Screen Dubai FF 2015 Day 4

DA Y

4

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 13 2015

Cover Page-H266xW245mm.pdf

1

www.ScreenDaily.com

C

M

Y

CM

MY

CY

CMY

K

AT DUBAI INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 12/12/15

1:46 PM

Editorial +971 56 212 6011

Advertising scott.benfold@screendaily.com

Y

Y

DA Y

4

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 13 2015

TODAY

AT DUBAI INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL www.ScreenDaily.com

Samr Al Marzooqi

DFM sets out restructured distribution plan

BY MELANIE GOODFELLOW

DFM’s fledgling Dubai Distribution Programme (DDP), aimed at supporting the theatrical release of Arabic-language cinema, has been restructured to include more local distributors as well as companies from outside the region.

“We’re talking to 30 distributors and sales agents, from the region and further afield, approaching them on a one-to-one basis about festival films we think could be of interest to them and the facilities we have at the Cinetech,” explained DFM chief Samr Al Marzooqi.

In its inaugural year in 2014, DDP focused on local distributors Gulf Film, Front Row Filmed Entertainment and Kuwait National Cinema Company and exhibitor VOX Cinemas, who each agreed to pick up at least one Arabic-language title from the DIFF programme.

“We could have done the same thing again this year but we wanted to keep it organic, rather than forcing distributors to pick up a title for the sake of it,” said Al Marzooqi.

He noted this year’s DFM is shaping up to be one of the busiest editions to date, thanks in part to the return of Dubai Film Connection, but also the presence of a number of new exhibitors such as pan-Arab broadcaster ART and MBC’s premium VoD service Shahid.

New exhibitors also include Iranian cinema company Soureh Cinema Organisation, fledgling Arabic cinema-focused SVoD platform Movie Pigs and Palestinian cinema hub Future Logic, while long-term attendees include top regional equipment suppliers Advanced Media and Canon.

“The number of exhibitors is slightly higher than last year but what’s more important than the numbers is the quality and diversity of the companies this year,” said Al Marzooqi.

Editorial +971 56 212 6011

Advertising scott.benfold@screendaily.com

Netflix plots move into Arabic-language content

BY LIZ SHACKLETON

Netflix is hoping to produce a scripted series set in the Middle East as the streaming giant gears up to launch across the region next year, said content chief Ted Sarandos in a live link-up to Dubai Film Market (DFM) yesterday.

“What’s missing from the global stage is a scripted series about contemporary life in the Middle East,” said Sarandos, speaking from Los Angeles. “Most depictions outside of the Middle East are either historical or portray caricatures of what life in the Middle East would be.”

Sarandos confirmed Netflix will launch across the Middle East next year — a region of 370 million people and high levels of

mobile and broadband penetration. “We’re enthusiastic to find great storytellers in the region,” he continued. The SVoD service has already started talks with local content producers and is working with DIFF and DFM to meet local talent.

Netflix will also acquire — not just commission and produce — Arabic-language content and is close to signing a deal for a highprofile local film.

Sarandos also said the streaming giant would buy out worldwide rights to the local-language content it acquires and produces. “We’re working with local producers, actors and writers to tell stories not just to the region but to the world, and that’s the biggest opportunity

beyond just licensing local content for the region,” he said.

At launch, the Middle East service will resemble Netflix’s North American offering, but Sarandos said it would quickly localise with local content and payment methods. It will also add Arabic subtitles to all English-language content. “We can know a lot about specific markets based on ratings, box office and even piracy data, but we’ll have a lot more information when we start operating, even after a few days,” Sarandos said.

Speakers elsewhere at DFM said that Netflix might already be the biggest SVoD player in the region due to viewers accessing the service via virtual private networks (VPNs).

Rula Nasser, page 5

NEWS Taking Shelter The Curve, Al Medina producer Rula Nasser adds to busy slate » Page 5

INTERVIEW Assad Fouladkar The Beirut-based director on his Sundance title Halal Love » Page 9

FORUM EVENTS 10:30 – 11:30 Beyond the screen: film and television as social agent How is content evolving as a catalyst for social change? This discussion explores how film and television can reach beyond the screen to impact the real world and bridge divides.

Panellists Christie Marchese, CEO, Picture Motion; Shailja Kejriwal, chief creative, special projects, Zee Entertainment; Andy Whittaker, founder, Dogwoof; Hind Bensari, film-maker

Gareth Cattermole Getty

14:30 – 16:30 Monir: reflections of an artist in film

McAllister takes on housing crisis Award-winning UK film-maker Sean McAllister, whose documentary feature A Syrian Love Story plays here at DIFF, is working on a story about the UK housing crisis that will mark his first foray into narrative film-making in a career noted for his journalistic forays into Middle East hotspots.

Also in the works is a documentary about the city of Hull, his birthplace in north England.

“Hull won the UK City of Culture for 2017 and I’ve been asked to come home and make a film,” said McAllister. “It will be a bittersweet love story of my city and my roots, telling a tale of how I left and what I find on my return.”

