. He earned a BA in economics before attending the Australian Film School. His first film, the comic nature documentary Cane Toads: An Unnatural History (1988), was a cult hit. He has established a niche with other films in the same vein. He has won three Emmy Awards. Selected filmography: The Wonderful World of Dogs (1990), RAT (1998) and The Natural History of the Chicken.

MIDDLE EAST PREMIERE Lorenz Knauer G

More than 20 years ago, Dr. Jane Goodall,

shores of Tanzania’s Lake Tanganyika. Here,

Germany | 2010 | 107 minutes

now 75, decided to give up her career as a

nearly half a century ago, Goodall began

Color | 35 mm | English

primatologist – as well as her private life –

her groundbreaking research; she returns

Executive Producer: Matthias

in order to devote all her energy to saving

every year to enjoy the company of the

Triebel | Producer: Philipp

our endangered planet. Since then, she has

chimpanzees that made her an internationally

Schall, Philipp Wundt,

spent 300 days a year travelling the globe,

recognized and deeply respected activist.

Michael Halberstadt |

spreading hope for future generations. In the

Screenwriter: Lorenz Knauer

course of this mission, she has taken on the

| Cinematographer: Richard

responsibilities of a UN Messenger of Peace,

Ladkani | Music: Wolfgang

and has been honored with countless awards.

Netzer | Production Company: NEOS Film GmbH & Co. KG, CC Medienproduktion GmbH & Co. KG | With: Jane Goodall, Mary Lewis, Angelina Jolie, Pierce Brosnan

Goodall’s scientific breakthroughs are considered to be among the most important of the past century. Jane’s Journey offers an intimate portrait of the private woman

In Jane’s Journey, we accompany Goodall on

behind the world-famous icon – an

her voyage across several continents, and are

exceptional person, certainly one of the most

given unprecedented access to her intense

fascinating people of our time

and exciting past. From her childhood home in Bournemouth, England, we move to her

“What in the World Are We Doing To Our World?”

Jane’s Journey

Alissa Simon

second home, Gombe National Park on the

Print Source/Sales: Bavaria Film International

Lorenz Knauer grew up in the United Kingdom, Germany and the United States, and studied liberal arts. He began his career in German television, where he was a documentary producer and director. His award-winning projects include Miss Baby or The Drama of the Perfect Child (1995), Forbidden Calling: Catholic Women Priests in the USA (1997) and Portrait of a Bavarian Beauty: The River Isar (2004).

INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE

“What in the World Are We Doing To Our World?”

Submission Underkastelsen Stefan Jarl 12+

Manmade chemicals are everywhere

number of unnatural and unwanted potential

Sweden | 2010 | 87 minutes

around us. Indeed, we are awash in a

toxins. Thinking his age might be a factor in

Color | 35 mm | Danish, English,

poisonous environment of our own making.

the levels of chemicals, he enlists a second

Finnish, Swedish

Contemporary concerns about man’s

guinea-pig: a young, pregnant friend. His

Producer: Stefan Jarl |

detrimental effects on our world are top of

thesis is proven true: she has absorbed less,

Executive Producer: Ulla

mind these days – as worries about issues

because she has had less time to do so.

Fluur | With: Eva Röse, Åke

like global warming and the collapse of the

Bergman, Stellan Skarsgård |

honeybee population, and hopes for the

Cinematographer: Toby Oliver,

increased implementation of renewable

Kathryn Millis, Paul Nichola |

energy sources and better methods of food

Screenwriter: Mark Lewis

production demonstrate.

| Editor: Robert DeMaio | Production Company: Radio Pictures, Participant Media, Discovery Studios

Print Source/Sales: AB Svensk Filmindustri

However, the story only introduces more concerns. Through interviews with a number of international experts, we learn that chemicals pass through the placenta during pregnancy. The tiniest amounts of some of

In Submission, director Stefan Jarl takes

these substances in the early stages of life

another tack. The film begins as he has

can have significant and detrimental effects

his own blood tested, in order to see

– especially on reproductive systems. In this

which chemicals – those useful industrial

age of environmentalism, we are, thankfully,

substances that stop lampshades from

increasingly focused on making the world a

bursting into flame, or ensure that fabrics

healthier place. But what if there are none of

do not stain when we spill our morning

us here to live in it?

coffee – his body has unwittingly absorbed. The result: Jarl’s blood has high levels of any

Nicholas Davies Stefan Jarl was born in Sweden. He studied filmmaking with the renowned documentarian Arne Sucksdorff. His feature film debut was They Call Us Mods (1968, codirected with Jan Lindqvist). It was the first in a trilogy including A Decent Life (1979) and Misfits to Yuppies (1992). He has won several awards including the Felix Award and the Silver Medallion at the Telluride Film Festival. Selected filmography: Nature’s Revenge (1983), The Soul Is Greater than the World (1985), Land of the Lapps (1993), Nature’s Warrior (1997) and The Bricklayer (2002).

MIDDLE EAST PREMIERE Solutions locales pour un désordre global Coline Serreau G

Many of us think we know the basic

to a meal, we say, ‘Bon appétit!’ It might be

France | 2010 | 113 minutes

arguments in favor of eating organic foods,

more appropriate to say, ‘Good luck!’”

Color | 35 mm | French

but this illuminating, often disturbing film

Producer: Matthieu

casts the matter in a broader historical

Warter, Guillaume Parent

and political perspective. It suggests that

| Cinematographer: Coline

the alarming ways in which industrial food

Serreau | Editor: Catherine

production, with its reliance on heavy

Renault, Claude Trinquesse |

machinery and chemical fertilizers, is

Production Company: Cinemao

destructive and harmful to our bodies and to society as a whole.

Print Source/Sales: Memento Films International

Over the course of the film, we visit farms in Brazil, France, India and Ukraine, learning about various methods and models for producing food naturally, and discovering the dark side of the much-trumpeted “Green Revolution.” After a relentless examination of the evils of industrial agriculture, the film offers a lucid argument that, after all,

Director Coline Serreau argues that the

it is ancient techniques of farming and land

collusion between mass agriculture and

management which provide the sanest way

industry since World War II has constructed

forward for food production – and for the

an agricultural system which utilizes the

survival of our species.

tools and methods of war, so that nourishing ourselves - a most basic aspect of our activity as human beings - has become instead an act of violence that we perpetrate, however unwittingly, against ourselves. As one participant remarks, “When we sit down

“What in the World Are We Doing To Our World?”

Think Global, Act Rural

One subject says: “When food is governed as if it’s a commodity, people will starve and cars will run on food.” Strong words, but not science fiction. Glen Sheppard Coline Serreau was born in Paris. Her film career was launched with Why Not? (1977). She had a hit as a writer and director with Three Men and a Baby (1985). Since then she has balanced her commercial success with socially conscious short films, including For Vera Chiwa (1991; part of the Amnesty International omnibus film Against Oblivion). Her other films include La Belle verte (1996), Chaos (2001) and 18 ans après (2003).

“What in the World Are We Doing To Our World?”

To the Sea Alamar Pedro González-Rubio 12+

Jorge Machado, a fisherman of Mayan

are the pleasures that this elegantly shot gem

Mexico | 2009 | 70 minutes

ancestry, reaches a parting of the ways

of a film brings.

Color | 35 mm | Italian, Spanish

with his Italian wife, Roberta Palombini – a

Producer: Jaime Romandía,

painful decision for both of them. Perhaps as

Pedro González-Rubio |

a farewell, their young son Natan Machado

Executive Producer: Jaime

Palombini undertakes a journey with his

Romandía, Pedro González-

father to the Banco Chinchorro, the largest

Rubio | Cinematographer: Pedro

existing coral reef on the southeastern tip

González-Rubio | Editor: Pedro

of the state of Quintana Roo in Mexico’s

González-Rubio | Production

Yucatan peninsula.

Company: Mantarraya Producciones | Cast: Jorge Machado, Roberta Palombini, Natan Machado Palombini, Nestor Marín ‘Matraca’, Wild Egret

Print Source/Sales: MK2

Born in Brussels, Pedro González Rubio quickly discovered a taste for anthropological photography while In India. Trained at the London Film School, he quickly made his mark with an uncompromising and harsh portrait of a young bullfighter with his documentary Toro Negro. In contrast, in To the Sea, his first narrative feature,

On this idyllic journey to paradise on earth,

luminous images and tender feelings

father and son fish and live from the sea,

permeate a delicate work that playfully toys

learn to keep their distance from the local

with the boundaries between fiction and

crocodile and welcome a white egret – aptly

documentary.

named blanquita (“Whitey”), who steals the movie. Along the way, the film touches on

Denis DeLaRoca

the pain of separation, the bonding of father and son, the need to let go and the process of finding one’s way anew in the world. These Pedro Gonzalez-Rubio was born in Brussels. He studied media in Mexico and attended the London Film School. He worked as a cinematographer before directing his own films. His directorial debut, Toro Negro (co-director, 2005) won several awards including the Horizons Award at the San Sebastián Film Festival. To the Sea is his first narrative feature.

MIDDLE EAST PREMIERE Lixo Extraordinario Lucy Walker G

Brazilian artist Vik Muniz is world-renowned

pregnant mother of two, become not only

Brazil, United Kingdom | 2010 |

for using non-traditional materials including

subjects for Muniz, but his collaborators

98 minutes

garbage and food to create his socially

as well. The transformation of their

Color | HDCAM | Portuguese,

conscious work. This stirring film follows

consciousness in the process of working with

English

him to Jardim Gramacho, one of the world’s

the artist in his studio is both palpable and

Producer: Angus Aynsley, Hank

largest garbage dumps, situated on the

extraordinarily moving.

Levine | Executive Producer:

outskirts of Rio de Janeiro. There, with the

Fernando Meirelles, Miel de

help of several extraordinary catadores,

Botton Ansley, Andrea Barata

or “pluckers,” he creates a breathtaking

Riberio | Cinematographer:

installation using photographs of the

Dudu Miranda | Editor: Pedro

catadores and the recyclable materials they

Kos | Music: Moby | Production

glean in order to survive.

company: Almega Projects, O2 Films Production

Print Source/Sales: E1 Entertainment

Born into a poor family in São Paulo, Muniz treats his collaborators with impressive respect and dignity, and in the process helps

Waste Land is a powerful and uplifting film that emboldens us with the potential force of the creative process as an extraordinary tool for self-empowerment. Winner of the

“What in the World Are We Doing To Our World?”

Waste Land

World Cinema Audience Award at Sundance 2010, Waste Land is a profoundly and unforgettably inspirational work. Jim Browne

them to envision a more robust sense of who they are in the world. Tiao, a hard-working visionary, who founded a co-operative for the catadores, and Suelen, an 18-year-old Lucy Walker was born and raised in London. She studied literature at Oxford University before earning an MFA in film at New York University. Devil’s Playground (2002), a documentary about Amish youth confronting the modern world, won the award for best documentary at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival. Blindsight (2006), about blind Tibetan teenagers who scale Mount Everest, was nominated for best documentary at the BFI Awards. In 2010 she was the first director to have two feature films debut at the Sundance Film Festival: Countdown to Zero and Waste Land.

showcase AUtograph Srijit Mukherji

CERTIFIED COPY Abbas Kiarostami

FAIR GAME Doug Liman

I TRAVEL BECAUSE I HAVE TO, I COME BACK BECAUSE I LOVE YOU Marcelo Gomes, Karim A誰nouz

KINGS OF PASTRY

Chris Hegedus, D.A. Pennebaker

LET ME IN Matt Reeves

THE OATH Laura Poitras

PAAN SINGH TOMAR Tigmanshu Dhulia

WEST IS WEST Andy De Emmony

WOMEN ARE HEROES JR

INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE

Showcase

AUtograph Srijit Mukherji 12+

This is the story of a struggling young

performances being in Manoj Mitra’s The

INDIA | 2010 | 128 minutes

director who approaches the reigning

Orchard of Banchharam and Badal Sircar’s

Color | 35mm | bengali

matinee idol of Tollywood with the idea of

The Other Side of History. His foray into

Producer: Shrikant Mohta,

re-making Nayak, Satyajit Ray’s film on the

filmmaking started when he assisted Anjan

Mahendra Soni, Madhu Mantena|

life of a superstar. There are two parallel

Dutt on Madly Bangalee.

Screenwriter: Srijit Mukherji |

narratives – one, the story of the film-

Cinematographer: Soumik

within-a-film, the other the unconventional

Halder | Editor: Bodhaditya

relationship between the arrogant star

Banerjee | Sound: Dipankar

(Prosenjit) and an upcoming theatre actress

Chaki, Anirban Sengupta | Music:

(Nandana Sen), who lives with the director

Debojyoti Mishra | Production

(Indraneil Sengupta). She is cast as the

Company: Shree Venkatesh

journalist in the film within the film. The

Films Pvt Ltd in association

narratives are entwined as reel and real

with Cinergy Pictures | Cast:

life converge and diverge through various

Prosenjit Chatterjee, Nandana

situations.

Sen, Indranil Sengupta, Rudra Prasad Sengupta, Piyush Ganguly

Print Source/Sales: Shree Venkatesh Films Pvt Ltd

Mukherji’s debut work, based on his own story and script, delves deep into the driving ambition and success within the film world – and, indeed, generally in today’s times – and how they can drive lives towards crossroads. Uma da Cunha

Director Mukherji, an economist and statistician, is steeped in professional English and Bengali theatre, his most notable

Srijit Mukherji was an economist and statistician before beginning a career as a writer, actor and director on the English-language theater circuit of Delhi and Bangalore. He wrote the successful Feluda Pherot (adaptated from Satyajit Ray’s Feluda series) and wrote, directed and acted in Checkmate. He began his film career as an assistant director, actor and songwriter on Madly Bangalee (Anjan Dutt, 2009) and then Iti Mrinalini (Aparna Sen, 2010). Autograph is his directorial debut.

MIDDLE EAST PREMIERE

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Certified Copy Abbas Kiarostami 12+

As resistant to facile interpretation as any

how men and women relate to each other.

France, Italy | 2010 | 102 minutes

of his other work, Kiarostami’s first narrative

And, as so often in the work of this always

Color | 35 mm | French, English,

effort in years is also his first made outside

fascinating director, alert viewers may find

Italian

Iran and his first film with a bona-fide movie

themselves questioning the very nature of

Executive Producer: Gaetano

star: Juliette Binoche, who was honored as

the relationship of the film’s two characters.

Daniele

Best Actress at the Festival de Cannes, where

Producer: Marin Karmitz,

the film premiered last May.

