Nisimazine Abu Dhabi 2011 #2

Nisimazine Abu Dhabi

‫مجلة تصدرها نيسي ماسا ـ الشبكة االوربية للسينما الشابة‬

2011 ‫ أكتوبر‬15 ‫السبت‬

A Magazine by NISI MASA, European Network Of Young Cinema

#2, Saturday 15 October 2011

‫نيسيمازين‬

photo by Filippo Zambon

Chicken with Plums ‫د جاج بالبر قوق‬ Abderrahmane Sissako ‫عبد الرحمن سيساكو‬ The Beginning and The End ‫بداية ونهاية‬

‫ ا فتتا حية‬// editorial

NISIMAZINE ABU DHABI

Saturday 15 October 2011/# 2 A magazine published by the NISI MASA in the

by Fuad Hindieh ‫فؤاد هندية‬

framework of a film journalism workshop for young film journalists from Europe and the Arab World with the support of

‫ يحتفي مهرجان ابو ظبي السينمائي بالذكرى‬،‫ضمن فقرة خاصة‬ ‫ العربي الوحيد‬،‫ لميالد الكاتب المصري الكبير نجيب محفوظ‬100 ‫ ويحتفي كذلك بالذكرى‬.1988 ‫الحائز على جائزة نوبل لآلداب عام‬ ‫على ميالد الشاعر البنغالي رابنداراناث طاغور الذي اصبح اول‬150 .1913 ‫حائز غير اوروبي على الجائزة ذاتها عام‬ ‫لقد وض��ع كال الكاتبين ثقافة بلديهما على خارطة المشهد‬ ‫ ان نصوصهما عكست الحالة االجتماعية‬.‫االب��داع��ي العالمي‬ ‫ وقال‬.‫والسياسية مما جعلها ارثا قوميا تخطى الحدود االقليمية‬ ‫المهرجان في سبب اختيار محفوظ ان مسيرته امتازتبميزتينالم‬ ‫ والثانيةعالقتهبال‬،‫ األولىنيلهالنوبل‬:‫ثيللهمالدىأيكاتبعربيآخر‬ ‫سينماحيثكانمنأوائاللكتابالعربالذينكرسواجهودًاكبيرةللكت‬ ‫ واختار المهرجان احدى روائع طاغور التي افلمها‬.‫ابةالسينمائية‬ ‫) لعرضها‬1964( »‫المخرج الهندي الكبير ساتياجيت راي «شاروالتا‬ .‫في هذه المناسبة‬ ‫يسعى المهرجان عبر هذين االسمين المميزين ان يكون سباقا‬ ‫في تكريس سمعته عالميا باعتباره منصة تستدعي االحتفال‬ ‫برموز الثقافة الدوليةوتعريف المشاهد في االمارات بمنجزاتهم‬ ‫ وبالتالي القول ان الفن‬،‫التي غيرت وجه االبداع على مر العصور‬ .‫ليس حكرا على احد‬ ‫ اثبت المهرجان قدرته على التوسع والتألق‬،‫في دورته الخامسة‬ ‫ واخرى‬،‫في استقدام افالم عديدة امتازت بجودة خطابها الفني‬ .‫طرحت قضايا اساسية مثل ثورات الشباب في العالم العربي‬ ‫االم��ر ال��ذي يستدعي القول ان املنا كبير في بقاء مثل هذه‬ ‫الفعالية المميزة الث��ب��ات ان منطقتنا العربية ليست حكرا‬ ‫على الحروب بل على االب��داع واالنتصار الى الفن السابع ودعم‬ .‫السينمائيين الشباب في تحقيق احالمهم الفنية‬

Under the special program section, the festival celebrates the 100th anniversary of the birth of Naguib Mahfouz, the only Arab writer who won the Nobel Prize of Literature in 1988. It also celebrates the 150th anniversary of the birth of Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore who became ‘the first non-European Nobel’ by earning the Prize in 1913.

Mahfouz and Tagore are representatives of their countries, which they contributed to put on the cultural map. They tell stories about their nations and then these stories go far beyond their homelands. And the most important thing is that they left a heritage for their people.