McAllister’s return to the UK comes after a string of films set in the Arab region including The Liberace Of Baghdad, The Reluctant Revolutionary and now A Syrian Love Story, which won the Grand Jury Prize at Sheffield’s Doc/Fest, and was nominated for best documentary at the European Film Awards, which took place last night in Berlin.

Colin Brown

A dedicated afternoon at DFM marking an on-going partnership between DIFF, Sharjah Art Foundation and Art Dubai. A special screening of Bahman Kiarostami’s documentary Monir, about the life of Iranian artist Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian, followed by a discussion about the film and the representation of artists on screen.

Panellists Leyla Fakhr, producer, Monir; Sunny Rahbar, director, The Third Line Venue VOX Cinemas 16, MOE

17:00 – 18:00 Dubai Film Connection awards ceremony Dev Patel, star of The Man Who Knew Infinity, at the DIFF red-carpet gala last night.

Front Row and VOX pact to grab Very Big Shot

BY MELANIE GOODFELLOW

Middle East distributor Front Row Filmed Entertainment and regional exhibitor VOX Cinemas have co-acquired the Lebanese thriller Very Big Shot for a Gulf release.

Mir-Jean Bou Chaaya’s Beirutset tale, about three drug-trafficking brothers who switch to film

production, was released in Lebanon towards the end of November where it has been enjoying a successful run.

Front Row managing director Gianluca Chakra brokered the deal alongside VOX’s director of distribution and film content Toni El Massih.

“We decided to partner up to

support Arab cinema to see what we can achieve if we push from both sides,” said Chakra.

Front Row and VOX previously collaborated in the Gulf on Nadine Labaki’s 2012 hit Where Do We Go Now?, which went on to be one of the most successful Arabiclanguage titles at the Gulf box office ever.

Book your advertising now Contact Scott Benfold

+44 20 8102 0813

scott.benfold@screendaily.com

News

Kasem Kharsa

Nasser seeks Shelter with Kharsa debut

By Liz Shackleton

Jordanian producer Rula Nasser has boarded Egyptian film-maker Kasem Kharsa’s feature debut Shelter.

The project, which has been developed through the Sundance Institute, Binger FilmLab and Torino screenwriting workshops, revolves around an amnesiac stranded in the ghettoes of Beirut.

In the process of trying to piece his life back together, he discovers his connection to a genocide that took place decades earlier.

“It’s a strong story from an interesting talent who is living between the US and the Middle East,” said Nasser, who plans to structure the project as a co-production and shoot in Jordan in 2016. Kharsa’s credits include well-received short films such as Paper Dress. Shelter received a development grant from Doha Film Institute in 2012.

Nasser, who produces under Amman-based banner The Imaginarium Films, has two films in DIFF’s Muhr Feature competition: Rifqi Assaf ’s The Curve, a coproduction with Egypt’s Film Clinic and France’s Eaux Vives Productions, and Omar Shargawi’s Al Medina, co-produced with Nordisk Film.

The Imaginarium Films also has a project in Dubai Film Connection, Yahya Alabdallah’s Papion On Top Of The Water Tank, an extension of the director’s short film 5th Floor Room 52, which is also screening at DIFF. Nasser’s busy development slate also includes Alabdallah’s Me, Myself & Murdoch, which has secured support from CNC’s Cinemas Du Monde and the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture (AFAC). “Papion is a lowerbudget film that we plan to shoot first while we complete financing on Me, Myself & Murdoch,” said Nasser.

www.screendaily.com

Old-school windows hold back Arab VoD

By Liz Shackleton

VoD platforms have the potential to expand the audience for Arabiclanguage content, but traditional business models are preventing local producers from unlocking their full value, said speakers on a VoD panel at Dubai Film Market yesterday.

Gianluca Chakra, managing partner of regional distributor Front Row Filmed Entertainment, said Arabic films are still not travelling around the region — either in cinemas or on pay-TV networks — and VoD could be the answer. However, unlike the North American market, the Middle East has not embraced innovative distribution models such as

simultaneous release in theatres and on VoD. “We would love to adopt that model over here, but the problem is the theatres won’t accept it,” Chakra said. “The other way to make money is to launch films in theatres and then eventually on a TVoD [transactional VoD] basis.

But that doesn’t always happen here as the pay-TV window is blocking everything else.”

Abe Aboul Naga, head of digital at pay-TV giant MBC, defended the old-school networks, which are moving with the times by launching their own VoD services.

MBC operates ad-supported VoD platform Shahid and SVoD platform Shahid Plus.

But he also said each type of content will always have its own platform: “The place for movies is the cinema, while TV will always be the platform to watch live sports and reality TV.” Perihan Abou-Zeid, founder and CEO of Arab-focused North American SVoD platform MoviePigs, said there is a huge potential audience for Arabic films in North America, but it is not easy to reach the Arab diaspora.