At one point, they visit a café whose proprietor takes them to be a couple. Soon

Binoche plays a French-born gallery owner

enough, they find themselves conversing as

who encounters an English author (opera

though they are; they even visit a hotel she

singer William Shimell, appearing in his

identifies for him as the place they spent

first film role), who has come to Tuscany to

their honeymoon. As the writer comments

promote his book on originals and copies in

at one point, “We make a good couple, don’t

art. His thesis is that a good reproduction

we?” Are they a couple – or a certified copy

can be as “authentic” as the original. Their

of one?

encounter isn’t really a romantic comedy, but rather an always-playful glance at

Showcase

Copie conforme

Peter Scarlet

Shimell, Jean-Claude Carrière, Agathe Natanson, Gianna Giachetti, Adrian Moore,

Balsimelli

Print Source: Media International Pictures Sales: MK2

Angelo Barbagallo, Manuela

Abbas Kiarostami is one of the world’s most highly regarded filmmakers. His first films were short documentaries; he then moved to narrative features that often incorporate documentary techniques. His 40 films in as many years include Where Is the Friend’s House? (1987), Close-Up (1990), And Life Goes On (1991) Through the Olive Trees (1994) and The Wind Will Carry Us (1999). A Taste of Cherry (1997) won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. Kiarostami is also an acclaimed poet, painter and photographer. He was president of our Narrative Feature Jury last year.

MIDDLE EAST PREMIERE

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Showcase

Fair Game Doug Liman 12+

A suspense-filled glimpse into the dark

a New York Times op-ed piece outlining

USA, united arab emirates | 2009

corridors of political power, Fair Game is

his conclusions and ignites a firestorm of

| 106 minutes

a riveting action-thriller based on the

controversy.

Color | 35mm | English

autobiography of undercover CIA operative

Producer: Bill Pohlad, Janet

Valerie Plame (Naomi Watts), whose career

Zucker, Jerry Zucker, Akiva

was destroyed and her marriage strained

Goldsman, Doug Liman, Jez

to its limits when her covert identity was

Butterworth, mohamed khalaf

exposed by a politically motivated press leak.

al mazrouei | screenwriter: doug liman, jez butterworth, john henry butterworth | cinematographer: doug liman | editor: christopher tellefsen | Cast: Sean Penn, Naomi Watts, ty burrell, louis ozawa, chang chien, sam shepard, Khaled Nabawi

print source: jaguar films

Infuriated, high-placed White House officials leak Plame’s covert status to the media in a spiteful act of betrayal intended to discredit Wilson and his dissenting opinion on the presence of WMD in Iraq. Serving up

As a covert officer in the CIA’s Counter-

impeccable politics with righteous outrage,

Proliferation Division, Valerie leads an

the chilly look of director Doug Liman’s

investigation into the existence of weapons

own cinematography evokes the gray zone

of mass destruction (WMD) in Iraq. Valerie’s

between private truths and public lies.

husband, diplomat Joe Wilson (Sean Penn), is drawn into the investigation to substantiate

Alissa Simon

an alleged sale of enriched uranium from Niger. But when the Bush administration ignores his findings and uses the issue to support the call to war, Wilson writes

sales: summit international

Doug Liman was born in New York, graduated from Brown University and completed the graduate film program at the University of Southern California. His lowbudget feature-film debut Swingers (1996) was a surprise critical and popular hit. The Bourne Identity (2001) and Mr. and Mrs. Smith (2005) were resounding box office successes and made him a sought-after director in Hollywood. He also produces for both film and television. His other films include Go (1999) and Jumpers (2007).

MIDDLE EAST PREMIERE

I Travel Because I Have to, I Come Back Because I Love You Aïnouz

Viajo porque preciso, volto porque te amo Straddling fiction and documentary, I Travel

A sense of overwhelming longing, and the

18+

Because I Have To, I Come Back Because I

ache of estrangement and loneliness, are

Brazil | 2009 | 71 minutes

Love You is structured as a road movie, but

compounded by the aridity of the landscape,

Color | HDCAM | Portuguese

its content is a lengthy elegy on love and the

while the characters the protagonist

Executive Producer:

loss of love; on loneliness, regeneration and

encounters reflect various forms of solitude

Livia de Melo and Nara

the search for the self – and the loss of self in

and abandonment. The prospect of bringing

Aragão | Producer: Daniela

that search.

water to a desert area is itself a potent

Print Source/Sales: FiGa Films

A geologist is dispatched on a mission to a far-flung region of northeast Brazil to survey water sources and study a map of a proposed canal system. The opening sequence, a nighttime view of the road ahead, is echoed throughout the film, setting up a recurrent cadence for this physical and geographical, as well as interior, journey. We are brought into the lead character’s emotional journey via a letter to his ex-wife; soon, elements of the natural environment provide an allegorical resonance with the man’s interior state.

Showcase

Marcelo Gomes, Karim

metaphor in the geologist’s life; he wavers between painful memories of the warmth he shared with his wife, the desire to rekindle that lost love, and the awareness that realizing that desire is not possible. Completing the allegory, the scientific data he collects on his journey become poetic measures of his loneliness. That, and the grainy image of Super 8 and DV transform the road movie into a home movie, a poetic drift on how we give and receive, lose and regenerate love. Rasha Salti Marcelo Gomes was born in Recife. He is a film director, writer and producer. His film Cinema, Aspirins and Vultures (2006) screened at the Cannes Film Festival in the Un Certain Regard section. Karim Aïnouz is a filmmaker and visual artist based in Berlin. His featurefilm debut, Madam Satã (2002) premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in the Un Certain Regard section. His art installations have been featured at the Whitney and São Paulo Biennials. His other work includes Alice (2009), a series for HBO Latin America.

Showcase

Kings of Pastry Chris Hegedus, D.A Pennebaker

In Kings of Pastry, Chris Hegedus and

they capture impressions of the camaraderie,

D. A. Pennebaker bring their venerated

humor and exhausting hours of practice –

France, Netherlands, United

documentary style to the legendary Meilleurs

particularly with the sublime, intricate and

Kingdom, USA | 2009 | 84 minutes

Ouvriers de France pastry competition. The

maddeningly breakable sugar sculptures that

Color | DigiBeta | French,

contest, held every four years, is the ultimate

are the literal centerpieces of the contest and

English

challenge for pastry chefs. Contestants

which mark these chefs as artistes.

Executive Producer: Frazer

endure an impossibly elaborate series of

Pennebaker, Nick Fraser,

tests over three gruelling days to determine

Barbara Truyen | Producer:

who can be called the best in the world.

Frazer Pennebaker, Flora

The MOFs, as they are known, retain this

Lazar | Cinematographer: Chris

distinction for life, set apart by a tricolor

Hegedus, D. A. Pennebaker,

insignia on theirv collars.

Nick Doob | Editor: Chris Hegedus, D. A. Pennebaker | Sound: Chris Hegedus, D. A. Pennebaker, Nick Doob | Music: Alex Toledano | Production Company: Pennebaker Hegedus Films | With: Sebastien Canonne, M.O.F., Jacquy Pfeiffer, Rachel Beaudry, Philippe Rigollot, Stephane Glacier, M.O.F., Regis Lazard, Frederique Lazard, Philippe Urraca, MOF

Print Source/Sales: Jane Balfour Services

Loose, intimate camerawork reveals the emotion inside the kitchen. The puff pastries, chocolates and other creations are dazzling, but the tension and fatigue are palpable. It’s fascinating to glimpse the organization and resolve these delicate desserts demand

The film follows three finalists as they travel

of their obsessive creators. Failure, when

to Lyon and prepare for the rigors of the

it inevitably comes, is devastating – but

MOF. Each has sacrificed a great deal –

it’s remarkable to witness the support the

money, family time, years of work – to make

chefs, including the tricolor-sporting judges,

it this far. But there are no reality-show

have for each other. This elite world is a

formulas here. Hegedus and Pennebaker are

surprisingly human one.

not concerned with the nuts and bolts of the contest itself, nor with melodrama. Rather,

Jim Poe Chris Hegedus and seminal cinéma-vérité documentarian D.A. Pennebaker first worked together on Town Bloody Hall (1979), which covered the controversial debates on feminism moderated by Norman Mailer. They went on to have a highly successful career together documenting landmark events and people on film. The War Room (1993), chronicling the 1992 US Presidential election, was nominated for an Academy Award® for Best Documentary.

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Matt Reeves 15+

Let Me In has everything going for it: it’s a

(Kody Smit-McPhee of The Road), a preteen

USA | 2010 | 111 minutes

hotly anticipated Hollywood remake of Let

tormented by bullies at school and ignored

Color | 35 mm | English

the Right One In, one of the most successful

by his alcoholic mother, befriends Abby

Executive Producer: Nigel

Swedish films of recent years; it’s directed

(Chloe Grace Moretz), who has just moved

Sinclair, John Ptak, Philip Elway,

by Matt Reeves, who proved with Cloverfield

in next door. It doesn’t take long for Owen

Fredrik Malmberg | Producer:

that a restrained, intelligent horror film

to realize that Abby is no ordinary girl and

Donna Gigliotti, Alex Brunner,

can be a box office smash; and it’s about

that she and the strange older man (Six Feet

Simon Oakes, Tobin Armburst,

vampires. Let Me In cannily arrives as the

Under’s Richard Jenkins) she lives with are

Guy East, John Nordling, Carl

phenomenal popularity of the fictional

connected to a series of murders in the town.

Molinder | Screenwriter: Matt

bloodsuckers reaches fever pitch.

Abby, meanwhile, is drawn to Owen out of

Reeves respects the earlier film’s whispery tone and Gothic atmosphere. By converting

Showcase

Let Me In

a sense of protection – an attraction with drastic implications.

the original’s creepy setting in suburban

The cast is top-notch and Reeves has, if

Sweden to a bleak small town in New Mexico,

possible, streamlined the original’s interplay

Reeves preserves the mood of isolation,

of unsettling ambience and supernatural

alienation and dread while adding a relevant

violence. Let Me In is a smart, elegant reboot

dash of Reagan-era American repression.

that should have wide appeal.

The story touches on universal issues of

Jim Poe

adolescent loneliness and despair. Owen print source: front row filmed entertainment Sales: Exclusive Film Distribution

Matt Reeves was raised in California and attended the University of Southern California film school. His featurefilm debut, The Pallbearer (1996), screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the Cannes Film Festival. He was the co-creator (with J. J. Abrams) of the television series Felicity (1998 – 2002). His other films include the critical and commercial hit Cloverfield (2008).

Showcase

The Oath Laura Poitras 15+

From 1997 to 2000, Abu Jandal was the

about the fate of Hamdan, now his brother-

USA | 2010 | 96 minutes

personal bodyguard of Osama bin Laden

in-law, who was set free only after the

Color | HDCAM | Arabic, English

in Afghanistan. He recruited a friend, Salim

surprising intervention of a pair of American

Executive Producer: David

Hamdan, who eventually worked as bin

military lawyers. In exploring the conflicting

Menschel | Producer: Laura

Laden’s driver. Now Jandal drives a taxi in

drives that can make up the personality of an

Poitras, Nasser Arrabyee, Aliza

Sana’a, while Hamdan, imprisoned for seven

apparently ordinary man, this documentary

Kaplan, Jonathan Oppenheim

years at Guantánamo Bay, became the

film demonstrates a psychological acuity

| Cinematographer: Kirsten

first man to face the controversial military

more frequently encountered in works of

Johnson, Laura Poitras |

tribunals there,

fiction.

The film follows Abu Jandal as he conducts

The second in her planned trilogy of films

his daily prayers, plays with his son and

about the post-9/11 world (the first, My

passionately recounts tales of bin Laden

County, My Country, was nominated for an

to groups of young men. His criticism of

Academy Award®), The Oath was produced,

the West is undimmed, but he cautions

directed and shot by Laura Poitras, who

repeatedly against violence, which he has

was honored for Best Documentary

now abjured. The intimate, skillful camera

Cinematography at the 2010 Sundance Film

takes us on a journey into the complex

Festival.

Editor: Jonathan Oppenheim | Music: Osvaldo Golijov | Production Company: Praxis Films

Print Source: Praxis Films Sales: CAT & Docs

universe of Abu Jandal’s belief system. He is visibly weighed down by profound guilt

Jim Browne

Laura Poitras attended the Sundance Institute’s Documentary Storytelling and Edit Lab as both a fellow and creative advisor. Flag Wars (co-directed with Linda Goode Bryant, 2003), won both the best picture award at SXSW and a Peabody Award. My Country, My Country (2006), about the US-led occupation of Iraq, was nominated for the Academy Award® for best documentary. Poitras currently lives in New York. The Oath (2010), is the second (after My Country, My Country) of a proposed documentary trilogy entitled New American Century.

WORLD PREMIERE

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Tigmanshu Dhulia 12+

Paan Singh Tomar is the name of a real-life,

while visiting his village. He has co-scripted

India | 2010 | 126 minutes

home-spun athlete from small-town Madhya

the film with Sanjay Chouhan. Dhulia’s two

Color | 35 mm | Hindi

Pradesh in India. As a young patriot, he

earlier films have also been based on small-

Producer: Ronnie Screwvala

joined the army, and accidentally discovered

town malpractice. His first feature Haasil

| Screenwriter: Tigmanshu

a penchant for running. He went on to rule

(2000) was based on student politics and

Dhulia & Sanjay Chouhan |

the steeplechase event at the Indian National

his second, Charas (2003), on drug cartels in

Cinematographer: Aseem Mishra

Games for seven years in a row, with an

India.

| Editor: Aarti Bajaj | Sound:

unbeaten 10-year record in the event. His

Rakesh Ranjan | Music: Abhishek

fame would develop a double edge when

Ray | Production Company: UTV

circumstances forced him to protect his

Motion Pictures | Cast: Irrfan

family against his own relatives, who stole his

Khan, Vipin Sharma, Imran

crops and destroyed his farmland.

Hasnee, Mahie Gill

Print Source/Sales: UTV Motion Pictures

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Paan Singh Tomar

Uma da Cunha

And so the runner became a reble. The film, produced by UTV, was shot in the army camp in Roorkee and the ravines of Chambal Valley. Irrfan Khan plays the lead role, for which he trained rigorously. Director Tigmanshu Dhulia spent years researching the life of Tomar, interviewing his surviving family members Tigmanshu Dhulia was born and raised in Uttar Pradesh. He graduated from Allahabad University, and then studied acting, obtaining a master’s degree at the National School of Drama in New Delhi. He worked in theater and directed and produced for television before co-writing the screenplay for the Bollywood hit Dil Se (1998). His feature-film debut Hassil (2000) was a critical and commercial success. His other films include Charas (2003). He was the casting director for the hit The Warrior (2001), also starring Irrfan Khan.