The choice of the Abu Dhabi Film Festival to celebrate these widely successful and meaningful writers tells something about the festival’s ambition. By taking these two artists as models to say “Art is not a preserve for the few”, the festival is trying to put Abu Dhabi on the map of crucial cultural events.

the Abu Dhabi Film Festival

‫ هيئة التحرير‬EDITORIAL STAFF ‫ ماثيو داراس‬:‫المدير المسؤول‬ Director of Publication Matthieu Darras ‫ مارجه ألدرس‬:‫التصميم الفني‬/‫رئيس التحرير‬ Editor-in-Chief/Layout Maartje Alders ‫ جي وايسبيرغ و زياد الخزاعي‬:‫المشرفان‬ TutorS Jay Weissberg

Ziad Khuzai ‫ المساهمون في العدد‬Contributors to this issue

Ali Shujaa Al Afeefi, Janka Barkoczi Fuad Hindieh, Mohamed Beshir Miguel Fernández Flores Filippo Zambon NISI MASA 99 rue du Faubourg Saint-Denis, 75010, Paris, France.

Phone: +33 (0)9 60 39 63 38 europe@nisimasa.com www.nisimasa.com

In its fifth year, the Abu Dhabi Film Festival has been growing and flourishing. It brings many films that discuss important issues such as the youth revolutions around the Arab world, as well as films with high artistic value.

This means that our region is not just the place for wars!

We hope such events continue to prove this to the whole world, and to provide us, youth passionate about cinema, with an opportunity to showcase our works to a community that supports us.

BY MARTINA LANG (AUSTRIA)

,

picture of the day / ‫صورة اليوم‬

by Filippo Zambon

review / ‫عرض نقدي‬

El Gusto

Safinez Bousbia France/Algeria/Ireland/UAE Documentary Competition A story about memory through beautiful music plays well in Safinez Bousbia’s El Gusto. This is a tale of times lost, and the reweaving of history, through the resurfacing of a music: Chaabi, the sound where “Arabic classical music and Al-Andalus meet the casbah.” It was 2003 when Bousbia was wondering through Algiers, entering a mirror shop where she met Mr. Ferkioui. The 83 year old man told her his own story as a Chaabi musician. In the 1950’s, Chaabi was not only a sound, but a place where Arabs and Jews would meet in casbah as one, living and playing together in bars, religious celebrations, and also, just for the sake of it... for ‘el gusto’.

As one of the musicians says, «Chaabi can make you forget weirdness, hunger, thirst and sadness». When the National Liberation Front (FLN) launched the Algerian War of independence in 1954, Chaabi could be heard at any corner of the country. Through the madness of war, the casbah commenced deep transformation: bars were closed (or worse, bombed), streets emptied, and music started to

Chicken with Plums

Marjane Satrapi & Vincent Paronnaud France/Germany/Belgium - Narrative Competition

be frowned-upon. «If one of my brothers is on his way to die, why would I chant?» Chaabi musicians could no longer find their place: the Jewish musicians fled to France, a safe haven for them, ‘with the guitar in one hand, and the bag in the other’. Arab musicians, who couldn’t work playing, employed themselves in petty jobs as a mean to sustain their families. In time, Chaabi got itself lost in memory with pre-independence Algeria.

Upon hearing this story, Bousbia set herself to find the original Chaabi players, now scattered through Algeria or France. It took her two years to assemble a 42-piece band naming it ‘El Gusto’ (Spanish for ‘the thrill’), most of them trying to figure out how the last forty years went by. Upon their debut in Théâtre du Gymnase in Marseille, they created an international phenomenon which took off quickly, playing in large venues like Paris-Bercy, or London’s Barbican, giving ‘El Gusto’ musicians new air, and new lives. Through a brilliant soundtrack and great use of archival footage, it’s an accomplished story and a must see for music buffs.

by Miguel Fernández Flores

Saturday 15/10 Monday 17/10

VOX 4 - 4:30 PM VOX 1 - 3:45 PM

“Yeki bud, yeki nabud (there was someone, there was no one)” opens the Persian tales to make the audience know that what they are about to hear is not necessarily the truth. The same phrase opens the film of Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud, but the aim is the opposite: to warn us that what we will see could be true by certain degrees.

