Abu Dhabi
Nisimazine Friday 16 October
أكتوبر١٦ ،اجلمعة
.»صحيفة مهرجانية تصدر عن ورشة للنقاد الشبان من تنظيم الشبكة الأوروبية لسينما الشبان «نيسي مازا
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A festival gazette published in the framework of a workshop for young critics by NISI MASA, European network of young cinema
افتتاحية
ساري وتنورة قصيرة،عباءة
EDITORIAL by Nadia Muhanna, aged 26 (Syria)
Abayas, Saris and Miniskirts
إن تصفحت الئحة أسماء فريق عمل مهرجان أبو ظبي السينمائي قد تفاجأ بأن نصف الفريق ، من المثير.)أجنبي (أو ربما أكثر من النصف؟ متابعة أعضاء الفريق المختلفين،في الواقع ساريهم وتنانيرهم القصيرة وهم،بعباءاتهم لكن إلى أي حد يمكن.يعملون جنبًا إلى جنب وصف مهرجان يعمل على إدارته هذا الخليط ......الكبير من الجنسيات المتباينة باإلماراتي؟ .إلى حد بعيد
Scrolling down the page of the Abu Dhabi 2010 festival team on the festival’s website, you might find it absurd that almost half of the staff (or maybe more?) are foreigners. It is actually fascinating to see this unique group of people in abayas, saris and miniskirts working together. However, with such a huge mix of nationalities involved, what is left from the local identity of the festival?…..a lot!
فقط من سكان20% ،في نهاية المطاف اإلمارات هم من العرب اإلماراتيين – أو على منذ لحظة وصولي،األقل هذا ما يخبرني به كل شخص يعرف بأنني قادمة،إلى أبو ظبي يعكس، كمثل الفريق.من خارج اإلمارات برنامج المهرجان هذا الموزاييك من الجنسيات .المختلفة التي تشكل معًا المجتمع اإلماراتي يحاول المهرجان من خالل «تشكيلته» الواسعة التي تتضمن أفالمًا عربية وغربية،من األفالم إرضاء كافة أذواق،وآسيوية وهندية وباكستانية كذلك تختلف هذه األفالم.جمهوره المتنوع هذا ما بين التسجيلي والروائي والتجريبي والصامت .)والمتحرك (أنيميشن
After all, only 20% of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) population is made up of locals - or at least that is what I keep hearing since I arrived at the Abu Dhabi airport. Just like its team, the festival’s film program greatly reflects the mosaic of nationalities that form the UAE. With a broad mix of Arab, western, Asian Indian and Pakistani films, the festival is striving to appeal to each of its broad audience’s taste. This also includes a big variety of genres; from documentaries to fiction, animation, experimental and silent films.
تتضمن هذه «التشكيلة» أفالمًا من بلدان قلما منها عمان.تصادفها في المهرجانات السينمائية يعرض مهرجان أبو ظبي السينمائي.ًمثال خمسة أفالم عمانية قصيرة وغيرها من األفالم لكن لماذا.الخليجية ضمن مسابقة اإلمارات تدعى إذًا بمسابقة اإلمارات؟ ال أملك أدنى فكرة .عن السبب إذًا ها هنا مهرجان متعدد الثقافات بجدارة أمعن.ويعرض أفالمًا متنوعة ومختارة بدقة النظر في برنامجه فما من شك بأنك ستجد .ضمنه فيلمًا يعجبك
فيلم اليوم
Within this mix you can watch films from countries you don’t usually come across at festivals. Take Oman for example; 5 Omani shorts are screened among many other GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) films in the Emirates competition. Why it is still called Emirates competition? I have no idea! So here is a genuinely intercultural festival with a colourful collection of carefully selected films. Study its program thoroughly. There is no doubt that you’ll find among its films something to your liking.