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Showcase

West Is West Andy De Emmony G

Almost ten years after the joyous East Is East

father’s past is far more complicated than he

United Kingdom | 2010 |

won over crowds with its story of a South

ever knew.

102 minutes

Asian family settling in 1970s England comes

Color | 35 mm | English

the follow-up. West Is West is an equally

Executive Producer: Jane

animated and poignant film taking the same

Wright | Producer: Leslee

family on an adventurous voyage home to

Udwin | Screenwriter: Ayub

Pakistan.

Print Source: Icon Entertainment International

Director Andy De Emmony, working from a script by the screenwriter of the earlier film, imbues every frame of this coming-of-age tale with an exquisite balance of somber reckoning and unfettered glee. Puri leads the

Famed actor Om Puri plays the robust and

film’s cast with bravado in a film that offers

charismatic patriarch, who is increasingly

no easy answers about cultural transitioning,

disheartened that his youngest son, the

but reminds us that we can grow, learn, and

teenaged, half-British Sajid (Aqib Khan)

embrace life anew at any age.

knows so little – and cares even less – about his roots. The solution: an extended trip to

Tammy Stone

Pakistan – one Sajid wishes he could avoid. It’s hot and overwhelming, but soon Sajid revels in the wonders of the nation of his heritage, reacquaints himself with his older, bride-seeking brother, and discovers that his

Sales: Prime Pictures LLC

Andy de Emmony is a director for British television. His credits include Red Dwarf (1988), At Home with the Brathwaites (2001), The Canterbury Tales (2003), Recovery (2007) and Framed (2009). He won a BAFTA award for best comedy series in 1995 for Father Ted and has received many other awards and nominations. West Is West is his feature film debut.

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JR 12+

Women Are Heroes is part of a wider

camera about what they have accomplished,

France | 2010 | 80 minutes

initiative, with the same title, by

not what they have endured; they speak to

Color | 35 mm | Portuguese,

internationally acclaimed artist JR, who

exorcize nightmares and share the modest

English

defines his practice as “political activism that

joys they have shaped with their own hands.

Producer: Juliette Favreul

uses art.” From Brazil to Kenya to Cambodia,

Renaud, Agathe Sofer |

JR travels to the fringes of cities, poverty

Screenwriter: JR, Emile Abinal

belts and hill-side favelas, collecting stories

| Cinematographer: Patrick

of women whose ordinary life – like millions

Ghiringhelli | Editor: Hervé

of women the world over – is extraordinary

Schneid | Sound: Philippe

hardship and who have successfully fought

Welsh | Music: Patrice, Massive

against adversity or injustice.

Attack, Jean Gabriel Becker | Production Company: 27.11 Production, Arte France Cinéma, Studio 37, Canal +, Dum Dum Films, Social Animals.

Print Source: Gulf Film Sales: elle driver

They don’t see themselves as heroes in particular, but they appreciate this recognition of women’s potential in a world where the most harm and grief is produced by men. “Women are stronger than men,” observes one of the film’s subjects; “this is why they stand at the frontlines.” This is not

JR photographs them as well and mounts

an ideological position on gender; rather,

placards of these remarkable, larger-than-

it is wisdom culled from lived experience,

life portraits on the walls of cities and

delivered with a luminous grace that feels like

towns as a gesture of acknowledgement

deliverance.

intended to celebrate the dignity of their subjects. JR’s women redefine heroism and

Showcase

Women Are Heroes

Rasha Salti

its representation in an age of ravenous global media networks. Women speak to his JR is an anonymous photographer and street artist based in Paris. He began his career documenting street art, then started illegally displaying his own oversized images (primarily of faces and eyes) in public spaces in Paris. He was allowed to wrap Paris City Hall with his work entitled Portrait of a Generation (2006). The project Face 2 Face (2007) featured images promoting peace in eight Israeli and Palestinian cities. His work was displayed at Art Abu Dhabi in 2009 and has also been featured on the exterior of Emirates Palace.

Come knowing what you want to see. And see what you do not know. Lose track of days. Discover endless tranquillity. Take it all in. Through your eyes, your ears, your hands, your soul. And leave with a new found sense of discovery. Abu Dhabi. Travellers welcome.

Recommended as a Top 10 destination to visit this year by Frommerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s and Lonely Planet. www.visitabudhabi.ae

Restored classics THE CIRCUS Charles Chaplin

METROPOLIS Fritz Lang

THE MUMMY / The NIGHT OF COUNTING THE YEARS Shadi Abdel-Salam

Restored classics I think it was Godard who once wondered

and we’re proud to be presenting the first

out loud why people refer to “old movies”

screening in the region of this extraordinary

but would never use that adjective to

work, which we’ll be screening with its

describe poems, or novels, or paintings. The

original orchestral soundtrack.

comment’s somewhat disingenuous since movies are, after all, what used to be called “popular art,” which may be another way of saying “art with a limited shelf life”. But great movies have a way of standing the test of time – if, that is, they’ve been preserved or restored properly. Film students are often open-mouthed with amazement at how gorgeous films can look – in good copies – even if they’re a hundred years old. And

SPECIAL Program

although one of the principal tasks of film festivals is to introduce new work, it’s become common practice for them to reserve a place of honor for classics of the past which have again become available in restorations which evoke much of their original power.

Our third restored classic is from Egypt, where it’s known as Al-Mumia’ which is, literally, The Mummy. It was completed in 1969, but when it was first released a few years later, it was known in English-speaking countries as The Night of Counting the Years, probably to avoid confusion with the 1933 American horror film titled The Mummy, which starred Boris Karloff. (In an unlikely coincidence, the American film was directed by an emigré German director named Karl Freund, who, six years earlier, had been the director of photography of – you guessed it – Metropolis!) Al-Mumia’ was hailed in many countries as a masterpiece, but somehow it disappeared from circulation after a while, and became almost impossible to see

Our copy of Chaplin’s The Circus isn’t a brand-new restoration, but since to the best of our knowledge this comic gem has never before been shown in this region, it might as well be. It’s not as famous as some of Chaplin’s other features like The Gold Rush, City Lights or Modern Times, in large part because it’s a silent film, and it was finished in 1928, when talkies had become all the rage. But it’s as good – and certainly as funny – an example as any we have of Chaplin’s genius – he wrote, produced, directed and stars in

until just two years ago the World Cinema Foundation (headed by Martin Scorsese) and the Imaggine Ritrovato laboratory in Bologna, Italy, and the Egyptian Film Center in Cairo produced newly restored copies of a film that is now recognized universally as a masterpiece of world cinema. Its director, Shadi Abdel-Salam, died before he could make another feature, but we’re happy that some of his collaborators on Al-Mumia’ will be on hand to discuss how this extraordinary film got made.

the film, composed its music score, and even sings the tune that runs under the credits.

Al-Mumia’ screens as part of the series Mapping Subjectivity – Experimentation in

Fritz Lang’s Metropolis is always hailed as a masterpiece, but for decades it existed only in truncated copies. It has at last been restored – only a few months ago – to something very close to its original 2½-hour running time,

Arab Cinema from the 1950s to Now – which is described on the pages immediately following. Peter Scarlet

FAMILY DAY

Charles Chaplin The Circus, Chaplin’s most perfect blend of

platform. They finally spin off, only to disrupt

USA | 1928 | 69 minutes

hilarity and pathos, won him a unique out-

a magician’s disappearing act – which brings

Black and White | 35 mm | Silent

of-competition Academy Award in 1928 “for

the house down. The delighted patrons think

with English intertitles

acting, writing, producing and directing.”

the chase is all an act and the ringmaster/

Producer: Charles Chaplin

When we first meet Chaplin’s Little Tramp in

owner immediately recruits the Tramp for his

| Screenwriter: Charles

this miracle of comedy, he is in typical straits:

otherwise comedy-less circus. Of course, a

Chaplin | Cinematographer:

broke, hungry, destined to fall in love and just

Chaplin comedy is never complete without

Jack Wilson, Mark Marlatt |

as sure to lose the girl.

a subplot involving unrequited love; here,

Editor: Charles Chaplin | Music: Charles Chaplin | Production Company: Chaplin - United Artists | Cast: Charles Chaplin, Merna Kennedy, Allan Garcia, Harry Crocker, Henry Bergman, Stanley J. Sandford

Print Source/Sales: MK2

On a circus midway, the hungry Tramp chows down on a hot dog while it is still in a puzzled tot’s grasp – he adds mustard mid-munch – then, pursued by an indignant policeman, he ricochets through a hall of

SPECIAL Program

The Circus

this involves the mistreated daughter of the circus owner. The Circus is perhaps this master’s most purely comic feature. It is quintessential Chaplin. Mohammad M. Khawaja

mirrors, eventually hurtling into a circus tent, where, in a brilliant series of sight gags and pratfalls, the Tramp and the cop perform a perpetual-motion chase on a revolving

Charles Chaplin was born in London in 1889. He performed in vaudeville from a young age, and in 1913 he signed his first film contract, eventually releasing a string of classics that made him one of the most famous people in the world. He co-founded United Artists Corporation and thus helped to establish the modern Hollywood system. He died in 1977. Selected filmography: The Tramp (1915), Easy Street (1917), The Immigrant (1917), Shoulder Arms (1918), The Kid (1921), The Pilgrim (1923), The Gold Rush (1925), City Lights (1931), Modern Times (1936) and The Great Dictator (1940).

SPECIAL Program

Metropolis Fritz Lang 15+

One of the most influential films of all time –

chance discovery of a forgotten print in an

Germany | 1927 | 148 minutes

and in its day one of the most expensive – is

archive in Buenos Aires made it possible for

Black AND White | HDCAM | Silent

Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, cinema’s first great

the film to be seen in something very close to

with English intertitles and

science-fiction epic – and one of the first

its original running time.

orchestral score

to use the genre both to predict the future

Producer: Erich Pommer

and to comment on contemporary society.

| Screenwriter: Fritz

But its commercial failure led to drastic re-

Lang, Thea von Harbou |

cutting. For years it was possible to see this

Cinematographer: Karl

celebrated movie only in smudgy copies

Freund, Günther Rittau |

running no more than 90 minutes.

Music: Gottfried Huppertz | Production Company: Universum-Film AG (UFA), Berlin | Cast: Alfred Abel, Gustav Fröhlich, Brigitte Helm, Rudolf Klein-Rogge, Theodor Loos

Print Source: Kino

This new version premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival in February, accompanied by a performance by a live orchestra of Gottfried Huppertz’s powerful original score. Our screening in Abu Dhabi will include a recorded version of that

Efforts to restore Metropolis began in

performance, but it’s likely to be received

Germany in the 1980s, and culminated in a

just as rhapsodically here as it was in Berlin.

2001 version which restored much of the

After all, what better place to show the 20th

film’s original visual power and a lot of its

century’s first vision of what the city of the

missing footage. But nearly a quarter of the

future might look like than here in the region

original was still missing – and had been all

of cities of the future!

but given up for lost when, two years ago, a

Peter Scarlet

International

Fritz Lang was born in Vienna in 1890. He served in World War I before beginning his film career. He achieved great fame in the burgeoning German film industry of the 1920s before fleeing the Nazi regime to rebuild his career in Hollywood. He is widely recognized as one of the great directors in cinema history. He died in Los Angeles in 1976. His films include M (1931), The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (1933), Fury (1936), The Big Heat (1953) and Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (1956).

100

Al-Mumia’ Shady Abdel-Salam 15+

Released in 1969, The Mummy / The Night of

for generations. The film’s central theme lies in the

Egypt | 1969 | 103 minutes

Counting the Years, Shadi Abdel-Salam’s only

moral conundrum that haunts the lead characters:

Color | 35 mm | Arabic

narrative feature, is a classic of auteur Egyptian

Who is the rightful custodian of the Royal Cache –

| Screenwriter: Shadi Abdel

cinema. Its measured pace, artfully composed

and, by extension, of Egyptian identity? The tribe

Salam | Cinematographer:

visuals and eerie score (by Mario Nascimbene) are

elder’s younger son eventually tells one young

Abdel Aziz Fahmi | Editor:

considered unique. Hailed as a classic when first

archeologist, who is concerned about the plunder

Kamal Abou El Ella | Music:

released, the film became hard to find by the 1980s,

of national treasures, where the treasure lies.

Mario Mascimbene | Production

so this recent restoration by the Egyptian Film

designer: salah marei | Cast:

Center, Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Fund, and

Ahmed Marei, Nadia Lotfi,

the Cineteca di Bologna helps to fill an important gap.

ZOUZOU HAMDI AL HAKIM, Ahmed Higazi

Print Source: Egyptian Film Center

The Mummy is remembered in particular for its singular atmospheric quality, its cinematography and the fact that its sequences were shot at

The story is set in 1881, in Thebes, the former capital

dawn or dusk. Many critics describe sequences as

of the Pharaonic kingdom, and is inspired by real-life

unforgettable; few would disagree that the final

events. When ancient artifacts suddenly appear on

scene of a treasure carried out of the mountain

the black market, archaeologists from an antiquities

by a procession of men and horses, walking

department set out to investigate the possibility

eerily against the glow of the horizon, is the most

that new tombs have been discovered. The site

haunting. A gem for generations to discover and

they seek is guarded by the Horabat mountain

hand down.

tribe, who consider the tomb a private source of income for times of need, and have kept it secret

SPECIAL Program

The Mummy / The Night of Counting the Years

Rasha Salti

Shadi Abdel Salam was born in Alexandria in 1930. He had a decades-long film career in many positions and is credited on Cleopatra (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1962), Saladin (Youssef Chahine, 1963) and Man’s Struggle for Survival (Roberto Rossellini, 1967). His directorial debut, The Night of Counting the Years / The Mummy (1969), won prizes at both the Venice and Carthage film festivals. He died in 1986 before he was able to finish Akhnaten. His other films include the shorts The Eloquent Peasant (1969), Horizon (1972), Armies of the Sun (1975) and The Golden Chair of Tutankhamen (1982).