Satrapi’s well-known magical realism works here at high rev, and merges reality and the fantastic on every level.

Chicken with plums is based on Satrapi’s comic novel originally published in France in 2004. This work completes the author’s four-part graphic autobiographical series which became famous under the title, Persepolis. The story of the current film takes place in Teheran around 1958, but it provides a look back even until the times of the great king, Solomon, and a look forward into the future. The narrator of the film is Azrael, the angel of death, who is waiting for the end of the deeply depressed Nasser Ali Khan (Mathieu Amalric). During his last eight days, Nasser Ali takes the op-

portunity to remember the beauty and the dead ends of his own and his family members’ life as well. He lets us know the past and future fate of his children, and with him together, we discover the secret of his platonic love. The set of the film is part of Satrapi’s coherent world that was built from an indefinable nostalgia for a lost Iran (the country and a woman with the same name) and the fabulous old memories.

As for the style of the movie, it is not spared with the director’s harsh irony.

Even if, being a live-action feature, it loses the chance to bravely play with the lines and contrasts in comparison to the animated structure of Persepolis, the excellent actors (Mathieu Amalric, Golshifteh Farahani, Chiara Mastroianni) can keep the message. In the end, Chicken with plums becomes a fine mixture of eastern symbolism and western satire, inspired by the felicity of Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Amelie.

by Janka Barkoczi

Saturday 15/10

VOX 8 - 2:30 PM

photos by Filippo Zambon

Khadija Al Salami

SANAD

As our second part of the focus on SANAD, today two women filmmakers and their projects: Yemeni Khadija Al Salami and Palestinian Mais Darwazah.

I am Nujood, 10 years old and divorced

Sanad Project – Narrative (Development)

I am Nujood, 10 years old and divorced is a book based on true events that describes the struggle of a young Yemeni girl from her village to the suburbs of the capital city Sanaa. Forced to marry a man in his thirties, abused by her in-laws, she finally ran away to a court. Khadija Al Salami is working on the adaptation of this story to the screen.

You almost have the same story as Nujood, which you published in a book called ‘Tears of Sheba’. What was your feeling when you heard about Nujood?

I was devastated because it brought up bad memories and reminded me of my painful experience when I was her age. I understood the humiliation this brings, the pain and desperation that make you hate everything around you. This is why I have dedicated my life to fight against the conditions that young girls and women in traditional societies must endure through the documentary films I made on the subject. I also helped other young girls to obtain their divorce and I made sure to put them in school because I believe strongly in education, which is the only rescuer to them as it was for me.

How important is the issue of early marriage to you?

In my opinion, early marriage is a major issue, how can we expect to raise a healthy generation in a society that violates the rights of its own children!

That is why we have to make a film that will reach as many people as possible, whether they are educated or not. The effect of the images will draw their attention and speak louder

ancestral traditions and reinforced by ignorance.

Is there any legal attempt to put an end to early marriages in Yemen?

Unfortunately, a law prohibiting marriage before the age of seventeen was blocked in 2009 by the Islamic Party and by some tribal leaders. It is a long

...how can we expect to raise a healthy generation in a society that violates the rights of its own children! than words. The film will heighten the spectators’ awareness of the traumatisms related to forced marriages, which still exists today. The film will help families concerned by these dramas to think about their situations.

One of my objectives is to make the spectators become aware of the physical and psychological after-effects that the young girls suffer, caused by

battle but I have faith we are going to win it.

When do you plan to shoot the film?

The film was supposed to be made this year but due to the crisis in Yemen, we postponed it for next year.

The upraising happening in Yemen now will not be included in the film because it is a different subject. But

on the other hand, I am actually making a documentary about this subject from the point of view of women in Yemen.

Is there any plan to screen I am Nujood, 10 years old and divorced in Yemen?