“It’s a reflection of the market here — not everyone will watch a Yemeni film just because it is Arabic language. The diaspora also has high content and service expectations as they are used to services like Netflix and iTunes.”

DIFF is holding a red-carpet gala for Hany Abu-Assad’s The Idol tonight, starting at 9:30pm at Madinat Arena with the cast in attendance. The film’s scheduled screening in The Beach sidebar on Friday was cancelled due to high winds, though the performer whose story inspired the film, Mohammad Assaf, entertained the crowds (pictured). Free tickets for today’s screening are available to the public by visiting www.diff.ae and using the code WeLoveIdol

Authenticity attracts Euro co-producers

By Melanie Goodfellow

Growing European co-production opportunities exist for Middle Eastern film-makers with authentic, personal stories shedding light on regional issues, said panellists at a Forum discussion about co-production on Friday.

Swedish producer Christer Nilson of Gothenburg-based GötaFilm said recent world events such as the Syrian civil war and the related refugee crisis were fuelling renewed interest in the region.

“The Middle East is at the heart of world politics, right now,” said

Nilson. “Sweden, for example, has taken in thousands of Syrian refugees and this is sparking a growing interest in stories about the Middle East, especially those in which the region is connected to Scandinavia.”

French producer David Hurst of Bordeaux-based Dublin Films, whose recent credits include Abel Ferrara’s Pasolini, said there was particular demand for personal stories that shed light on bigger regional issues.

“If you look at the projects that have been selected by Dubai Film Connection, they talk about big-

ger topics such as history, democracy and women but they’re also very strong personal stories that everyone can relate to.”

Laurent Lavolé, founding CEO of Paris-based Gloria Films, said that in France, at least, there is a market for features from the Middle East and Africa, citing the French box-office performance of films such as Lamb, Much Loved and A Separation.

“The tricky thing about co-productions is keeping hold of the soul of the project. But there is really a market for films which hold onto their roots,” said Lavolé.

DIFF picks Dubai’s programmers look beyond the world premieres and red-carpet galas

PARISIENNE The third feature from Lebanonborn film-maker Danielle Arbid is a semi-autobiographical account of a 19-year-old woman coming to terms with her new life in Paris. “Arbid explores female psychology in a strong but subtle way,” says DIFF Arab Programme director Antoine Khalife. “She looks at female sexuality in a way that’s realistic without necessarily being provocative. The protagonist in this film is fragile, but at the same time strong, and Arbid is one of the best directors to explore these aspects of female characters.”

The film, which premiered at Toronto, is screening in DIFF’s Muhr feature competition.

TWILIGHT OF SHADOWS The first Arab film-maker to win Cannes’ Palme d’Or, for Chronicle Of The Years Of Fire in 1975, Algeria’s Mohammed LakhdarHamina has also directed classics The Wind Of The Aures (1967), December (1973) and La Derniere Image (1986).

Twilight Of Shadows, his first film in 28 years, is set in 1950s Algeria and revolves around the uneasy dynamics between a French army commander, a conscientious objector and a local rebel fighting French colonialists.

“Lakhdar-Hamina examines how people tried to rationalise a position they didn’t necessarily want to be in,” says Arabian Nights programmer Delphine Garde-Mroueh. “This is a rare opportunity to catch the latest work from one of the masters of Arab cinema.”

December 13, 2015 Screen International at Dubai 5

Reviews Reviews edited by Fionnuala Halligan finn.halligan@screendaily.com

23 Kilometres Reviewed by Fionnuala Halligan

Waiting Reviewed by Fionnuala Halligan India’s past clashes with its impatient present in Anu Menon’s appealing drama Waiting, which pairs Bollywood old-timer Naseeruddin Shah with Kalki Koechlin (so impressive in Margarita, With A Straw). Superficially, this may look like a progression of 2013’s The Lunchbox, but Menon swerves romance to make a pointed commentary about the gulfs between Old India and its privileged, uber-connected young.

Moving freely between Hindi and English, Waiting takes place in a hospital’s intensive care unit where two lives hang in the balance. Despite its brisk pace and lush production values, this is by no means a chipper milieu and any resistance distributor Shoreline will face is in the downbeat subject matter. Yet it is a universal film: this could be any hospital, in any country, with the Kochin setting simply adding rich flavour and more dramatic contrasts — the slow south of India, where Mumbai hipster Tara Kapoor (Koechlin) is summoned after her husband is involved in a life-threatening accident.

The film, however, starts out with a fellow habitué of the hospital: staid professor Shiv Natraj (Shah), so knowledgeable now about medical matters that he’s easily mistaken for a doctor. His beloved wife has been hooked up to a ventilator for eight months and there seems to be no hope left. Tara and Shiv form a friendship, but she is difficult to be around even as her struggle is understandable — Tara has abandoned her family in search of a new India, and embraced friends and Twitter as her clan. Neither set of parents approved of the marriage to Rajat (Arjun Mathur), and she has not told them of his plight.

Tara has met her match in Shiv, who proves to be equally stubborn, refusing to admit his relationship with his wife now exists in the past. Tara struggles to face a future in which Rajat isn’t the man he once was.