101

Mapping Subjectivity / experimentation in arab cinema CHRONICLE OF A DISAPPEARANCE Elia Suleiman

DIVINE INTERVENTION Elia Suleiman

DOMESTIC TOURISM II Maha Maamoun

THE MUMMY / The NIGHT OF COUNTING THE YEARS Shadi Abdel-Salam (See page 101)

AL-YAZERLI Kais Al Zubaidi

Mapping Subjectivity: Experimentation in Arab Cinema from the 1960s to Now, Part I In the 1960s, galvanized by a broad global

Counting the Years, is the rarely seen, most

vanguard of countercultural experimentation in

famous of Egyptian auteur movies, directed by

poetry, literature and theater, filmmakers began

Shadi Abdel Salam and restored by the World

to craft a language and form that broke away

Cinema Foundation and Cineteca Bologna.

from established conventions and commercial

(The film accompanies the Festival’s other

considerations, ultimately clearing the way

restored classics; see page 101.) Two films by

for boldly subjective cinematic expressions.

acclaimed Palestinian filmmaker Elia Suleiman

Much of the inventive, daring and formally

are on the slate: Chronicle of a Disappearance,

challenging filmmaking at work today in the

Suleiman’s directorial debut, and Divine

Arab world has its roots – both acknowledged

Intervention, the first Palestinian film ever

and otherwise – in this pioneering drive to

selected for competition at the Cannes Film

experiment with narrative, representation, and

Festival. (The films are part of a trilogy that was

the production of images.

completed by The Time that Remains, which was presented at the Festival last year). Finally,

This year the Festival presents selections from

Domestic Tourism II, a video by Egyptian artist

the first installment of Mapping Subjectivity:

Maha Maamoun, reconsiders the place of the

Experimentation in Arab Cinema from the 1960s

iconic pyramids; it won an award at the Sharjah

to Now, a program produced in association

Biennial 9 in 2009.

with The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and ArteEast in New York. This three-part program

Together, these films are sure to inspire new

aims to provide a survey of the largely unknown

ways of thinking about and appreciating

heritage of personal, artistic and sometimes

modernity in art and cinema from the Arab

experimental cinema from the Arab world.

world. This project promises remarkable insights into the past, present and future

Five films are included in the program. Qays

of experimentation in Arab film. It offers

al-Zubaidi’s Al-Yazerli explores a young

audiences an opportunity to discover that,

boy’s inner turmoil when he is faced with the

contrary to popular belief, radical and artistic

prospect of a destiny bound to poverty and

films have been a part of Arab cinema for

manual labour. The Mummy /The Night of

decades.

Mapping Subjectivity is a collaboration between MoMA and ArteEast, and is organized by Jytte Jensen, Curator, Department of Film, MoMA, and Rasha Salti, Curator and Artistic Director, ArteEast. The program is organized in association with the Abu Dhabi Film Festival. We are grateful for additional support from the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the United States. ArteEast receives additional funding from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts, and New York City’s Department of Cultural Affairs. This exhibition has been co-organized by The Museum of Modern Art and ArteEast. It is curated by Jytte Jensen, Curator, Department of Film, MoMA, and Rasha Salti, Curator and Artistic Director, ArteEast. It is made possible through the generous support of averda.

104

Chronicle of a Disappearance Elia Suleiman G

Elia Suleiman’s directorial debut – the

to find an apartment in West Jerusalem;

Palestine, USA, Germany, France

first film in the trilogy that includes Divine

the owner of the Holy Land Souvenir

| 1996 | 88 minutes

Intervention (also screening in the Festival

Shop preparing merchandise for incoming

Color | 35 mm | Arabic, Hebrew

this year) and The Time that Remains (which

Japanese tourists; and a group of old women

Producer: Elia Suleiman |

was voted Best Middle Eastern Narrative

gossiping about their relatives.

Screenwriter: Elia Suleiman |

Film at the 2009 Festival), Chronicle of

Cinematographer: Marc Andre

a Disappearance is a meditation on the

Batigne | Editor: Anna Ruiz

significance of being Palestinian in the West

| Sound: Jean Paul Muguel |

Bank and Jerusalem, notably under the

Production Company: DHAT

dictate of the peace agreement between the

Production | Cast: Elia

Israeli government and Palestinian Authority.

Suleiman, Ola Tabari, Jamal Daher, Nazira Suleiman, Fuad Suleiman, Elia SuleimanUla Tabari, Nazira Suleiman, Fuadl Daher

Print Source: Pyramide International

Suleiman unlocks the poetic power of narrating the mundane, to reflect critically on violence, injustice and ideology. In this retrospective screening more than a decade after the film was made, Chronicle of a Disappearance appears ominously

Woven as a series of witty vignettes, some

premonitory in signalling the duplicity and

contemplative, others satirical, the film

precariousness of peace agreements. It

considers everyday life, witnessed and

earned the Best First Film Prize at the Venice

mediated through the gaze of E.S., the iconic

Film Festival in 1996.

signature character the filmmaker embodies. Suleiman creates the film’s psychological

SPECIAL Program

Sijil Ikhtifa’

Rasha Salti

thread through simply observing the film’s characters – a Palestinian actress struggling Elia Suleiman was born in Nazareth. In the 1980s and early 1990s he lived in New York and Jerusalem, directing short films and publishing essays about film. His first feature film, Chronicle of a Disappearance (1996), won the Horizon prize at the Venice Film Festival. Divine Intervention (2002) won the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival. His latest film, The Time That Remains (2009) won the Festival’s Black Pearl Award for Best Middle Eastern Narrative Film. In 2009 he was named Middle East Filmmaker of the Year by Variety.

105

Divine Intervention SPECIAL Program

Yadon Ilahiyya Elia Suleiman G

Divine Intervention follows a series of

in Ramallah who is barred from crossing

France, Morocco, Germany,

interrelated characters as they struggle

the Israeli checkpoint. The lovers’ intimate

Palestine | 2002 | 92 minutes

to maintain the veneer of normal life in

moments take place in a deserted lot, where

Color | 35 mm | Arabic, Hebrew

Nazareth, the West Bank and Jerusalem.

they watch the daily hostilities and quotidian

Producer: Humbert Balsan |

The film defines the Israeli occupation of

feuds between troops and civilians play out.

Screenwriter: Elia Suleiman |

Palestinian territory in painfully explicit terms.

Cinematographer: Marc-André

Winner of the Jury Prize of the International

Batigne | Editor: Veronique

Critics at the Cannes Film Festival in

Lange | Sound: Laurent Laffran

2002, Divine Intervention uses humor – the

| Music: Mirwais, Natacha Atlas |

most subversive weapon of all – and a

Production Company: Humbert

bravura style, casting Suleiman himself in the

Balsan | Cast: Elia Suleiman,

central role of E.S.

Manal Khader, Emma Boltanski

Print Source: Pyramide International

In the spirit of a modern silent movie, Divine Intervention recalls the comic genius of Jacques Tati and Buster Keaton’s deadpan delivery. The film unfolds with a series of expertly executed fantasy sequences and sight gags to depict the absurd – even perverse – manifestations of the conflict in

Under pressure from his failing business,

everyday events and petty jealousies. In the

E.S.’s father takes matters into his own

laughter created from such bleakness, there

hands to try to break a chain of petty feuds,

emerges a sensation of triumph in the face of

eventually breaking down himself. In the

adversity.

meantime, while caring for his ailing father in Jerusalem, E.S. is trying to keep his love

Rasha Salti

life on track with She, a Palestinian living Elia Suleiman was born in Nazareth. In the 1980s and early 1990s he lived in New York and Jerusalem, directing short films and publishing essays about film. His first feature film, Chronicle of a Disappearance (1996), won the Horizon prize at the Venice Film Festival. Divine Intervention (2002) won the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival. His latest film, The Time That Remains (2009) won the Festival’s Black Pearl Award for Best Middle Eastern Narrative Film. In 2009 he was named Middle East filmmaker of the year by Variety.

106

Domestic Tourism II Maha Maamoun G

Photographer and video artist Maha Maamoun

– VHS tapes, VCDs and DVDs – rather than

Egypt | 2009 | 62 minutes

produced this video as a second installment

resorting to prints, to reproduce images exactly

Color | DigiBeta

of a larger project entitled Domestic Tourism,

as they are visually present in the popular

in which she explores the changing discursive,

imagination. In this regard, the video is also a

ideological, political and social representation

sideways reflection on the dissemination and

and significance of national landmarks in

transmission of the legacy of film in Egypt.

Egypt.

With no commentary, nor any other form of

In Domestic Tourism II, she chooses the

intervention, another video-reel of the past

pyramids and their use in Egyptian cinema as

60 years of Egypt unravels. The pyramids

the central archetype of national identity and

are transformed, from that monumental

symbol of Egypt’s historical greatness. The

symbol of Egypt’s ancient glory to the site of

video is an assemblage of sequences – from

forward-looking hopeful aspirations, in the

films from the 1950s until now – in which

process coming to terms with disenchantment,

the pyramids appear as a site charged with

revelation, controversy, and romantic

meaning. With the medium of film, the artist

adventures. The video received an award at the

engages as well with the popular collective

ninth edition of the Sharjah Biennial in 2009.

imaginary and its political articulation. She deliberately extracted this informal archival

SPECIAL Program

Siyaha Dakhliliyyah II

Rasha Salti

footage from forms that are readily available Maha Maamoun was born in California and grew up in Cairo. She is a photographer and video artist whose work has been featured in exhibitions at the Tate Modern, the International Center for Photography and the Venice Biennale of Architecture. She is a founding member of the Contemporary Image Collective (CiC) in Cairo and has worked at the Townhouse Gallery for Contemporary Art in Cairo.

107

SPECIAL Program

Print Source: Damascus International Film Festival

An all-but-forgotten, rarely screened gem of

to the other children at work with him. Al-

Arab cinema from the 1970s, and masterful

Zubaidi was keen to push the vérité tone

director and editor Kais Al-Zubaidi’s sole

of his fiction to the limit; he used as few

feature length fiction narrative, Al-Yazerli is

props, lights and sets as possible, as it was

an adaptation – with a good dose of poetic

his ambition to transmit the experience of

license – from a novella by renowned Syrian

the young boy in as raw and unadulterated a

novelist Hanna Mina entitled Al-Akyas

form as possible.

(The Bags). Al-Zubaidi has earned critical acclaim as a In a series of visually intriguing sequences,

documentary filmmaker and editor; his name

and with minimal dialogue, Al-Zubaidi’s

was associated with the nascent alternative

camera narrates the story of a boy whose

cinema of the 1970s and 1980s. Al-Yazerli

family’s economic situation compels him to

remains a distinctive experiment in the body

quit school and seek work in the dockyards.

of Arab cinema, one of the finest attempts

The film spans the length of a single day

to extract fiction from the non-fictional and

in the boy’s life; the viewer is brought into

defend a social cause with eloquence and

his exterior world – as seen from his own

poetics. Across the Arab world, child labor

purview – as well as his interior world, his

remains rampant until this day. This film’s

dreams and fantasies and his relationship

mission resonates with as much relevance

Kais Al-Zubaidi was born in Baghdad and graduated from the High Cinema Institute in Germany. He has worked as an editor on many Arabic films, and is a published film theorist. He has directed numerous documentaries about the Palestinian cause including The Testimony of Palestinian Children in the Time of War (1972), Homeland of Barbed Wire (1980) Palestine: the Record of a People (1984) and Voice of the Silent Time (1991).

108

SHort Film competition Program 1

Program 2

Program 3

Program 4

total running time: 109 minutes

total running time: 110 minutes

total running time: 112 minutes

total running time: 107 minutes

Ask The Wind Batin Ghobadi

Esterhazy

Izabela Plucinska

La Patrona

Lizzette ArgĂźello

The Last Passenger Mounes Khammar

Muscles

Edward Housden

Rita

Fabio Grassadonia, Antonio Piazza

The Rodba Hafsia Herzi

Wave

Mohamed Ben Attia

Brother

Yanis Koussim

Conversation Piece Joe Tunmer

Daughter of the Man Manuel Schapira

Hunt

Behrooz Ghobadi

Idyll

Morten Hovland

In their Blood Katia Jarjoura

Made in China

Dobromir Dimitrov, Boris Despodov

Sauna Tango Vera Lalyko

The City with a Dirty Face Peter King

Tussilago Jonas Odell

Bathing Micky

A Gentle Push

Divino Freestyles

A trilogy on Tree

First Lesson

Album

Life

Cinema Azadi

The Pool Party

Clay

The Second Bakery Attack

One More Day

Frida Kempff

FĂĄbio Yamaji

Areen Omari

Walid Tayaa

Sara Zandieh

Carlos Cuaron

Under two skies Zayne Kader Akyol

Philippe Verkinderen

Seifollah Samadian

Shiraz Fradi

Mehdi Torfee

Ahmed El Naggar

Chaker Ben Yahmed

The Young Man and the Cunning Tailor Rashin Kheiriyeh

Tord & Tord

Niki Lindroth Von Bahr

Student Film competition Program 1

Program 2

total running time: 100 minutes

total running time: 98 minutes

Deaf rock n’roll

American Arab

Formic

Iceland

Cristian Pascariu

Roman Kaelin, Florian Wittmann

Jean-Paul’s Way Pauline Gay

Out of Nowhere Will Lamborn

The Fifth Column

Student AND short film Competition

Vatche Boulghourjian

The Road Home Rahul Gandotra

Ahmed Al Mutawa

Gilles Coulier

Mom

Ilya Kazankov

The Birthday Luiza Pârvu

Tidelanders Max Zähle

Wednesday Afternoons Nora Alsharif

OUT OF COMPETITION The Accordion

Album

Iran | 2010 | 9 minutes Color | DigiBeta print source: ART For the World Europa

Tunisia | 2010 | 16 minutes Color | HDCAM | Arabic Contact: Jilani Saadi - saadi.jilani@neuf.fr

Two young street musicians in Tehran have their accordion

Seven-year-old Nada lives with her mother and her brother,

taken away from them after an altercation. The Accordion

Hatem. She wonders why neither she nor her brother appear

is about the young generation who prefer solidarity to

on her parents’ wedding pictures. Will her tired mom give her

conflict.

a satisfying answer?

Jafar Panahi

Jafar Panahi was born in Iran. His first feature, The White Balloon (1995), scripted by Abbas Kiarostami, won the Camera d’Or at the Festival de Cannes. The Mirror (1997), The Circle (2000), Crimson Gold (2003) and Offside (2006) also won major prizes. He received worldwide attention in 2010 when he was arrested and imprisoned for over two months. He is still unable to leave Iran.

110

Shiraz Fradi

Shiraz Fradi was born in Tunisia and graduated from the Higher Institute of Multimedia Arts in Mannouba. Her short film Cauchemar (2007) won first prize in a Red Cross contest films about war made by young people. Ivresse nocturne received a special jury mention at the International Amateur Film Festival in Kelibia.

American Arab

Ask the Wind Az Bad Beporsid

Ahmed Al Mutawa

Batin Ghobadi

United Arab Emirates | 2010 | 11 minutes Color | HDCAM | English Contact: Ahmed Al Mutawa – dubaifilmmaker@yahoo.com

Iran | 2009 | 13 minutes Color | DigiBeta | Farsi Contact: Annabel Sebag - salles@premium-films.com

“What comes to mind when you hear the word Arab?”