The main purpose of the film is to be screened in Yemen so to bring awareness and to push people to think. I am sure the film will stir many discussions on the topic. I hope to stimulate an interest in my own country as well as that in other countries that are also affected by this problem. I want to give a political dimension to my film in order to mobilize women’s associations in Yemen, with the objective to exert pressure on the government, so that our leaders react more quickly and vote at last for a law that prohibits marriage before the age of eighteen.

by Ali Shujaa Al Afeefi

FOCUS / ‫بقعة ضوء‬

interview

Mais Darwazah My Love Awaits Me by the Sea

Sanad Project – Documentary (Development)

Following her acclaimed first feature documentary Take Me Home, Palestinian director Mais Darwazah’s comeback tackles a wider definition of home, dreams and alter-reality. My Love Awaits Me by the Sea received SANAD development fund amidst several other funds.

How did the idea of My Love Awaits Me by the Sea come up?

The film idea came about when I saw the works of a Palestinian artist called Hassan Hourani, the poetry and drawings in his book ‘Hassan is everywhere’ really captivated me. The tragedy in Hourani’s life is that he wrote a book about freedom, mobility and living with no boundaries, but ironically he drowned trying to save his nephew in Jaffa in 2003, after they sneaked through the separation wall in Ramallah for a day just to have a breath by the sea.

I spent three years exploring how Hassan managed to surpass the Israeli occupation and use his imagination to go places. Personally I always dreamt of seeing Palestine but I never really had the courage to, as it’s such an overwhelming step for refugees like me, with 60 years’ baggage of bloody conflict.

Somehow, with Hassan’s delicate spirit by my side I felt secure enough to travel to Palestine for the first time, and the documentary is -on one level- reflecting my search for Hassan’s spirit and dream in the people there.

How did traveling to Palestine reflect on your prior image of the documentary?

It was a challenge to go to a land filled with bulldozers, tanks and bullets, and still be able to find that fantastical level of dreaming. But I knew I wanted to reject this victimizing attitude fed to us by the media, and I was sure that if Hassan was able to achieve this under the occupation then there must be others like him.

One of the people I met in the camps is called Hazem; when he feels really suffocated he goes on the roof, puts his feet in a bucket of water and transmits sounds of sea waves onto the camp through his speakers. This is a character I wrote about for two years without ever knowing he existed. All the people I met through my visits had their own personal way of dreaming. I see this documentary as the Palestinian dream is full color and surround sound.

How different is it handling a personal, familial story in your first documentary, and handling a broader more complicated setup?

The overriding emotional flow I prioritized in Take Me

Home continues in this film.

I’m also telling my personal alongside the other stories. I think the visual style influenced by my graphic design background is more evident in this documentary.

You were a one-person crew on set in your first documentary. Could you tell us about the experience of working with a relatively bigger crew?

If you are going into a space

Your film received support and/or funds from Abu Dhabi, Berlinale, Sundance, Doha, Beirut Screen Institute and AFAC. What’s your take on the documentary funding schemes in the region?

I realized that development funds are crucial to me. There are endless variables during shooting a documentary, be it new stories that pop up on the shooting day, or the many problems that inevitably occur throughout, even your mood

Somehow, with Hassan’s delicate spirit by my side I felt secure enough to travel to Palestine for the first time with a family of four, and one of them already fears the camera, it is vital to have someone taking care of the technical hassle while you sit with the characters and get to connect with them more.

I had long discussions with my cinematographer beforehand to reach a visual structure; we tried to construct two layers of visual images corresponding to my personal account and the characters’. One of the main themes was trying to convey this need to breathe and break free from a siege and find a moment of release.

on that day plays a factor, so if the development phase is not extremely concrete you might lose the whole thing. I myself prefer Arab funds, but the advantage European funds have over the Arab ones is their distributional edge. Once you are signed to a European funding body, you have access to the whole European market, and the funders themselves start finding opportunities for your film to be screened in festivals and exposed to the market.

by Mohamed Beshir

stills from this years’ competition: from top to bottom: Igrab, Before Sunset, Raneen, Circle, Sons of the Sun

10 years of Emirates Film Competition

focus / ‫بقعة ضوء‬

This year, the Abu Dhabi Film Festival is celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Emirates Film Competition.

Ali Shujaa Al Afeefi reports on the history and growing importance of the event for regional filmmakers.

The first film competition of the kind launched in the UAE became the center of attention not only in the country, but also in the Gulf Region (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia).