Besides our daily at the festival in print, you can also find all our coverage online at www.nisimazine.eu Nisimazine is created by a team of young journalists. This edition they are from Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Ireland, Portugal, United Kingdom and France
PICTURE OF THE DAY /
SILENT SOULS Aleksei Fedorchenko, Russia, 2010 Narrative Competition
A
n ethnographic drama, the film is an exploration of the culture and traditions of the merja people - a finno-ugric ethnic minority once living in the North-West of Russia, but nowadays almost completely died out. Nevertheless, the filmmakers avoid making any claims about the films historical credibility, as director Aleksei Fedorchenko makes a somewhat ambiguous statement that in art fiction can be more convincing than reality. As Miron asks his friend Aist to help him to perform the rituals of the final validation to his beloved wife, the director leaves it to the main character to explain the motifs that lie behind creation of the Silent Souls. In the opening sequence Aist says that he wants to understand who we are and why we are like this and not like the others. With the plot that comfortably fits into one middle-length sentence, for Silent Souls it is perhaps less important what the story is about than how it is told. With the talent of Russian cameraman Michael Krichman, who worked with Zvjagincev on his multi-award winning motion picture The Return, the film captivates through the artistic quality of the camera work. Known for his beautifully composed wide still shots Krichman establishes the space for actors to
REVIEW /
inhabit, which, combined with a very restrained approach to montage, challenges our perception of cinematic time. Furthermore, a highly intuitive use of hand-held camera intensified by a first-person narration creates a feeling of presence which allows for an intimate connection with the story.
Based on a book by Denis Osokin, the film translates the story into a visual language, creating what can be called a cinematic poem. Despite the plot being almost entirely based around funeral rituals, this is not a story of death but of life. And in embracing this lies the key to understanding the culture of the merja. As Fedorchenko explains, the most challenging task for the actors was to deliver the notion that death equals love. As Miron retells his friend piquant details from his intimate life, Aist explains that while this would not be acceptable if his wife was alive, such conversations as a way of mourning “make your face brighter, turning your grief into tenderness”.
The information on what merja traditions were like is often controversial, but one is known for sure: they did not have gods, just love for each other.
by Tina Remiz aged 21 (Latvia/UK) 16/10 Cinestar 5 09:00 PM 17/10 Cinestar 8 05:00 PM
تعقيب Nostalgia for the light
صورة اليوم
Patricio Guzmán, Chile/Germany/France, 2010 Documentary Competition
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Photo by TINA REMIZ
We cannot forget our dead”, says a voice in Nostalgia for the light (Nostalgia de la Luz), meaning that it is our duty to remember them. How can one forget a son murdered by a dictatorial power? Fortunately, or regretfully, the past is hard to kill, and even the origins of the universe are still talking to us. From strata of earth to relics of a civilization, history lives on. Most of all, crimes of the past, despite all the imagination their perpetrators use to hide them, remain as painful and haunting wounds. We are all digging up a past, somewhere, and Nostalgia is a film softly woven by this metaphor. Here astronomers observe the sky, searching for answers light-years away above our heads. There women are searching for the bones of their husbands, sons and brothers wiped out by Pinochet’s
16/10 Abu Dhabi Theater 09:30 PM 17/10 Cinestar 2 07:15 PM Lebleba (stagename of Ninochka Manoug Kupelian, famous Egyptian actress) on the Opening night red carpet
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) عامًا (سوريا٢٦ ،بقلم ناديا مهنا
FILM OF THE DAY /
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political repression thirty years ago. Both are in the same Atacama desert in Chile, an empty land that strangely reflects the far reaches of the sky. Massive shots of galaxies create a leitmotiv in the film, as if to remind us of what we are made (the calcium in our bones is the same component as that of the stars) and where we come from.
The film begins with the clicking mechanism of a telescope opening, and the deep noise it generates powerfully evokes the gigantic order of the universe. Guzmán shoots it smoothly, with intimacy. Light permeates the film through fades of a dusty glow. It’s all there: shadows and light, what disappears and what stays. This is a struggle for life. It’s everyone’s responsibility to ban the punishment of oblivion from our societies.
by Romain Pichon-Sintes aged 24 (France)