A group of female art students pay a visit to a village to take

With this one question, Arab-American James Asher asks

photographs. A gust of wind catches the veil of one of the

people across the United States how Arabs have come to be

students and carries it away. She hurries off after her veil and

stereotyped, maligned and misunderstood.

is not far away from the village when she comes across a dead

Ahmed Al Mutawa was born in the United Arab Emirates. He worked at Sharjah TV before earning an MFA in film from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, where he produced a number of short films. American Arab won a prize at the Sheikh Majid Media Awards.

Batin Ghobadi was born in Iran. His other short films include The Painter (2000), Surely Today (2002), Incommunicado (2003), Broken Soldier (2004) and Ready for Death (2008).

Bathing Micky Micky Bader

The Birthday Aniversarea

Frida Kempff

Luiza Pârvu

Sweden | 2010 | 13 minutes Color | DigiBeta | Danish Contact: Erik Andersson – erik@medimafilm.se

Romania | 2010 | 16 minutes Color | DigiBeta | Romanian Contact: Luiza Pârvu - luiza.parvu@gmail.com

Micky will soon turn 100, but that does not keep her from

Adina tries to make her birthday a nice time for herself, but

swimming with her friends at her beloved bathing club all year.

this is not an easy task for a lonely bus ticket clerk who lives

Student AND short film Competition

man.

by herself in her late parents’ apartment.

Frida Kempff was born in Sweden. Her other short documentaries include Same Procedure Every Year (2002), My Heart in Arsenal (2003) and Psykoballet (2006). She also directed the documentary feature Sharaf Heroes (2006).

Luiza Pârvu was born in Romania. She earned a degree in film directing from the National University of Drama and Film “Ion Luca Caragiale” in Bucharest. Filmography: Shukar (2006), Alec Pall Prefers a Whiskey (2007), Teambuilding (2008), Behind A36 (2008), Vera vs the Library Bear (2009) and Draft 7 (2010).

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Brother Khouya

Cinema Azadi Azadi Cinema

Yanis Koussim

Mehdi Torfee

Algeria | 2010 | 16 minutes Color | 35 mm | Arabic Contact: Malek Ali-Yahia - damia@club.fr

Iran | 2010 | 30 minutes Color and Black and White | Farsi Contact: Mehdi Torfi – cinematorfi@yahoo.com

Three sisters, a brother and their mother: these are the

The poetic biography of a cinema in Khouzestan, Iran.

protagonists of Brother, a chamber piece that unfolds in a

Student AND short film Competition

typical Algerian home.

Yanis Koussim was born in Algeria. He studied law before taking up filmmaking. He made short documentaries in his hometown and in Paris, and also worked as an assistant on other productions. His first short narrative, Khti (2007), screened at numerous festivals.

The City with a Dirty Face Peter King United Kingdom | 2009 | 13 minutes Color | HDCAM | English, Russian, Latvian Contact: Peter King - peter@ontheagenda.co.uk

Medhi Torfi grew up in the province of Khouzestan in Iran. He went to art school in Tehran, where he studied cinema and creative writing. In addition to making films, he writes poetry and short stories.

Clay Silsal Ahmed El Naggar

Egypt | 2010 | 12 minutes Color | 35 mm | Arabic Contact: Ahmed Al Naggar – ahmed_naggar@live.com

This film is a portrait of a society that suffered through the

It’s beautiful to create your own world when you see yourself

demise and fall of the Soviet Union. Isolated both physically

as others see you.

and mentally, the people of Karosta have lived through times of lawlessness and chaos, forging their own lives within the madness.

Peter King was born in England. He has written and directed short narrative films that have played at festivals in over 40 countries. The City with a Dirty Face, his first documentary, was selected for archiving by the British Film Institute, and was nominated for the Anthony Minghella Award for Best British Short.

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Ahmed El Naggar graduated from the Higher Cinema Institute in Egypt where his documentaries earned a number of accolades. He has worked as an assistant director with Yousry Nusrallah, Sherif Arafa and Kamala Abu Zekri, among others.

Conversation Piece

Daughter of the Man La Fille de l’homme

Joe Tunmer

Manuel Schapira

United Kingdom | 2009 | 7 minutes Color | DigiBeta | English Contact: Joe Tunmer - jtunmer@hotmail.com

France | 2010 | 10 minutes Color | 35 mm | French Contact: Annabel Sebag - salles@premium-films.com

One sleepy Sunday morning, Jean notices a chip in a

While walking at night, a man is accused of snatching his own

treasured vase. She accuses her husband of the damage; he

baby.

denies it. Employing a variety of tactics, she attempts to get

Joe Tunmer has directed commercials, music videos, and video art. His short film Hospital Food (2001) screened at the Cannes Film Festival. Autocue (2001) was awarded Best British Film at Bristol Brief Encounters. Mockingbird (2005) screened at many festivals worldwide. Zero dB (2006) was the winner of BBC New Music Shorts.

Manuel Schapira studied cinema at Louis Lumière. He has directed documentaries, music videos and advertisements. His first short film, Le Cercle (1999) won a Kieslowski Award, while Decroche (2007) won a Silver Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival. His other films include Bunker (2009).

Deaf Rock n’ Roll Betisoare rock n’roll

Divino Freestyles O divino, de Repente

Cristian Pascariu

Fábio Yamaji

Romania | 2010 | 14 minutes Color | HDCAM | Romanian Contact: Cristian Pascariu - psycit1987@yahoo.co.uk

Brazil | 2009 | 6 minutes Color | 35 mm | Portuguese Contact: Fábio Yamaji - stopmotion@gmail.com

This film portrays the difficulties of a deaf woman who tries to

Brazilian performer Ubiraci Crispim de Freitas, a.k.a. Divino,

find her son at a rock concert. She passes through a world that

sings repente songs and tells us about his life.

Student AND short film Competition

to the bottom of the situation.

takes hearing for granted – and couldn’t care less about her problems.

Cristian Pascariu was born in Romania and studied theater and television in Cluj Napoca. His short films include Neon (2007) and Do You Want to Quit Drinking? (2009).

Fábio Yamaji was born in São Paolo. He studied design at McKenzie University and animation at HGN Productions. He works as a stop-motion animator and filmmaker. He also teaches animation at the university level and is a professional photographer and film critic. He co-founded the Brazilian Association of Animated Film. Divino Freestyles is his directorial debut.

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Esterhazy

The Fifth Column Hinkerort Zorasune

Izabela Plucińska

Vatche Boulghourjian

Student AND short film Competition

| 2009 | 25 minutes Color | 35 mm | German, Polish Contact: Anja Sosic -neweuropefilmsales@gmail.com

Lebanon | 2010 | 29 minutes Color | DigiBeta | Armenian Contact: Vatche Boulghourjian - vmb@rebus-i.com

Young bunny Esterhazy is transported to Berlin in 1989 to find

As father searches for son, both discover paths to personal

a bunny woman – in the vicinity of some mysterious Wall.

freedom in a city that offers no escape.

Izabela Plucińska was born in Poland. She studied animation and graphic design in Łódź and studied film in Potsdam. Her animated film Jam Session (2005) won numerous awards, including the Silver Bear for short film at the Berlin International Film Festival.

Vatche Boulghourjian is a Lebanese filmmaker and video artist based in Beirut and New York. He graduated from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. The Fifth Column (2010), his thesis film, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. His other films include Noble Sacrifice (2002), Night, She Said (2005), Good Soldiers (2006), Canto (2008), Ali the Iraqi (2008) and Life by the Horns (2010).

First Lesson Al Dars Al Awal

Formic

Areen Omari

Roman Kaelin, Florian Wittmann

Palestine | 2010 | 15 minutes Color | 35 mm | Arabic Contact: Rashid Masharawi - cinegaza@hotmail.com

Germany | 2009 | 4 minutes Color | 35 mm | No dialogue Contact: Eva Steegmayer - festivals@filmakademie.de

In an attempt to start a new life in a place without the daily

This film depicts the way a skateboarder impacts the micro-

stress and tension that grips her city, Salma decide to leave.

universe – and how an ant takes revenge.

While trying to create an alternative homeland, she faces moments of crisis, and is finally obliged to answer crucial questions concerning her homeland.

Areen Omari was born in Nazareth. She has appeared in a number of works by the renowned Palestinian director Rashid Masharawi, including Ticket to Jerusalem (2002), Waiting (2005) and Laila’s Birthday (2008). She also had roles in The Olive Harvest (Hanna Elias, 2003) and Private (Saverio Costanzo, 2004).

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Roman Kaelin was born in Switzerland. His animation credits include Jibb ‘n’ Days (2004), Weissgold (2007), Eintagsfliege (2008), Jimbo Clementine (2008) and Exeat (2009). Florian Wittmann was born in Germany. His animation credits include Football (2004), Motörhead (2006), Das Apfelkomplott (2007, Höllenritt (2007), Being First (2008) and Exeat (2009).

A Gentle Push Een Kleine Duw

Hunt Shekar

Philippe Verkinderen

Behrooz Ghobadi

Belgium | 2009 |15 minutes Color | DigiBeta | Dutch Contact: Ief Stuyvaert - i.was@createdbyconception.be

Iran | 2010 | 4 minutes Color | 35 mm | Farsi Contact: Golriz Ehtiati - golrize@gmail.com

A series of events collides in one afternoon for little Robbie:

A hunter who has only one bullet in his rifle has to choose his

the last day of school, Belgium’s World Cup qualifying match,

prey.

and a whale beached on the town’s shore. As all three head towards a climax, an unexpected twist changes his world

Philippe Verkinderen is a writer, actor and theater and film director. He earned a master’s degree in film, with a focus on screenwriting, from RITS in Brussels. In 2008 he won a competition for young people in the theater and used the prize money to produce an acclaimed children’s play, Stip. A Gentle Push is his debut as a film director.

Behrooz Ghobadi was born in Iran. He has been the production manager for a number of films directed by his brother, Bahman. Hunt is his directorial debut.

Iceland Ijsland

Idyll

Gilles Coulier

Morten Hovland

Belgium | 2010 | 22 minutes Color | HDCAM | Dutch Contact: Gilles Coulier - coulier.gilles@gmail.com

Norway | 2010 | 6 minutes Color | 35 mm | Norwegian, Spanish Contact: Toril Simonsen - ts@nfi.no

One night in Ostend, Belgium. On his way to the place he

Two tourists on a beach suddenly witness the results of

never left, Wesley lets the city be his guide – until he meets a

indifference wash ashore. A film with a different perspective

mime with a strange haircut.

on the anxiety we might feel when confronted with other

Student AND short film Competition

forever.

people’s suffering.

Gilles Coulier was born in Bruges. Iceland, his first short film, was selected for the Festival de Cannes, Cinefondation.

Morten Hovland wrote the screenplay for the feature film Rafiki (Christian Lo, 2009), which screened at the Berlin International Film Festival and won a jury prize at the Montreal International Children’s Film Festival. He has also written for the award-winning Norwegian television series The Last Waltz and for Blue Sky.

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In their Blood Bi Rouh bi Dam

Jean-Paul’s Way La Ballade de Jean-Paul

Katia Jarjoura

Pauline Gay

France, Lebanon | 2009 | 31 minutes Color | 35 mm | Arabic Contact: Robin Fage - elbizibi@free.fr

France | 2010 | 15 minutes Color | DigiBeta | French Contact: Geraldine Amgar - g.amgar@femis.fr

Beirut, 19 years after the civil war. Farès, a repentant former

Get into Jean-Paul’s pick-up truck. He’ll drive you to the snack

militiaman, has to get his wayward son off the streets and

van. There, he’ll introduce his friends to you. But today, they’ve

convince him to keep out of the violence which is gripping the

decided to surprise him.

Student AND short film Competition

country once more.

Katia Jarjoura is a Lebanese-Canadian filmmaker. Her documentary about Iraq, The Road to Karbala (2004) was broadcast internationally. In Their Blood, her first narrative film, won an award at the Brest Film Festival. Her other films include Caught in Between (2003) and Terminator: The Last Battle (2006), both documentaries about the political situation in Lebanon.

Pauline Gay was born in Dijon and studied film directing at La Fémis in Paris.

The Last Passenger Le Dernier Passager

Life El Icha

Mounes Khammar

Walid Tayaa

Algeria | 2010 | 7 minutes

Tunisia | 2010 | 18 minutes Color | HDCAM | Arabic, French Contact: Riadh Thabet - contact@ulysson.com

Color | 35 mm | No dialogue Contact: Mounes Khammar - alsaphina@hotmail.com

A young man jumps from a cliff. Before departing this world

Hayet is a Tunisian widow. Her twenty-year-old son has left for

forever, his soul pays a visit to to his two impossible loves: a

Canada. Each day she goes to work and comes home again.

woman, and the stage of a concert hall.

Her life is stuck in a routine. Even her home life is dreary and without interest.

Mounes Khammar is from Algeria. He worked in communications, and moved into film production after the Algerian Civil War. In 2004 he founded Saphina, the first production company to be run by a young filmmaker in Algeria.

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Walid Tayaa was born in Tunis. His short film Madame Bahja (2006) was selected for Tous les Cinemas du Monde section of Festival de Cannes. Prestige (2009) was screened at the Berlin International Film Festival. Life won awards at the Tetouan Mediterranean Film Festival and the Tarifa African Film Festival.

WORLD PREMIERE

Made in China

Mom Mama

Boris Despodov, Dobromir Dimitrov

Ilya Kazankov

Bulgaria | 2010 | 5 minutes Color | HDCAM | English Contact: Boris Despodov - borisdespodov@yahoo.com

Russia | 2009 | 22 minutes Color | 35 mm | Russian Contact: Ilyq Kazankov – ilyakazankov@yandex.ru

One small step for history, one giant leap for cheap mass-

Two young marine cadets escape during a concert at their

production. This animated film is a motion-painting remix of

academy.

Boris Despodov was born in Bulgaria and is an award-winning filmmaker and animator. His documentary feature Corridor (2008) won prizes at the Berlin International Film Festival and the Sarajevo Film Festival. Dobromir Dimitrov was born in Bulgaria. He worked as an animator on current directing partner Boris Despodov’s short Three Sisters & Andrey (2009).

Ilya Kazankov was born in St Petersburg. He studied theater, and then studied film at VGIK in Moscow. His other short films include Morning (2007) and Hat (2008).

WORLD PREMIERE

Muscles

One More Day Youm’k?