Since the event started, Emirati films have gained more attention. This explains the increased intensity of competition, and the high expectations for this year’s festival.

The first round of the festival was held side by side with the Abu Dhabi book fair, to have a readily available audience who can also come to watch films for free. The organizers were betting to get 10 films; if they got it that would be excellent. Although just two hours before the deadline they received only 2 or 3 films! The idea to call it off and cancel everything was emerging. However, at the last minute of the deadline suddenly 90 films appeared!! In spite of 58 films screened in the first round, only 30 to 40 people came to fill the empty seats of a theater which was made for a 1000 viewers. But the following year it was not experimental anymore and the festival decided to go to the next level.

The Emirati film maker Nawaf Al Janahi (The Circle, 2009; Sea Shadow, 2011) remembers the early times, when the festival started and he was on the street passing leaflets to people, promoting the film festival, shouting “Emirati films!! Emirati films!!” However, before all that, the real birth of the competition was when three people sat on the table chit chatting and at the end of that day the idea of the Emirates Film Competition saw the light. Those people are now the film director Al Janahi; the director of Emirates Film Competition section at Abu Dhabi Film Festival Ali Al Jabri; Masoud Amr Allah Al Ali, the artistic director or Dubai International Film Festival. “The conversation was simply how we tell our

society that we exist, and we thought that it was time to achieve that objective”, says Al Janahi.

One of the reasons EFC started was the film festival called “Arab Screen Independent Film Festival” already established in 1999 by the Libyan film director Mohammed Makhlof, which started in London before moving to Doha, Qatar. The good reputation of the festival extended to the entire Gulf Region countries where some Emirati film students successfully screened their films there. So the question was: why should Emirati directors go all the way to Qatar to screen their films? Why don’t they screen them here in Emirates?

Al Janahi recalls: “From that day the cinematic movement was born officially not only in the UAE but in the Gulf as a whole”. In the following years the EFC started to get things moving in neighboring countries and attracting more film makers to come and show their films, especially when the festival launched a new category in competition just for the Gulf Countries. That’s when the big buzz happened, which saw titles moving around and shown in colleges, universities and festivals.

As the ADFF catalogue states: “In 2008 and 2009, the EFC was held alongside the Middle East International Film Festival, which was subsequently rebranded as the Abu Dhabi Film Festival (ADFF) in 2010. That same year, the EFC joined ADFF’s other initiatives aimed at providing filmmakers from the Gulf and the entire Arab world with greater exposure.”

Al Janahi considers this step as the end of the status of Emirates Film Competition. “It’s not the same anymore in many aspects.

When Dubai International Film Festival added a new rule that any film screened in Dubai should be a premiere not only in UAE but in the entire Gulf, that killed the

movement”. Then he adds: “Ten years ago the strength of the EFC was the uniqueness of it because it was the first and the only festival in the country. Every year there were many films, more audiences and a lot of guests coming from abroad to attend it and you could watch all the films. Nevertheless today’s strength is the international spotlight that the selected Emirati films gain from ADFF. Yet it’s not anymore the same amount of films being put together like in the old days”.

The challenge that faced Emirati films was funding at first, although now with new government organizations such as TwoFour54, it shows that making films becomes possible and approachable, by both amateurs and professionals. From ten years till now, it has become harder to get films selected in competition, which raises the bar of challenges local film makers are facing. All in all, a lot of positive points have to be mentioned about the new films, for, at the end of the day, the festival projects decent movies of good quality.

By Ali Shujaa Al Afeefi

Saturday 15/10 VOX 2

6:00 PM

Sunday 16/10 VOX 2

12:45 PM

Sunday 16/10 VOX 2

6:15 PM

Monday 17/10 VOX 2

6:15 PM

Tuesday 18/10 VOX 3

3:00 PM

Wednesday 19/10 VOX 4 3:00 PM

meet mahfouz

The Beginning and The End

‫بداية‬ ‫ونهاية‬

Salah Abu Seif (Egypt, 1961)