Waiting benefits from Koechlin’s appeal, because Menon’s screenplay forces Tara to behave for a large part in an objectionable manner. She’s rude and casually foulmouthed, blurting things out before she’s had time to think. Koechlin has an expressive face to match her talent, and Tara never pushes away the audience completely. The actress enjoys an easy rapport with the elegant Shah, whose presence lends the film its grace-notes.

6 Screen International at Dubai December 13, 2015

Cinema of the World India. 2015. 92mins Director Anu Menon Production company Ishka Films International sales Shoreline Entertainment, info@shoreline entertainment.com Producers Manish Mundra, Priti Gupta Screenplay James Ruzicka, Anu Menon Cinematography Neha Parti Matiyani Editors Nitin Baid, Apurva Asrani Production designer Prajakta Ghag Music Mike McCleary Main cast Naseeruddin Shah, Kalki Koechlin, Arjun Mathur, Rajat Kapoor

Noura Kevorkian’s deeply personal portrait of her father and the last days of his life in end-stage Parkinson’s disease is an affecting and often beautiful story of a life lived with ambition and a disease suffered with dignity. While the thread of its loose narrative — a final 23km trip down Damascus Road in Lebanon’s beautiful Bekaa Valley — can sometimes be occluded by the silent and impressionistic imagery, 23 Kilometres is a thoughtful account of Barkev Kevorkian’s world as it fades out of focus.

23 Kilometres is a tough, sad watch. His daughter’s camera witnesses Barkev’s physical deterioration in closeup and we watch his stumbling, painful attempts to communicate. A festival career seems assured after screenings in Karlovy Vary and Dubai, but wider distribution would be difficult, despite the rich nature of this production.

Kevorkian’s film starts with home-video footage of Barkev’s last conversation before Parkinson’s took his power of speech and it will be the last dialogue in this 78-minute film. Typically, as we will realise, he talks about the stars and the planets and their meaning in his life. It will transpire that the amateur cosmologist was born to survivors of the Armenian genocide, who had fled to the Karatina Camp in Beirut for shelter. He grew up in a shanty house, looking at stars through holes in the roof.

An auto-didact, Barkev went to work at the age of 9.

“I made big plans for my life,” he writes. Now he sees “my factory decaying slowly into dust, all that remains of my life’s work”. The civil war in Lebanon robbed him of 20 years in the prime of his life, and Parkinson’s has taken another two decades.

23 Kilometres is silent, however: whatever slim exposition it holds comes from Barkev’s spidery hand as he attempts to write his thoughts in his journal, which Noura Kevorkian puts in titles on the screen.

The film-maker, who lives in Beirut and Canada, has fashioned a love letter to her father but also to the land of her birth. She recreates the past through home videos, archive footage and actors who play her as a child (Lara K Scherzer) and her father (Jano Sherbetjian) in the fullness of life. These are blended with shots of the galaxy, of human anatomy and of a ticking clock. Colours are vivid, her father silhouetted in resonant colour against the shade.

Muhr Feature UAE-Can-Leb. 2015.

78mins Director/screenplay Noura Kevorkian Production companies Saaren Films Inc, Six Island Productions Contact Saaren Films, info@saarenfilms.com Producers Paul Scherzer, Noura Kevorkian Cinematography Wajdi Elian Editors Noura Kevorkian, Avril Jacobson Featuring Barkev Kevorkian, Noura, Jano Sherbetjian, Lara K Scherzer

www.screendaily.com

Dubai Film Connection, page 8

3000 Nights Reviewed by Wendy Ide

As I Open My Eyes Reviewed by Dan Fainaru Taking place shortly before the Jasmine Revolution of 2010, which ended 33 years of dictatorship in Tunisia and led to the country’s first free elections, Leyla Bouzid’s committed debut is justifiably drawing plenty of attention, not only for the way it deals with the political climate in her homeland but also for how she charts the painful transition of her lead character from rebellious adolescence to a more careful and often resigned adulthood.

Inspired by Bouzid’s own experiences running a cineclub in her home town, As I Open My Eyes follows Farah (Baya Medhaffer), a vibrant 18-year-old girl from a sheltered, middle-class family. She would rather sing protest songs than study medicine and falls in lust with Bohrene (Montassar Ayari), a horny, long-haired lute player.

Farah insists, in her blissful ignorance, that she has the right to speak her mind at all times and in all places.

The efforts of her over-protective mother, Hayet (Ghalia Benali) to steer Farah away from trouble are to no avail.

The round-faced, curly haired girl, still sporting traces of youthful baby fat, is determined to go her own way, only to discover for herself, almost too late, that not every friend is to be trusted and parents are not always wrong.

Farah passionately performs outspoken elegies about the desolate state of their country (“My country, land of dust/Your gates are closed and bring misfortune”) with her underground rock band. These shows, combined with her cheeky independent conduct, are more than enough to attract the attention of the authorities.