Edward Housden

Chaker Ben Yahmed

Australia | 2009 | 14 minutes Color | HDCAM | English Contact: Edward Housden - contact@edwardhousden.com

Bahrain | 2009 | 6 minutes Color | DigiBeta | Arabic Contact: Chaker Ben Yahmed – chaker@elementsbh.com

Richard’s sister Millie wants to be a bodybuilder. What

A glimpse of a newlywed Bahraini couple’s day as seen

happens if she is a better “boy” than he is?

through their bathroom mirror. We are witnesses to their

Student AND short film Competition

the historical benchmarks of the 20th century.

routine as it reflects their developing relationship.

Edward Housden is from Melbourne. He has made short films and music videos in Australia, Ireland, and New York. He earned a film degree from the Victorian College of the Arts. Muscles, his graduation film, premiered at the Festival de Cannes.

Chaker Ben Yahmed has worked as a freelance cinematographer in the Middle East and North Africa. His is a producer and managing partner at Elements Productions in Bahrain.

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Out of Nowhere

Student AND short film Competition

Will Lamborn

La Patrona Lizzette Argüello

USA | 2010 | 19 minutes Color | HDCAM | English Sales Contact: Will Lamborn - will.lamborn@gmail.com

Mexico | 2009 | 5 minutes Color | 35 mm | Spanish Contact: Javier García - sacbeproducciones@gmail.com

On the run from a would-be killer, Peter – on foot and all alone

La Patrona is a small community in Veracruz, Mexico, where

in the desert – tries to find his way to civilization. As he tries to

every day a group of women give a sample of love, hope and

escape, he finds himself deeper and deeper in the wilderness.

faith to the central American migrants crossing the country.

Will Lamborn was born in Lawrence, Kansas and raised in Colorado Springs. He graduated with a degree in film from the University of Kansas, and earned an MFA in film production from the University of Southern California. Out of Nowhere was filmed in part to complete this degree. His other films include the short ESP (2007).

Lizzette Argüello is a writer, researcher and documentary film director. She has worked in many capacities in the production of television programs and short films. She co-wrote the screenplay and was art director for the documentary feature No One (2005), which won a prize at the Sundance Film Festival. La Patrona is her directorial debut.

WORLD PREMIERE

The Pool Party Estakhr Party

Rita

Sara Zandieh

Fabio Grassadonia, Antonio Piazza

Iran / USA | 2010 | 14 minutes Color | 35 mm | farsi Contact: Sara Zandieh - szandieh@gmail.com

Italy | 2009 | 19 minutes Color | 35 mm | Italian Contact: Massimo Cristaldi - cristaldipictures@itaca.com

Khani, a pious and gentle servant, must clean, paint and fill a

Rita, a blind child, shelters a boy on the run who suddenly

pool in time for his mistress’s daughter’s birthday. The Pool

breaks into her home. It’s a mysterious, enigmatic meeting that

Party combines social realism with political allegory in the

lets Rita experience a brief moment of freedom.

story of an aged servant’s rebellion against his masters.

Sara Zandieh is Iranian-American. She has lived in Istanbul, working on a film project as a Fulbright Scholar, and completed a directing workshop at La Fémis in Paris. Her other films include Isabel (2007).

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Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza are from Italy and have worked as writers and consultants for major Italian production companies. Their script entitled Salvo was selected for the Berlinale Talent Campus in 2008, won a special jury mention in the Solinas Prize competition and won an award at the TorinoFilmLab. Rita is their directorial debut.

The Road Home

The Rodba Le Rodba

Rahul Gandotra

Hafsia Herzi

United Kingdom, India | 2010 | 23 minutes Color | HDCAM | English, Hindi Contact: Rahul Gandotra - rahul@nomadosphere.com

France | 2010 | 15 minutes Color | DigiBeta | French Contact: Sybille Chatrousse – Sybille@babefilms.fr

Ten-year old Pico struggles to settle into his new boarding

Matteo, a young man of Italian origin, comes with his parents

school high in the Himalayas. Abandoned by his parents and

to ask the family of his beloved Nina, who hails from from

picked on by bullies, he runs away…

the Maghreb, for her hand in marriage. This event, called the

Rahul Gandotra received a BA in political science, psychology and Chinese philosophy from the University of Michigan. He studied at the Czech National Film School before earning a master’s degree in film directing from the London Film School. The Road Home is his thesis project. His other films include Scarred (2008) and Courting (2009).

Hafsia Herzi is an award-winning actress who has starred in a number of films including The Secret of the Grain (Abdellatif Kechiche, 2007), The Dawn of the World (Abbas Fahdel, 2008) and Buried Secrets (Raja Amari, 2009), which screened at the Festival in 2009. The Rodba is her directorial debut.

Sauna Tango

The Second Bakery Attack

Vera Lalyko

Carlos Cuarón

Germany | 2010 | 4 minutes Color | 35 mm | No Dialogue Contact: Vera Lalyko - festivals@toonsisters.de

USA, Mexico | 2010 | 9 minutes Color | 35 mm | English Contact: Mandy Goldberg - mgoldberg@surdream.com

A physiotherapist relaxes his patients utilizing passionate

Nat and Dan are recently married, and have just had their first

tango music. Everyone is pleased – except the cleaner.

fight. An overwhelming hunger keeps them both awake one

Student AND short film Competition

Rodba, is a rite of great importance to them.

night. What can they do to quell their hunger and save their marriage?

Vera Lalyko studied at the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne. She has produced, directed and animated projects for film, television and the Internet. Her films include The Supercrooks (1998), Window with a View (2001) and Promenade (2005).

Carlos Cuarón was born in Mexico City. He received an Academy Award® nomination for Best Original Screenplay as well as a Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival for Best Original Screenplay for the hit Y Tu Mamá Tambien (2001), directed by his brother Alfonso. His feature-film directorial debut, Rudo y Cursi (2008) premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.

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Student AND short film Competition

Tidelanders Wattwanderer

Tord & Tord Tord och Tord

Max Zähle

Niki Lindroth Von Bahr

Germany | 2009 | 12 minutes Color | 35 mm | German Contact: Petra Barklhausen p.barkhausen@hamburgmediaschool.com

Sweden | 2010 | 11 minutes Color | DigiBeta | Swedish Contact: Andreas Fock – andreas.fock@sfi.se

The Kröger family has drifted apart. To bring everyone

One day Tord accidentally walks into the apartment next to

together again, mother Anne organizes a family trip to the

his own. Another person named Tord has just moved in. Soon

mudlands for her husband’s birthday.

Tord and Tord are spending time together.

Max Zähle was born in Germany. He studied media communication at the Hamburg Media School. He worked as a freelance editor and art director on commercials, videos and short films before enrolling in a graduate program in film directing, also at the Hamburg Media School. His films include Haste ma...? (2001), Der Untermieter (2008) and Wattwanderer (2009).

Niki Lindroth Von Bahr was born in Stockholm. She studied set design and prop making at the Nordic Set Design School, and then animation and experimental filmmaking at Diagonalakademin in Stockholm. She works as a freelance prop maker, puppet maker and animator in Stockholm.

A Trilogy on Tree

Tussilago

Seifollah Samadian

Jonas Odell

Iran | 2010 | 3 minutes Color | HD | No Dialogue Contact: Seifollah Samadian – tassvir_image@yahoo.com

Sweden | 2010 | 14 minutes Color | Swedish Contact: Andreas Fock – andreas.fock@sfi.se

A Trilogy on Tree takes three different approaches to illustrate

West German terrorist Norbert Krocher was arrested in

how trees relate to industry, human beings and nature.

Stockholm on March 31, 1977. He was leading a group planning to kidnap Swedish politician Anna-Greta Leijon. In days that followed, a number of suspects were arrested. One of those arrested was Krocher’s ex-girlfriend, “A.” This is her story.

Seifollah Samadian was born in Tehran. He is an artist, photographer and cinematographer who received international attention for his work following the Iran/Iraq War. He has worked as an art director and cinematographer with Abbas Kiarostami. He was a professor of photojournalism at the University of Tehran. Today he is the publisher and editor-in-chief of the Iranian magazine Photography.

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Jonas Odell is one of the founders of Filmtecknarna. He has produced a number of acclaimed music videos, as well as short films, TV programs and commercials. His short film Never Like the First Time! (2006) won the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival, among many other awards.

Under Two Skies

Wave Mouja

Iki bulut arasinda Sous deux ciels

Mohamed Ben Attia

Zayne Kader Akyol Iran / USA | 2010 | 14 minutes Color | 35 mm | farsi Contact: Zayne Kader Akyol - zayneakyol@hotmail.com

Tunisia | 2010 | 12 minutes Color | DigiBeta | Arabic Contact: Latifa Sarray - latifa.sarray@ulysson.com.tn

Isminaz, a Kurdish woman, immigrates to Canada from Turkey,

Over three periods of her life, a grandmother keeps repeating

leaving behind her husband and two of her children. She tells

the same apparently trivial story to her grandson. The boy

us about a woman’s sacrifice by welcoming us to her universe,

becomes a teenager and then a young man, and eventually

whereas the rest of her family members on the other side of

discovers that things are not quite what they seem to be.

Zayne Kader Akyol was born in Turkey and lives in Montreal. She graduated from the Université de Quebec à Montreal with a degree in film. She won the René Malo Chair/National Film Board of Canada award for most promising documentary filmmaker.

Mohamed Ben Attia was born in Tunisia. His other short films include Romantisme: 2 comprimés matin et soir (2005) and Like the Others (2006).

Wednesday Afternoons

The Young Man and the Cunning Tailor

Nora Alsharif

Mard-e Javan Va Khayat-e Hileg

United Kingdom | 2010 | 15 minutes Black and White | HDCAM | English Contact: Nora Alsharif - nsharif24@hotmail.com

Student AND short film Competition

the world show us their lives while waiting to reunite with her.

Rashin Kheiriyeh Iran | 2009 | 9 minutes Color | 35 mm | Farsi Contact: Nasrine Médard de Chardon - nasrine@dreamlabfilms.com

A game of chess between a lonely widower and his only friend

A young man enters a town and is informed that a crooked

takes an unexpected turn.

tailor lives there. The Young Man and the Cunning Tailor is based on a story by Maulana Jalaleddin Rumi, the great Persian poet of the 13th century.

Nora Alsharif was born in Kuwait to Palestinian parents. She earned a BA in graphic design, then worked in advertising before switching to the film and television industry. She worked as an assistant producer for various TV projects before enrolling at the University of Westminster in London to study for her MA in film. Wednesday Afternoons is her graduation project.

Rashin Kheiriyeh was born in Iran and earned an MFA from the University of Al-Zahara. She is an artist and illustrator whose work has been awarded prizes in the United States, Japan, Korea and Italy. She has worked on animated shorts and other films. The Young Man and the Cunning Tailor is her directorial debut.

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We at the Annecy International Film Festival are immensely pleased to associate with the Abu Dhabi Film Festival to present this selection of shorts and graduation films from the Annecy 2010 competition. There is something for everyone here, although these films have also been chosen with a young public in mind. The films are presented for ADFF Family Day – see page 37 for further information

Animation: an incredible support for communication that shows no visible signs of its hundred years of existence. On the contrary, this amazing field of expression has evolved over time, whether with traditional or innovating techniques coming from countries far and near, through the boundless creativity of animators from all horizons and cultures. The International Animation Film Festival and its film Market (the Mifa) have taken place in Annecy for the past 50 years. It is the biggest event in the world where

Don’t Go

creative artists, industry producers, broadcasters, financial backers, teachers and animation assistance tool

About One Bird

manufacturers from over sixty countries

Olga Kudryavtseva

meet up, exchange ideas and find work

Russia | 2010 | 11 Color | DigiBeta | Swedish

partners.

The Festival is a yearly showcase of what is happening in animation the world over, where 250 of the over 2,000 films received are chosen for the official selection and screened alongside other diverse film programmes.

Don’t Go Turgut Akacik

Festival Managing Director

Bill Plympton USA | 2010 | 11 Color | DigiBeta | Arabic

The Terrible Thing of Alpha-9! Jake Armstrong

USA | 2010 | 87 Color | DigiBeta | Arabic

Whistleless Flojtelos Siri Melchior

Train of Thought Leo Bridle, Thomas Ben

U.K. | 2009 | 13 Color | HDCAM | English, Russian, Latvian

Vincent Li

Westen

Kungfu Bunny 3 – Counterattack China | 2010 | 82 Color | HDCAM | English

The Train, the Tree and the Thriller Micro-dortoir Lia Bertels Belgium | 2010 | 5 Color | HDCAM | Arabic

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The Cow Who Wanted to Be a Hamburger

Turkey | 2010 | 15 Black & White | HDCAM | English

Denmark | 2009 | 56 Color | DigiBeta | French, Mandarin

Tiziana Loschi,

Stefan Holaus Austria | 2010 | 7 Color | DigiBeta | Arabic

Emirates competition Program 1

Program 2

Program 3

total running time: 124 minutes

total running time: 115 minutes

total running time: 118 minutes

Breathes Anfas Hamed Al Qassabi, Ali Al Bimani

Dark

Bader Al Homoud

Doll

Reem S Albayyat

Gheamt Shroog Ahmed Zain

Harmony by Distress Thieab Al Dossary

Al Menaz

The Bag

Coastal Laws

Boad al Dhan

Father Grant

Clothesline

Leap of Faith

The Guard

Of Fish & Men

Mask

The Queen

Mirage

A Sketch of Life in the UAE

Salih Albahrane

Naser Al Yaqabi

Essa Al Janahi

Khalid Al-Kalbani

Abdulmuhsin Al Mutairi

Abdulah Albatashe

Yaser Alneyadi, Hana Alshatari

Rah Al Bahar

Night Guard

Return

One More Day

Mohsin Almataqwi

Hussam Alhulwah

Al Sehaily

Mohamed Al Saadi

The Shoemaker Ahd Kamel

Fadel Al Muhairi

Chaker Ben Yahmed (See page 135)

The Phoenix Bird Jasim Al Qile

There Are Only Leftovers of Fried Chicken in the Fridge Nawaf Almhanna

Ebrahim Rashid al-Dosari

Ahmed Zain

Amna Ehtesham

Rola Shamas

Hadi Shuaib

Shoko Okurano

W. J. Towell Aqeel Ibrahim

Emirates competition Program 4

Program 5

total running time: 115 minutes

total running time: 120 minutes

Aloo

Yasser Alkhayat

Aseel

Faisal Al-Harbi

EMIRATES Competition

Cockroach Flu

Asma Saif Al-kharusi, Noura al-kharusi

I Love You, Champs Elysées Mahdi Ali Ali

The New Cinderella Eva Daoud

The Panic Burst

Am Arab

Ahlam Al Bannai, Jumana Al Ghanem

Constructing Dreams Moath Bin Hafez

When Fares gets a strange call he begins to worry that he might be talking to himself.