‫ مصر ـ صالح أبوسيف‬1961

The first cinematographic adaptation of a Mahfouz’s novel, The Beginning and the End , is a story of survival that touches every aspect of Egyptian life in the late 30’s. When the father suddenly passes away, he leaves his family suffering without any income. The mother tries her best to avoid falling into poverty by moving to another apartment, and selling the furniture of the house. Her oldest son, Hassan, ends up dealing drugs and living an underground life with prostitutes; Husain, the middle son, leaves school and start working to help his mother and his brother Hasanian. Hasanian breaks up with his fiancée and leaves his family after graduating from college, believing that his place is with the top society and not with such poor people as his family. Nafisa, the only daughter, starts to work as seamstress to earn money. After getting into a relationship with the grocer, who cheats on her and marries another woman, she sells her body to strangers just for a handful of money in order to help her mother and her brother Hasanian. Eventually the story ends as it had started for the family.

»‫تالمس حكاية البقاء في شريط «بداية ونهاية‬ ‫) للمخرج المصري صالح ابو سيف المأخوذ‬1960( ‫عن رواية الكاتب الكبير نجيب محفوظ جميع‬ ‫مناحي الحياة المصرية في أوا خ��ر الثالثينيات‬ ‫ عندما يتوافى األب الذي‬.‫من القرن الماضي‬ ‫يعمل موظفا حكوميا ف��ج��أة ت��ارك��ًا عائلته‬ ‫ ت��س��ع��ى األم قد‬،‫م���ن دون أي دخ���ل م�����ادي‬ ‫ وذلك‬،‫مستطاعها الى تجنب الوقوع في الفقر‬ ‫ وبيع أثاث‬،‫من خ�لال االنتقال إل��ى شقة أخ��رى‬ ‫ ينتهي األبن األكبر حسن الى‬.‫بيتهم القديم‬ ‫ فيما‬،‫تعاطي المخدرات ويعيش حياة الرذيلة‬ ‫يتركشقيقه االوس���ط حسين ال��دراس��ة ليبدأ‬ ‫العمل في مسعى لمساعدة أم��ه وشقيقه‬ ،‫ يفسخ ه��ذا االخ��ي��ر خطبته‬.‫ال��ث��ال��ث حسنين‬ ،‫ويتخلى ع��ن عائلته أث��ر تخرجه م��ن الكلية‬ ‫مؤمنًا أن مكانه مع نخبة المجتمع وليس مع‬ .‫عائلته الفقيرة‬

Fear, hope, and courage constitute the elements of an intense atmosphere, which shows the corruption of the elite society and their control of the poor ones. The old saying could apply here: “the rich get richer and the poor get poorer”. A tragic novel as most of Mahfouz’s books, The Beginning and the End was made into a Mexican version in 1993, Principio y fin, which is also being screened in the program this year.

By Ali Shujaa Al Afeefi

‫ تبدأ االبنة الوحيدة نفيسة‬،‫في مباردة فردية‬ ‫ وبعد تورطها‬.‫العمل كخياطة لتكسب المال‬ ‫ ال��ذي يخونها ويتزوج‬،‫في عالقة مع السمان‬ ‫ تسقط في الرذيلة حيث تبيع‬،‫من امرأة اخرى‬ ‫جسدها للغرباء م��ن اج��ل كسب حفنة من‬ .‫ لمساعدة والدتها وشقيقها حسنين‬،‫المال‬ ‫ تبدأ اخرى من جديد تصدم‬،‫في نهاية الحكاية‬ .‫الجميع‬ ‫عالج نص الثنائي محفوظ – ابو سيف عناصر‬ ،‫الخوف واألمل والشجاعة لدى ابطال الشريط‬ ‫ا ل��ت��ي اب���رزت ف��س��اد نخبة المجتمع المصري‬ ‫ كما يقول المثل‬،‫وسيطرتهم على فئة الفقراء‬ .»‫ والفقراء يفقرون أكثر‬،‫«األغنياء يغنون أكثر‬ ‫شريط «بداية ونهاية» عبارة تراجيديا تشبعت‬ ‫ ويذكر‬.‫بها اعمال صاحب النوبل العربي الوحيد‬ ‫ان هذه الرواية اقتبستها السينما المكسيكية‬ ‫ التي ادرجتها أدارة مهرجان ابو ظبي‬1993 ‫عام‬ ‫ على‬100 ‫في دورته الحالية ضمن االحتفاء بمرور‬ .»‫ميالد صاحب «زقاق المدق‬ ‫علي شجاع العفيفي‬

If you miss any of our coverage, don’t worry!