Taken separately, generational conflicts, police brutality, youthful protest or the position of women in a traditional patriarchal society are certainly not new to the screen. But Bouzid merges them together energetically, throwing in small touches and cameo characters to round out the atmosphere.

Despite the constant arguments between Farah and her mother, their relationship remains the closest, warmest and the most touching feature of the film.

Farah and Hayet’s mutual attachment is evident at all times, and there is a degree of tenderness and love that no differences between them can dispel.

www.screendaily.com

Muhr Feature Fr-Bel-Tun-UAE. 2015.

102mins Director Leyla Bouzid Production companies Blue Monday Productions, Propaganda Productions, Helicotronc Productions International sales Doc&Film International, d.elstner@docandfilm. com Producers Sandra da Fonseca, Imed Marzouk Screenplay Leyla Bouzid, Marie-Sophie Chambon Cinematography Sébastien Goepfert Editor Lilian Corbeille Production design Raouf Helioui Music Khyam Allami Cast Baya Medhaffer, Ghalia Benali, Montassar Ayari, Aymen Omrani, Lassaad Jamoussi, Deena Abdelwahed, Youssef Soltana, Marwen Soltana, Najoua Mathlouthi, Younes Ferhi, Fathi Akkeri, Saloua Mohammed

Muhr Feature

The feature film debut from Palestinian documentarist Mai Masri, 3000 Nights explores the plight of the many Palestinians detained in Israeli prisons through the story of one inmate. Layal (Maisa Abd Elhadi) is a newly married schoolteacher who finds herself accused of terrorist activities after giving a lift to an injured boy. In prison, she finds she is pregnant and is forced to give birth and raise her son behind bars.

It’s emotive material, handled with a blunt but largely unsensational approach. The visceral opening sequence is highly effective. The setting is Nablus, in the occupied West Bank in 1980. Nervy handheld camera captures a terrified young woman, blindfolded and bundled into the back of a prison van. Layal is distraught and desperate to talk to her husband. The sneering prison guard, nicknamed The Crow, laughs openly at her request. This character is one of the film’s less successful elements; she is too sadistically gleeful to be fully plausible.

Layal finds herself deposited in a cell with hardbitten Israeli prisoners, presided over by fearsome queen bee Ze’eva (Khitam Edelbi) and scrawny junkie Shulamit (Raida Adon). Terrified, she manages to persuade the hatchet-faced prison governor to let her see her husband.

This special treatment draws attention; now the Arab prisoners, particularly one-armed Lebanese freedom fighter Sanaa (Nadira Omran), also treat her with suspicion.

The news of her pregnancy means Layal is moved into a cell with other Palestinians, and there she finds an uneasy and often turbulent support system. That changes when she has her baby boy, Nour. For a while at least, her cellmates band together as an extended de facto family. Then the political unrest outside the prison walls ignites within them.

The prison conflict sequences are handled well — a suffocating pall of tear gas subdues the women, but not before a young inmate has been felled by a reckless bullet. But there are plot points — a hunky Arab love interest in the prison hospital, for example — that can undermine the tough-minded message of the film with sentimentalism.

Pal-Fr-Jor-Leb-UAE-Qat. 2015. 103mins Director/screenplay Mai Masri Production companies Orjouane Productions, Nour Productions, Les Films d’Ici International sales Intramovies, paola. corvino@intramovies.com Producers Sabine Sidawi, Charlotte Uzu Cinematography Gilles Porte Editor Michele Tyan Production designer Hussein Baydoun Main cast Maisa Abd Elhadi, Nadira Omran, Abeer Haddad, Karim Saleh

December 13, 2015 Screen International at Dubai 7

dubai film connection

Weight Throwers

A Step Behind The Sun

The Bridge

Dir Hind Bensari

Dir Narjiss Nejjar

Dir Hala Lotfy

Project’s country of origin Morocco

Project’s country of origin Morocco

Project’s country of origin Egypt

Hind Bensari’s feature documentary Weight Throwers portrays the struggle of two disabled Moroccan athletes to qualify for the Rio Paralympic Games in 2016. At the heart of the film is shot putter Azeddine Nouiri, whose gold medal and record-breaking performance at London’s Paralympic Games in 2012 first piqued Bensari’s interest in exploring further the challenges facing Morocco’s physically disabled sportspeople.

Unlike the country’s able-bodied athletes, Nouiri does not receive a salary but instead struggles to make ends meet and keep up with his training at the same time. The film also follows Nouiri’s best friend and fellow Paralympian hopeful Youssef, who has a learning disability.

“These guys don’t have a coach or a salary. They get there by themselves,” says Bensari. “I want to capture that struggle.”

The film is Bensari’s second feature documentary following 475: Break The Silence, which put the spotlight on a Moroccan law that encouraged rapists to marry their victims in order to avoid jail, and became part of a campaign calling for the law’s repeal.

Bensari hopes that Weight Throwers will generate similar debate and even action. “When I do a film in Morocco, I try to think holistically about the whole process so it’s not just about doing the film,” she says.