Yasser Al Khayat is from Dubai. He studied video production at Dubai Men’s College where he made five films. Aloo is his filmfestival debut.

Idea Moment Message Sameer Al-Jaberi

Lady of the Rosary

Quiet Desperation

Mahar Al Mahera

Reduced

Me In My Country

Shhh

Oh Yamal

Hafsa Al Mutawa, Shamma Abu Nawas

United Arab Emirates | 2010 | 6 minutes Color | HDCAM | Arabic

Hussain Bin Ahmed Abuhaliqa

Sarah Rougani, Shorooq Shaheen

Rashid Al-Marri

Yasser Al Khayat

Besht

Alejandro Montero

Akbar Farooq

Aloo

Maitha Hamdan

Shorooq Shaheen

Asma Al Kharusi

Petty Dreams Tariq Al Makki

Am Arab Ana Arabi Ahlam Al Bannai, Jumana Al Ghanem United Arab Emirates | 2009 | 21 minutes Color| HDCAM | Arabic

Second Wife Moaza Al Sharif

Am Arab is a documentary that explores the current state of the Arabic language in the UAE and how it is being affected by multiculturalism.

Ahlam Albannai and Jumana Al Ghanem are students at Dubai Women’s College. Both have directed short films and public service announcements.

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The Bag Al-Haqeeba

Aseel Faisal Al-Harbi

Salih Albahrane

Saudi Arabia | 2010 | 15 minutes Color | HDCAM | Arabic

Oman | 2010 | 12 minutes Color | HDCAM | Arabic

Aseel is about the sacrifiice a retired father makes to support

The Bag is a cynical story about a conflict over money.

Faisal Al-Harbi studies media at the University of King Abdulaziz in Jeddah. He has participated in a number of film festivals in the Middle East. Aseel is his second film.

Saleh Al Bahrani is a photography studio manager and a television and film director.

Besht

Boad al Dhan

Hussain Bin Ahmed Abuhaliqa

Naser Al Yaqobi

Qatar | 2010 | 8 minutes Color | HDCAM | Arabic

United Arab Emirates | 2010 | 12 minutes HDCAM | Color

Al Besht is a simple documentary about besht, a garment

This story takes place at a small village, where lives are lost

worn by Qatari men over their traditional dress to signify

due to misunderstanding and prejudgment.

EMIRATES Competition

his blind son who helps out at a printing press.

status. The besht industry is revealed through the eyes of a real-life Besht trader.

Hussain bin Ahmed is from Qatar. Al Besht, his first film was selected for the Al Jazeera Documentary Film Festival and was screened at the US Ambassadorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s home.

Naser Al Yaqobi was born in Ras Al Khaimah. He has worked for the Ministry of Information and the Center for Security Studies, and was a member of the Board of Directors of the Ras Al Kaimah National Theater. He has directed a number of short films which have screened locally and in the Gulf region.

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Breathes Anfas

Clothesline Habl Al-Ghaseel

Hamed Al Qassabi, Ali Al Bimani

Essa Aljanadri

Oman | 2010 | 2 minutes Color | HDCAM | English

United Arab Emirates | 2010 | 8 minutes Color | HDCAM | Arabic

A father is responsible for his son’s chaotic life because of his

Is there anyone to take my place?

EMIRATES Competition

neglect, and becomes a prisoner of his own hallucinations.

Hamed Alqassabi and Ali Al Bimani are digital design students at the Higher College of Technology in Oman. Breathes is ther first film.

Coastal Laws Qawaneen Al-Sawahel

Cockroach Flu Influenza Al Sarasir

Ebrahim Rashid al-Dosari

Noura Al-Kharusi, Asma Al-Kharusi

Bahrain | 2010 | 12 minutes Color | HDCAM | Arabic

Qatar | 2010 | 8 minutes Color HDCAM | Arabic

Coastal Laws explores the modern practice of reclaiming land

The rampant rumor of a Cockroach Flu epidemic causes fear

from the sea, and the effects it has on shorelines and marine

to spread in Qatar. The flim depicts the power of the rumor

life, as well as the damage it does to the fishing industry.

mill.

Ebrahim Al Dousary has written and directed several short films which have competed at film festivals around the Gulf region. He is also a writer and journalist, and is a musician, singer and songwriter who has composed music for television.

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Essa Al Janahi has been making short films for five years. Many of his films have been screened at local film festivals.

Noura Al-Kharusi was born in Qatar. Cockroach Flu is her debut film. Asma Al-Kharusi is an Omani born in Qatar. Her films include her directorial debut Cockroach Flu (2010) and the short documentary Oh Yamal (co-director, 2010), both screening at the Festival this year.

Constructing Dreams Ahlam that Al-Insha’a

Daken

Moath Bin Hafez

Bader Al-Hamoud

United Arab Emirates | 2009 | 4 minutes Color | HDCAM | Hindi

Saudi Arabia | 2010 | 28 minutes Color | HDCAM | Arabic

Building towers by day, and missing their famillies by night, it’s

Daken explores the character of Salah, a man who is a victim

a tough life for the construction workers of the UAE. What is it

of his past as he fights for his love and for a bright future.

Moath Bin Hafez was born in Al Ain and raised in Dubai. He earned a BA in applied media from Dubai Men’s College. He currently works at Dubai Media Incorporated. He has directed a number of short films.

Bader Al-Hamoud is a filmmaker and interior designer based in Saudi Arabia. He has made eight short films and a number of television commercials. He has taught courses in both filmmaking and design. His accolades include an award from the Gulf Film Festival.

Doll Dumya

The Dowry Mahar Al Mahera

Reem Al-Bayyat

Maitha Hamdan

Saudi Arabia | 2010 | 7 minutes Color | HDCAM | Arabic

United Arab Emirates | 2010 | 17 minutes

Aseela’s childhood is not over yet; she was just starting her

The Dowry is a documentary that addresses a common

life. Now her life has been stolen. Doll is an experimental film

problem in the Gulf region in both serious and funny ways.

EMIRATES Competition

that gives them momentary joys in an otherwise routine life?

made with over 4000 still images that addresses the issue of the marriage of minors.

Reem Al-Bayyat has been a freelance photographer for over ten years. Her first short film, Shadows (2009), was selected for official competition at the Gulf Film Festival, and was also screened at the Third Eye Film Festival in Mumbai and the Muscat Film Festival. Doll, her second film, was also in competition at the GFF.

Maitha Hamdan was born in Dubai. She studied communication at Dubai Women’s College. The Dowry is her third short film and first documentary.

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Father Grant Menhat Al-Waled Ahmed Zain

Gheamt Shroog Ahmed Zain

United Arab Emirates | 2010 | 13 minutes Color | HDCAM | English

United Arab Emirates | 2010 | 16 minutes Color | HDCAM | Arabic

Father Grant is a documentary about Um Rashed, a widow

This film charts the course of a day in the life of a group of

who survived a harsh life situation with the help of Sheikh

teenage boys who decide to skip school.

Zayed, who granted farmland to her and her children in Al Ain. Her children have all grown up and left home and she now

EMIRATES Competition

lives alone. Ahmed Zain is from the United Arab Emirates. He earned a degree in media studies from Abu Dhabi Men’s College, where he was named Best Director at the college’s film festival in 2005. He has directed or co-directed a number of short films including Sea Shells (2008), which screened at the Cannes Film Festival and won a jury prize at the Emirates Film Competition, and Red Island (2009) which screened at the Festival as part of the Emirates Film Competition.

The Guard Al-Haris

Harmony by Distress Ta’ab Alta’allof

Khalid Al-Kalbani

Thieab Al Dossary

Oman | 2010 | 15 minutes Color and B&W | HDCAM | Arabic

Saudi Arabia | 2010 | 5 minutes Color | HDCAM | Arabic

The Guard depicts a person with psychological problems after

Harmony by Distress is an animated film abstractly exploring

he betrays his mother to his father. The plot draws a clear line

segregation and the effects of “us” and “the other.” Color and

between a painful past and the grip of domination.

symbolism is used to highlight the many shades of prejudice.

Khalid Al-Kalbani was born in Kuwait. He earned a degree from the High Institute of Arts in Kuwait. He has worked in many areas in film and theater. His short film Whiteness (2009) screened at the Festival, and won awards at both the Emirates Film Competition and the Muscat Film Festival.

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Ahmed Zain is from the United Arab Emirates. He earned a degree in media studies from Abu Dhabi Men’s College, where he was named Best Director at the college’s film festival in 2005. He has directed or co-directed a number of short films including Sea Shells (2008), which screened at the Cannes Film Festival and won a jury prize at the Emirates Film Competition, and Red Island (2009) which screened at the Festival as part of the Emirates Film Competition.

Thieab Al Dossary was raised in Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom. He works with upcoming talent from both places to create artistic films with experimental themes.

I Love You, Champs élysées

Idea Moment Message Fekra-Lahtha-Risala

Champs élysées je t’aime

Sameer Al-Jaberi

Mahdi Ali Ali

United Arab Emirates | 2010 | 3 minutes Color | HDCAM | Arabic

Qatar | 2009 | 16 minutes Color | HDCAM | Arabic, French

A college student from the Gulf must decide between the

Idea Moment Message is a documentary that explores the

expectations of her traditional family – who plan to arrange

meaning of photography and the word “photographer” in

her marriage – or open herself to a new love in the West.

today’s world. In interviews, leading Emirati photographers talk

Mahdi Ali Ali is currently a Master’s student at the International Film School of Paris. He has worked on films for Al Jazeera Documentary Channel and Al Jazeera Children.

Sameer Mohamed Al-Jaberi was born and raised in Abu Dhabi. He graduated from the Higher College of Technology at Abu Dhabi Men’s College with a degree in media studies. He has attended photography workshops in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Paris and Bristol. He has made four short documentaries.

Lady of the Rosary Al-Sayyeda Al-Wardiyya

Leap of Faith Qafzat Al-Iman

Sarah Rougani, Shorooq Shaheen

Amna Ehtesham

Qatar | 2010 | 9 minutes Color | HDCAM | Arabic, English

United Arab Emirates | 2010 | 26 minutes Color| English

Lady of the Rosary is a documentary about Qatar’s first

Leap of Faith is a documentary that tells the story of four

church, which is also the largest church in the Middle East.

different people, ranging in age from 18 to 40, who choose

It explores how this church changed the life of Christians

to convert to Islam. The subjects, all residents of the UAE, all

in Qatar, and also addresses the mixed reaction among the

hail from the West and include and American teacher, a British

population of this Gulf nation.

journalist and a former member of the Christian Brothers, who

EMIRATES Competition

about how technology has drastically changed their art.

work in Vatican City. Sarah Rougani is from Qatar and is currently a student at Qatar University. Shorooq Shaheen is from Qatar. She graduated from Qatar University. Lady of the Rosary, their first documentary, won an award at Zayed University Film Festival.

Amna Ehtesham Khaishgi was born in Karachi. She earned a Master’s degree in international relations, then worked as a print journalist. She was a senior producer and director of popular news programs and documentaries at ARY and GEO. She was recently selected by Abu Dhabi Film Commission for the New Voices program. Her documentary Touch Wood (2010) was screened at the Cannes Film Festival.

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Mask Al-Qina’a

Me in My Country Ana Fi Biladi

Abdulmuhsin Al Mutairi

Shorooq Shaheen

Saudi Arabia | 2010 | 5 minutes Color | HDCAM | Arabic

Qatar | 2010 | 24 minutes Color | HDCAM | Arabic, English

A woman experiences problems due to a pressing family issue.

Me in My Country is a documentary that addresses the disparity of salaries in Qatar. Westerners tend to get paid more than Qataris do, even with less experience – and some companies hire people based on nationality, not experience. Meanwhile, the perception is that Qartaris do not work as hard as foreigners.

EMIRATES Competition

Abdulmuhsin Al Mutairi is a journalist and screenwriter at MBC in Dubai. He is a member of Talashi Films Group.

Al Menaz Al Menaz

Mirage Lal

Abdulah Al Batashe

Yaser Al Neyadi, Hana Al Shatri

Oman | 2010 | 21 minutes HDCAM | Color

United Arab Emirates | 2010 | 8 minutes Color | HDCAM | Arabic

A couple with an only child endures a struggle between life

Mirage presents the idea of the human soul, depicting the

and death.

conflict between human values and the temptation of money.

Abdulah Al Batashe is a filmmaker, poet and writer. His films include Hmdan (2008) and Al Menaz (2010).

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Shorooq Shaheen is from Qatar. She graduated from Qatar University. Lady of the Rosary, her first documentary, won an award at Zayed University Film Festival.

Yaser Alneyadi is a filmmaker, actor and writer. His film Letter to the Sky (2008), won Best Emirati Documentary at the Emirates Film Competition.Temporary Drought (2009) screened at the Festival. Hana Al Shatri’s first film, Beginning of the End (2007), was selected for the Emirates Film Competition. Letter to the Sky (2008) won Best Emirati Documentary at the Emirates Film Competition. Her other films include Graveyards of Roses (2008).

The New Cinderella Al-Sinderella Al-Jadeeda

Night Guard Haris Al-layl

Eva Daoud

Fadel Al Muhairi

United Arab Emirates | 2010 | 5 minutes Color | HDCAM | Arabic

United Arab Emirates | 2010 | 40 minutes Color | HDCAM | Arabic

A businessman who is frustrated and bored calls a random

A satirical drama about the evil eye.

number and thinks he has found the perfect woman at the other end of the line. But fantasy clashes with reality in this

Eva Daoud was born in Damascus and lives in Bahrain. She has a graduate degree in marketing and management and has worked in a number of fields including sports broadcasting. Recently she completed a course at New York Film Academy in Abu Dhabi.

Fadel Al Muhairi was born in Abu Dhabi. He earned a degree in film studies from the American University of Sharjah. His debut short film, Tolerance (2002) screened in the Emirates Film Competition. Night Guard received a special mention at the Gulf Film Festival. His other films include the documentary feature The Dhafra Camel Beauty Contest (2009).