You can find all our coverage online on:

www.nisimazine.eu Watch our videoblogs on:

vimeo.com/channels/199250

Saturday 15/10 VOX 3

9 PM

‫بورترية ‪portrait /‬‬ ‫صورة‪ :‬فيليبو زمبون‬

‫عبد الرحمن سيساكو‬

‫عاش صاحب « في انتظار السعادة»(‪ )2002‬و‬ ‫«باماكو»(‪ )2007‬المخرج الموريتاني عبد الرحمن‬ ‫سيساكو في فرنسا اغلب حياته‪ ,‬وقضى العقد‬ ‫االخير من القرن الماضى فى تحقيق افالم قصيرة‬ ‫و متوسطة الطول‪ ،‬مكرسا مكانته كأحد أهم‬ ‫صناع السينما في افريقيا‪.‬‬ ‫تدور معظم احداث افالمه ما بين‬ ‫كون فى‬ ‫موريتانيا و مالي‪ ,‬لتُ ّ‬ ‫مجملها رؤية معمقة لمعضالت‬ ‫المعاناه و االستغالل فى افريقيا ما‬ ‫بعد الكولونيالية من منظور شخصي‬ ‫ألبناء هذه القارة‪ .‬ال سيما ان سيساكو‬ ‫الذى اختبر معنى المهجر مبكرا‬ ‫بسبب تنقله ما بين مالي (مسقط‬ ‫رأس ابيه) و موريتانيا (مسقط رأس‬ ‫امه) باالضافه الى دراسته للسينما‬ ‫فى االتحاد السوفياتي سابقا‪ ,‬الى‬ ‫جانب البعد العالمي الذى فرضه عليه‬ ‫اسلوب حياة صانع االفالم فى عصر‬ ‫العولمة‪.‬‬ ‫على الرغم من مكانة سيساكو‬ ‫كصانع افالم على مستوى العالم‬ ‫(افالمه تستضاف باستمرار فى‬ ‫مهرجانات دولية‪ ,‬منها مهرجان كان‬ ‫الفرنسي الذى رأس لجنة تحكيمه‬ ‫الرئيسية فى عام ‪ ،) 2008‬اال ان هذا لم‬ ‫يحصنه تماما ضد المعضالت االنتاجية‬ ‫التى تواجه «المخرج المؤلف» عادة‪,‬‬ ‫فسيساكو هو احد الحاصلين على‬

‫منحة (سند – ابو ظبي) لهذا العام‬ ‫لتطوير مشروعه الروائي الجديد‬ ‫‘ميتو‘‪ .‬من وجهة نظره ‪ ,‬فان السبيل‬ ‫الوحيد للمحافظة على العمل من‬ ‫التأثير المادي و التدخل االنتاجي‪ ،‬يكون‬ ‫عبر توزيع موارد االنتاج على اكثر من‬ ‫جهة للمشاركة بنسب صغيرة‪ ,‬بدال‬ ‫من جهة واحدة متحكمة‪.‬‬ ‫شعر سيساكو‪ ،‬بعد سنوات من‬ ‫«الهجرة االختيارية» كما يسميها‪ ،‬ان‬ ‫الوقت حان ليعود من فرنسا لالستقرار‬ ‫فى موريتانيا‪ ,‬من اجل ان يتفاعل‬ ‫بشكل اكثر مباشرة مع مصادر‬ ‫الهامه‪ ,‬و ليؤمن تدفق ثنائي االتجاة‬ ‫مع الناس فى وطنه‪ .‬و كان االدراك‬ ‫المنطقي المالزم لهذة الخطوة‬ ‫هو التوجه الى الثقافات الناطقة‬ ‫باللغة العربية في المنطقة بحثا‬ ‫عن عناصر مشتركة على مستوى‬ ‫انتاجي و جماهيري‪ ,‬الى جانب اللغة‬ ‫المشتركة‪ ,‬فان المعاني و االشكاالت‬ ‫المطروحة فى افالم سيساكو تنطبق‬ ‫ايضا على العديد من البلدان العربية‪.‬‬