“Along the way I also try to gain as much support from the relevant organisations to help change a situation.

“People with disabilities are completely marginalised in Morocco and this is something I would like to highlight.”

Melanie Goodfellow

Narjiss Nejjar’s decade-long career has been marked by a series of hard-hitting dramas set against the backdrop of contemporary Morocco in which women find themselves at odds with society as they strive for personal freedom. The Rif Lover (L’amante De Rif), which screened in Dubai’s Muhr Feature competition in 2011, followed a rebellious teenager’s disastrous decision to get involved with a hashish trafficker. The director’s earlier film Cry No More (Les Yeux Secs), followed a former prostitute determined not to fall back into the profession after a stint in jail.

Nejjar’s new project, A Step Behind The Sun, which will be her fifth feature, is about a woman in her 30s called Hénia who is separated from her family as a child by Algeria’s decision in 1975 to expel its citizens of Moroccan origin. Some 20 years after this rupture, Hénia is living in a remote village, making a living as a washerwoman, and dreaming about the possibility of being reunited with her mother in Algeria.

When a Moroccan-French expat hires her to look after his visually impaired, widowed father, a complicated ménage-a-trois develops.

“In 1975, Algeria took the arbitrary decision in 48 hours to expel thousands of Moroccans, many of whom had been there for several generations. Entire families were separated,” explains Nejjar. “This ‘black demonstration’ was an insult to their dignity and many lost the identities they had been born with, as is the case for my protagonist Hénia, who is the daughter of an Algerian mother and a Moroccan father. Following her turbulent and abusive childhood, and as soon as she decides to evade man’s abusive laws, she becomes a prisoner of them and stateless.”

Melanie Goodfellow

Hala Lotfy, a key figure in Egypt’s independent cinema scene, returns to Dubai Film Connection with her second feature The Bridge, having attended in 2012 as producer of Mohammad Rashad’s The Little Eagles.

The Bridge is the second film in a trilogy, begun with Lotfy’s award-winning debut Coming Forth By Day, capturing the lives of Cairo’s poorer classes.

Based on a true story dating back to pre-revolutionary times of 2010, the events of The Bridge are sparked by the death of a child who falls through a hole in a badly maintained bridge on the River Nile.

“It haunted me; it summarises lots of things we confront in Egypt,” says Lotfy. “It’s not just a humanitarian story, or about a mother coming to terms with the loss of a child, it’s more about this hard city and how bureaucracy can be so tough for ordinary, poor people. People’s lives are so cheap for the government and bureaucrats and I want to weave this into the film.

This concern runs throughout all my work.”

The Nile and Cairo’s impoverished underbelly provide the film’s key themes. “The Egyptians used to consider the Nile a source of life and now it’s viceversa. It’s a perfect backdrop for this film,” says Lotfy.

The film-maker is working on what she hopes will be the final draft and plans to shoot in June, having been helped at the development stage by the SANAD Abu Dhabi Film Fund and the Beirut-based Arab Fund for Arts and Culture (AFAC).

She is looking for a European co-production partner. “We believe the story has an international angle.

We want to make the best use of this, to widen the scope of our production experience and also our audience.”

Melanie Goodfellow

Weight Throwers

A Step Behind The Sun

The Bridge

Producers Vibeke Vogel (Bullitt Film) Production companies Bullitt Film (Denmark), Cinetelefilms (Tunisia) Budget $355,000 Finance raised to date $255,000 Contact Vibeke Vogel vibeke@bullittfilm.dk

Producer Lamia Chraibi Production companies La Prod Budget $1,725,000 Finance raised to date $450,000 Contact Lamia Chraibi, La Prod lamia@laprod.ma

Producer Hala Lotfy Production companies Hassala Films Budget $568,000 Finance raised to date $150,000 Contact Hala Lotfy info@hassala.org

8 Screen International at Dubai December 13, 2015

www.screendaily.com

director interviews

Assad Fouladkar

Mohamed Khan

The Beirut-based director of Halal Love talks to Colin Brown about the challenges of making a film about the love lives of devout Muslims

The pioneering Egyptian director discusses his new film, and why he is optimistic about the future of Arab cinema. Colin Brown reports

C

Halal Love

A

fter spending more than eight years trying to make his tragicomedy of manners, Lebanese film-maker Assad Fouladkar has been rewarded with a world premiere for Halal Love here in Dubai and a coveted slot in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition of next month’s Sundance Film Festival. There the film will go by its more suggestive title, Halal Love (And Sex), which is a clearer reflection of the hot-button subject.

A warm portrait of a working-class Shia neighbourhood of Beirut, the film weaves four interconnected stories of devout Muslim men and women as they try to manage their love lives and desires without breaking rules of their religion.

Needless to say, Fouladkar knew he had to tread carefully. “The subject of the film is sensitive,” he says. “Although Islam itself talks in detail about sexual

www.screendaily.com

life, we still live in Arab societies that are much more closed-minded than the religious books. Frankly, I censored myself many times during the writing process as things could be taken wrong.”