Of Fish & Men Rejal Al-Bahar

Oh Yamal

Rola Shamas

Asma Al-Kharusi, Sazan Saman Abdulmajee, Fatim Altaweel

United Arab Emirates | 2010 | 3 minutes Color | HDCAM | Arabic, English

Qatar | 2010 | 8 minutes Color| English

The fish market in Abu Dhabi will be moving soon. This short

Legends and old stories about pearl diving in the Arabian Gulf

documentary looks at the arrival of the dayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s catch, capturing

are still alive and are passed from generation to generation.

the early-morning banter of the workers and the antics of the

This film tells the story of a famous Qatari pearl diver who

head auctioneer.

served as an icon of courage and challenge in the pre-oil and

EMIRATES Competition

comical modern take on Cinderella.

gas era in Qatar, when men braved the sea to make a living. Rola Shamas was born in Tehran and is based in Dubai. She has recently produced television commercials, art programs, animated films and documentaries. Her work includes the experimental video installation Too Close Too Far (2008) and The Freehold Generation (2010), a documentary about a female rapper based in Al Ain.

Asma Al-Kharusi is an Omani born in Qatar. Her films include Cockroach Flu (co-director, 2010) and Oh Yamal (co-director, 2010). Sazan Saman Abdulmajeed, is an Iraqi national. She is currently studying media at the University of Petra. Oh Yamal is her first film. Fatima Altaweel is the co-director of Oh Yamal.

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The Panic Burst Tho’or Al-Infijar

Petty Dreams Ahlam Sagheera

Alejandro Montero

Tariq Al Makki

United Arab Emirates | 2010 | 10 minutes Color | English

Qatar | 2010 | 11 minutes Color | HDCAM | Arabic

The Pani Burst centers around a strange man who has the gift

When the cries of poor and powerless people go unheard,

of being able to attract anyone to him, and awaken in them

when their weak voices gradually fade in today’s noisy world,

amazing hidden passions. But the price of this power is that all

suicide comes as a tragic end. Petty Dreams depicts the

of his relationships are ephemeral, and usually end in sa

stories of expat laborers whose hopes and dreams have been

EMIRATES Competition

broken in the pursuit of jobs in the Gulf. Alejandro Montero was born in Seville. He studied audiovisual communication and worked in Spanish television as an assistant director and cinematographer. He is studying at the New York Film Academy in Abu Dhabi, where The Panic Burst was developed.

Tariq Al Makki is Sudanese and graduated from Sudan University with a degree in media. He currently resides in Qatar. Petty Dreams is his debut film.

The Phoenix Bird Ta’er Alfyneeq

The Queen Al-Malika

Jasim Al Oqaili

Hadi Shuaib

Saudi Arabia | 2010 | 5 minutes HDCAM | Color | Arabic

United Arab Emirates | 2010 | 30 minutes Color | HDCAM | Arabic, English

Yasser takes enormous risks climbing the Gaza wall and

This documentary shows how the once vital relationship

run back to his wife whome looking after thier ill daughter.

between Bedouin and camel is celebrated in fantastic style

Returning home, a raid is underway. things get complicated

every year in the modern Abu Dhabi. At the Al Dahfra Festival,

and happens what's not accounted for.

the celebration of the camel culminates in a camel beauty pageant with thousands of contestants.

Jasim Ali Oqaili has produced and directed the 3-D animated films: Shadows (2007), After the Ashes (2008), A Dream: The Life screened in the Emirates Film Competition in 2008. He was first assistant director and character modeling and animation in the educational film Namool.

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Hadi Shuaib graduated from the London Film School. He has directed television commercials for over a decade for top corporate clients. He recently signed to William Morris Endeavor and is developing a number of feature-film projects.

Akbar Farooq

Rah al-Bahar Mohsin Al Mataqwi

United Arab Emirates | 2010 | 7 minutes Color and Black and White | No Dialogue

Bahrain | 2010 | 1 minutes Color | HDCAM | Arabic

Quiet Desperation uses no dialogue to illustrate a tale about

A sailor heads out to sea to fish – a familiar routine. But today,

friendship and loss.

things will be very different.

Akbar Farooq was born in Karachi and lives in Lahore. He studied architecture in Florence, but changed his focus to filmmaking. Currently he is studying at the New York Film Academy in Abu Dhabi. Quiet Desperation is his third short film. He is currently working on a documentary about flood victims in Pakistan.

Reduced Inkhifad Rashid Al-Marri United Arab Emirates | 2010 | 7 minutes Color and Black and White | HDCAM | English

In a dark city filled with corruption and racial prejudice, Weyak D stands alone. At work, he is accused of petty theft, but he

Mohsin Al Mataqwi is a Bahraini director and cinematographer who has produced a number of short narratives and documentaries.

EMIRATES Competition

Quiet Desperation Al-Ya’as Al-Hadi

Return Awda Hussam Al Hulwah Saudi Arabia | 2010 | 17 minutes Color | HDCAM | Arabic

A man comes home one night to find out that his wife has taken the kids and left the house in protest.

cannot defend himself because he has taken a vow of silence. How far can he take his honor before it ruins his life?

Rashid Al-Marri has made short narrative films as well as documentaries that have screened throughout the UAE. He works as a creative producer of commercials and promotions for Dubai Media Incorporated. He is currently in production on a documentary entitled Letters to Palestine, which will have its first screening in Palestine in October 2010.

Hussam Al Hulwah was born in Riyadh. He studied English literature and wrote wrote about film for a number of Saudi newspapers. His first short film, I Don’ Wanna was completed in 2009. Return is his second short; it won Best Script at the Gulf Film Festival. He currently works as a script advisor for MBC Group.

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Second Wife Al-zawja Al-thaniya

Al Sehaily

Moaza Al Sharif

Director: Mohammad Al Sa’di, Talal Mahmod

United Arab Emirates | 2010 | 15 minutes Color | HDCAM | Arabic

United Arab Emirates | 2010 | 11 minutes Color | HDCAM | Arabic

Second Wife is a documentary about the love affairs men have

Al Sehaily is about a father who tries to give his daughter in

with their cars.

marriage to a merchant – but her lover comes up with a plan to prevent it. He tricks the father into thinking that she was kidnapped by a lunatic young man.

EMIRATES Competition

Moaza Al Sharif was born in Dubai. She is a communications student at Dubai Women’s College. Second Wife is her second short documentary.

Shhh

Mohammad Al Sa’di and Talal Mahmod are the directors of Al Sehaily.

The Shoemaker Al Gondorji

Hafsa Al Mutawa, Shamma Abu Nawas

Ahd Kamel

United Arab Emirates | 2010 | 40 minutes Color | HDCAM | English

Saudi Arabia | 2009 | 16 minutes Color | HDCAM | Arabic

Four friends, each living in a world riddled with obstacles,

Saber, an Iraqi shoemaker, returns to his family after being

are brought together. This film is about the the challenges

wrongfully detained by the occupation forces for two years.

friendships face from jealousy and hatred.

We follow his first day back in his village and his reunion with his wife and five-year-old son. We discover, buried just beneath the

Hafsa Al Mutawa wrote, produced, directed and edited her first short film while still a student, and won a prize for a public service announcement she directed. Shhh, her graduation film, screened at the Gulf Film Festival. Shamma Abu Nawas was born in Dubai. Her first film, I’m a Man (2007), screened at the Emirates Film Competition and the Dubai International Film Festival.

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Ahd Kamel is a Saudi Arabian based in New York. She received a degree in directing from the New York Film Academy, and earned a BFA in animation and communication from Parsons School of Design. The Shoemaker, her second short film, won second prize at the Gulf Film Festival and was screened at many others. In 2008 she won an award from ADACH for emerging Middle Eastern Filmmakers. She is currently developing her first feature film.

A Sketch of a Life in the UAE Fasel min Al-Hayat

There Are Only Leftovers of Fried Chicken in the Fridge

Shoko Okurano

La Yogad Siwa Baqaya Dajaj

United Arab Emirates | 2010 | 12 minutes Color | English

Nawaf Al Mhanna Saudi Arabia | 2010 | 5 minutes Color | HDCAM | Arabic

This is a documentary about Saif and Minako, an Emirati-

In five minutes, through the protagonist, we are shown how a

Japanese couple who lead a unique life in the desert near

few moments could change the course of our life.

Al-Ain with several desert animals. Their simple lifestyle is

Shoko Okurano was born in Japan. She worked as an investigative reporter and director for Japanese TV and radio, then moved to London, where she continued to work in TV and print media. She is now based in UAE and studied film at New York Film Academy in Abu Dhabi. A Sketch of a Life in the UAE was her graduating project and her first documentary.

Nawaf Almhanna is from Riyadh. He is a television actor and writer. His films include Just a Day (2007), 4th Lesson (2008) and Last Day (2009).

WORLD PREMIERE

short film Competition

W.J. Towell

One More Day Youm’k?

Aqeel Ibrahim

Chaker Ben Yahmed

Oman | 2009 | 26 minutes Color| HDCAM | Arabic

Bahrain | 2009 | 6 minutes Color | DigiBeta | Arabic Contact: Chaker Ben Yahmed – chaker@elementsbh.com

A documentary film that discusses a chapter of the Omani political and commercial history by narrating the story

A glimpse of a newlywed Bahraini couple’s day as seen

of an oldest family-owned company in the GCC States.

through their bathroom mirror. We are witnesses to their

W.J. Towell was established in 1866 in Oman; the current

routine as it reflects their developing relationship.

EMIRATES Competition

influenced by both Bedouin tradition and Zen philosophy.

generation managing the company is the fifth. W.J. Towell is still recognized as one of the most important and authentic businesses in the region.v Aqeel Abdul Khalik Ibrahim is from Oman. He studied at Yarmouk University in Jordan and at the Arab Open University in Bahrain, where he received a degree in film and television directing. He is a writer, director and journalist and is a member of the Omani Journalists Union and the Oman Film Society.

Chaker Ben Yahmed has worked as a freelance cinematographer in the Middle East and North Africa. His is a producer and managing partner at Elements Productions in Bahrain.

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Sanad FUND SANAD is the Abu Dhabi Film Festival’s newly launched development and post-production fund. It provides talented filmmakers from the Arab world with meaningful support from within the region towards the development or completion of their narrative and documentary feature-length films. The fund seeks out bold and remarkable projects from both new and established filmmakers with the aim of encouraging intercultural dialogue and artistic innovation while building stronger networks within the region’s film industry. Sanad also offers year-round support and publicity for selected projects to help connect filmmakers to potential partners, funding opportunities and audiences. SANAD has US$500,000 at its disposal annually and makes grants in two categories: • Development: up to US$20,000 per project • Post-production: up to US$60,000 per project There are two open calls for applications each year. The director or producer must be a national of one of the countries listed below, and a production company from at least one of these countries must be attached to the project. The eligible countries are Algeria, Bahrain, Comoros Islands, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, UAE and Yemen.

Five SANAD-funded features are presented in the Festival this year. They are:

Here Comes the Rain / Shatti Ya Dini (page 8) Bahij Hojeij

In My Mother’s Arms / Fi Ahdan Ummi (page 14) Atia Al-Daradji, Mohamed Al-Daradji

OK, Enough, Goodbye / Tayeb, Khalas, Yalla (page 20) Rania Attieh, Daniel Garcia

Qarantina (page 21) Oday Rasheed

Sun Dress / Thaowb Shams (page 22) Saeed Salmeen

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Thursday, October 14 Emirates Palace

12 pm

1 pm

2 pm

3 pm

4 pm

5 pm

* Non-English-language films are presented in their original language

6 pm

with English subtitles 7 pm

8 pm

9 pm

Galas

Short Film competition

Narrative competition

showcase

documentary competition

Special Programs

new horizons / afaq jadida competition

emirates competition

â&#x20AC;&#x153;What in the world are we doing to our world?â&#x20AC;?

Special events

8:00

OpEning Gala: Secretariat 123 mins p. 26

10 pm

11 pm

12 am

Friday, October 15 Emirates Palace

Abu Dhabi Theater

Cinestar 1

12 pm

Cinestar 2

Cinestar 4

Cinestar 5

Cinestar 6

Cinestar 8

1 pm

2 pm

3 pm

4 pm

4:00

Secretariat 123 mins p. 26

5 pm

3:45

Think Global, Act Rural* 113 mins p. 81

5:30

6 pm

Incendies* 130 mins p. 36

6:00

In Your Hands*

7 pm

Emirates Comp. 1 Short Narrative

6:30

80 mins p. 66

8 pm

7:15

China, the Empire of Art?* 56 mins p. 48

7:00

124 mins p. 123

The Oath* 96 mins p. 92

9 pm 9:30

10 pm

11 pm

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12 am

WRECKED 91 mins p. 75

9:30

Taming* 100 mins p. 43

9:45

Children of the Stones - Children of the Wall * 87 mins p. 47

10:00

Emirates Comp. 2 10:15 Autograph Short 128 mins Narrative 115 mins p. 123

p. 86

Saturday, October 16 Emirates Palace

Abu Dhabi Theater

Cinestar 1

Cinestar 2

12 pm

1 pm

Cinestar 4

Cinestar 5

Cinestar 6

Cinestar 8

1:00

Emirates Comp. 1 Short narrative 124 mins p. 123

2 pm

3 pm

4 pm

4:00

The Mummy* 110 mins p. 101

5 pm

4:00

Back Door Channels: The Price of Peace 95 mins p. 61

6 pm

Cirkus Columbia* 113 mins p. 32

7:00

Bill Cunningham New York 82 mins p. 62

8 pm

Children of the Stones - Children of the Wall *

6:45

96 mins p. 92

89 mins p. 49

102 mins p. 94

11 pm

6:00

86 mins p. 78

Domestic Tourism II* 62 mins p. 107

9:30

Nostalgia for the Light* 90 mins p. 53

9:30

Kingdom of Women*

6:45

7:15

Wrecked 91 mins p. 75

118 mins p. 123

80 mins p. 66

56 mins p. 48

Silent Souls* 75 mins p. 42

10:15

54 mins p. 67

China, the Empire of Art?*

9:00

In Your Hands* West Is West*

Tent

Cane Toads: The Conquest

Emirates Comp. 3 Short Documentary

8:45 9:30

4:30

6:45

Earth Made of Glass*

9 pm

10 pm

The Oath*

5:00

87 mins p. 47

6:30

7 pm

4:15

9:45

Incendies* 130 mins p. 36

Submission* 87 mins p. 80

12 am

sunday, October 17 Emirates Palace

Abu Dhabi Theater

Cinestar 1

Cinestar 2

12 pm

1 pm

Cinestar 4

Cinestar 5

Cinestar 6

Cinestar 8

1:00

Emirates Comp. 2 Short Narrative

2 pm

114 mins p. 123

3 pm 3:30

4 pm

Cirkus Columbia* 113 mins p. 32

4:00

I Travel Because I Have to...* 71 mins p. 89

5 pm

6 pm

105 mins p. 40

Earth Made of Glass*

87 mins p. 73

Think Global, Act Rural* 113 mins p. 81