‫فى نصه الجديد يعود سيساكو الى‬ ‫موريتانيا ليحكى هذه المرة قصة‬ ‫فتاة يتم تحريرها من العبودية عقب‬ ‫وفاة زوجها‪ /‬سيدها الذي اتخذها‬ ‫كمحظية منذ كانت فى الرابعة عشر‬ ‫من عمرها‪ .‬و فى اول قرار لها كسيدة‬ ‫حرة‪ ,‬اختارت ان تترك ابنها مع ام زوجها‬ ‫الراحل لتسافر الى نواكشوط بحثا عن‬ ‫حبيبها مبروك الذي فرقهما زواجها‪.‬‬

‫شاعرية تناوله وضع االنسان االفريقي ‪،‬‬ ‫مابين كونه ضحية عوامل خارجية من‬ ‫جهة‪ ،‬و طموحه و احالمه الشخصية‬ ‫من جهة اخرى‪ .‬تمتاز اعمال سيساكو‬ ‫بجمعه ما بين االرتجال فى التمثيل‬ ‫والمحافظة على اطار عام شديد‬ ‫التوازن على مستوى الكاميرا التي‬ ‫تبقى اغلب الوقت ثابتة في مواجهة‬ ‫الممثلين‪.‬‬

‫يجد المراقب العمال سيساكو فى‬ ‫هذا الملخص للفيلم الجديد بعدا‬ ‫يستحق التأمل فى سياق افالمه‬ ‫السابقة ان هناك خطا مشتركا يجمع‬ ‫حكاياتها‪ ،‬فمن عبد اهلل الشخصية‬ ‫المحورية فى ‘فى انتظار السعادة‘‬ ‫الذي يعكس على المستوى‬ ‫الشخصي قصة سيساكو نفسه‬ ‫مع الهجرة و االغتراب‪ ،‬مرورا بعمله‬ ‫الروائي الثاني ‘باماكو‘ الذي انحاز الى‬ ‫منظور اوسع لمشاكل القارة وادانته‬ ‫تكون عوامل رئيسية‬ ‫السبابها‪ ,‬و التى ّ‬ ‫الغتراب االبطال على المستوى‬ ‫الجغرافي و االنساني‪ ،‬يأتي ‘ميتو‘‬ ‫ليطرح مفهوما اخر للهجرة‪ ،‬ولكن‬ ‫داخل الوطن هذة المرة‪ ,‬وفي الوقت‬ ‫نفسه فى عمق الذات البشرية‪.‬‬

‫ان نظرية سيساكو فى هذا االطار‬ ‫التشكيلي تستمد تمايزها من‬ ‫فهمه ان السينما هي نافذة او‬ ‫باب يدعو المشاهد الى التفاعل و‬ ‫المشاركة في اعادة صياغة الحكاية‪,‬‬ ‫عليه ُيصبح االعتماد على التلقاثية فى‬ ‫االداء التمثيليى اختيارا منطقيا لدعم‬ ‫المناخ المناسب لهذة المشاركة‬ ‫الجماعية‪ .‬يعتمد هذا المخرج االفريقي‬ ‫على تقنيات المونتاج المتنوعة من‬ ‫اجل تحقيق ايقاعه الخاص‪ ,‬او حتى‬ ‫لكسر االيهام فى بعض االحيان‪.‬‬ ‫يرى سيساكو ان االفالم تستخدم‬ ‫فى الغالب فى تخدير المتفرجين و‬ ‫اخضاعهم‪ ,‬و بالتالى يرى ضمن الوضع‬ ‫الحالى للعالم ان ليس هنالك من‬ ‫سبب اكثر اهمية في صناعة االفالم‬ ‫من اكتشاف الذات و االخر‪.‬‬

‫تنبىء عودة سيساكو الى العمل فى‬ ‫افريقيا بمرحلة جديدة فى مشروعه‬ ‫السينمائي‪ ,‬و لكن يظل العنصر‬ ‫االكثر جاذبية فى افالمه قائم على‬

‫محمد بشير‬