The cast is led by Darine Hamze, the Lebanese actress who was identified in Screen’s Arab talent spotlight in 2011 as one-to-watch. She plays Loubna, a conservative woman drawn into a temporary, or ‘pleasure’, marriage, something that is permitted, or ‘halal’, in Shia Islam. The project was selected for Locarno’s Open Doors co-production lab back in 2008.

“It deals with the meaning of sexuality in the Shia religion in an ironic way,” said Vincenzo Bugno, the Open Doors project manager at that time. “And cinematically, if you take into account Assad’s previous work, it could be very interesting.”

But it wasn’t until the arrival of Razor, the Berlin-based production company involved in films such as Paradise Now, Waltz With Bashir and Wadjda, that the project found some industry traction.

“Halal Love wasn’t an easy ride,” says Fouladkar. “Although I had many people interested in it, and many producers attached, it couldn’t be made until now.

It was my Lebanese producer’s connection with Razor that made them aware of the script. Without them, the film could have still been just a script on paper.”

elebrated as one of the living legends of Egyptian cinema, Mohamed Khan is returning to the very festival that helped propel his 2013 hit Factory Girl to box-office success, multiple awards and theatrical releases in territories including the UAE, Lebanon, France and Sweden.

His latest film, Before The Summer Crowds, is the story of summertime neighbours and voyeurs whose characters are part of the bourgeoisie that swarm Egypt’s north coast. It is making its world premiere in the Muhr feature competition.

“It all started when, together with my wife, we spent a few days in a resort out of season, only to discover we were the only occupants,” says Khan. “Wanting to explore the world of the upper middle class that usually owns chalets in such

sea resorts, I asked a friend, Ghada Shahbender, who knew this world pretty well, to write the script [her first] and the result is a story that takes place in a resort before the summer crowds arrive, involving five characters — a doctor and his wife, a divorcée and her lover, all seen through the eyes of a gardener.”

Factory Girl broke new ground for Egyptian film-making, being funded by multiple sources from outside Egypt including both DIFF’s Enjaaz and Abu Dhabi’s SANAD funds. This time around, Khan has teamed with several of Egypt’s leading production houses including Middle West Films, Film Clinic and The Producers. DayDream joined as a co-producer along with the support of WIKA For Film Production And Distribution.

Known as one of the pioneers in Egyptian realism, with a history of femalecentric stories, Khan has seen his influence rub off on his younger filmmaking peers across the Arab world — a generation he feels has great promise.

“Young Arab film-makers have a much better chance than the older generation, having gone through so much change in their world from revolutions demanding social justice and technological advances affecting film language itself,” he says.

“They’re bound to produce films that will interest world audiences.”

Before The Summer Crowds

December 13, 2015 Screen International at Dubai 9

Feature Oscar films at DIFF

A window on

the Oscars With its end-of-year timing and red carpet galas, DIFF is a useful platform for the films and stars in the running for the Oscars to ensure they are front and centre of the awards conversation. By Louise Tutt

A

mid the thrill of the opening night here at DIFF on Wednesday, in Los Angeles anticipation was high ahead of the nominations for this year’s Screen Actors’ Guild (SAG) awards. The SAG line-up is the first big awards body to reveal its shortlist, with the Hollywood Foreign Press Association unveiling its nominees for the Golden Globes the very next day.

What those two declarations have done is fire the starter’s pistol in the race to the US Academy Awards. And what a thrilling chase it is this year. It’s the most open in recent memory with no clear frontrunner in any of the major categories. Everything is still to play for, which makes each festival screening a valuable prized asset to gain momentum and every photograph of a contender on a red carpet helps keep the film in the awards conversation.

DIFF is timed perfectly to play its part in Oscar season and a considerable number of contenders are screening here.

Where better to showcase their creative, visual and technical wizardry than on the big screen of the Madinat Arena? And a fair percentage of the festival’s international guests are Oscar voters who will imbibe festival reaction to the films.

Of the films in the running for the best picture Oscar that are screening here at DIFF, Tom McCarthy’s Spotlight is a drama based on the real-life group of investigative journalists at The Boston Globe who uncovered corruption at the

DIFF opening film Room,

by Lenny Abrahamson, is a major Oscar contender

heart of the Catholic Church, as the abuse of children by priests was systematically covered up. It first wowed audiences at the Venice and Toronto film festivals in September, and has picked up two SAG nominations (for cast and Rachel McAdams in a supporting role) and three Globe nods (motion picture — drama, director and screenplay). Sarah Gavron’s Suffragette, a stirring, eye-opener of a story about the British women who laid down their lives to get the vote for women in the UK in the early 20th Century, screened first at Telluride before opening the BFI London Film Festival to well-deserved noise in October.

Lenny Abrahamson’s Room, which opened DIFF on Wednesday, is based on Emma Donoghue’s bestselling novel of the same name about a five-year-old boy who lives with his mother in a locked room, while Nicholas Hytner’s The Lady In The Van is a retelling of humourist and playwright Alan Bennett’s memoir about a cantankerous old woman who lived in a rundown van in his driveway for 15 years. Both films made their debuts in Toronto.

The first film to start generating buzz as early as Sundance Film Festival in January was John Crowley’s elegant adaptation of Colm Toibin’s novel Brooklyn, about a young Irish girl torn between her homeland and New York.

The Short odds The film to have come up on the inside, bypassing many of the big festivals until now, is DIFF closing film The Big Short, written and directed by Adam McKay. It is a devastating exploration of how a small coterie of US bankers caused the global economic crash. Based on the non-fiction book by respected financial journalist Michael Lewis, the engaging film benefits from the star power of Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Christian Bale and Brad Pitt. But it is writer-director McKay, a comedy veteran of Saturday Night Live and films such as Anchorman and Step Brothers, who makes the film sing. McKay has managed to make a film about complex financial dealings and terminology entirely engrossing.

The Big Short closed AFI Fest at the beginning of November and has the kind of momentum that Oscar voters latch on to. The Golden Globes picked out performances by Carell and Bale in the best actor in a motion picture comedy/musical category, adding further nods for best motion picture — comedy/musical and best screenplay — motion picture. The SAGs welcomed supporting actor Bale, and listed The Big Short in the outstanding performance by a cast in a motion picture category.

DIFF is also screening the two films

www.screendaily.com

Brooklyn

The Big Short

‘I stayed out of the sun for three months and didn’t leave the house for one month just to see what it would feel like’ Brie Larson, Room

that have the joint favourites for the best actress Oscar prize. Los Angeles-born Brie Larson plays the young captive mother in Room, while Saoirse Ronan portrays the young woman in Brooklyn who moves to New York in search of romance and life but finds herself homesick for Ireland.

Larson’s preparation for the role was absolute. “I had to stay out of the sun for three months and I didn’t leave the house for one month just to see what that would feel like,” she says. Larson joins the best actress list for the Golden Globes, which also recognised Room for screenplay and best picture, drama, and the SAGs, which also placed her young co-star Jacob Tremblay in the supporting actor category.

Ronan found echoes of her own life in that of Eilis Lacey, in what feels like a real coming-of-age role for the former child actor. “It was so close to where I was at in my own life,” she reveals of the shoot.

“There were times I found it very hard to separate the two, and sometimes I thought, “Am I even doing anything?”

SAG and Globe best actress nominee Ronan will be hoping for her second Oscar nomination following Atonement in 2007. For Larson, it would be her first.

In a gleeful u-turn from her role in Downton Abbey, Maggie Smith plays the unpleasant Miss Shepherd in The Lady In The Van. It’s a performance that is likely to see her gain a seventh Oscar nomination, having already taken her place on

Mustang

the Globes’ line-up for best actress in a motion picture comedy/musical. Smith already has two Oscars to her name: as best actress for The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie in 1970 and best supporting actress for California Suite in 1979.

The other film in the running for Oscar recognition is Gavron’s Suffragette.

If nominated, Gavron will likely be the only woman director on the shortlist. It’s a dispiriting statistic under any circumstances but particularly poignant given the film’s subject matter.

“If it just felt like a piece of history, we wouldn’t have felt so compelled to tell it,” says Gavron of what drew her to the material. “It was a way of looking back on the past and reflecting on how far we’ve come but also how far we’ve got to go, and how much of it is still a battle.”

Carey Mulligan stars in Suffragette with Anne-Marie Duff, Helena Bonham Carter, Natalie Press, Romola Garai and Ben Whishaw, with Meryl Streep playing the iconic Emmeline Pankhurst in a memorable cameo that could sneak Streep her 20th Oscar nomination, in the supporting actress category.

Several entries to the best foreign-language film category are being showcased at DIFF. Deniz Gamze Ergüven’s Mustang (France), Pablo Trapero’s The Clan (Argentina) and Hou Hsiaohsien’s The Assassin (Taiwan) are all electrifying the festival circuit this year.

Ankara-born, Franceraised, La Fémis-educated Ergüven first took Mustang to Cannes where it played in Directors’ Fortnight, won the prestigious (Right) Carey Mulligan in Suffragette

Europa Cinemas Label prize, and was swiftly picked up for the US by the Cohen Media Group. It is the story of five young women living in a rural village in Turkey who rebel against their strict upbringing. It features in the Globes’ best foreign-language film category.

Ergüven’s dual cultural identity is at the heart of Mustang: “Because I was constantly going back and forth between the two cultures, what hit me was this filter of sexualisation that governs every aspect of women’s lives in Turkey,” she explains. “It starts at a very early age, as is the case for the characters in the film.”

Trapero also drew on memories of the past to document the bizarre real-life story of the middle-class Puccio family’s kidnap-and-murder ring in the 1980s.

“A normal family that kidnapped their friends and killed them. It’s not an easy headline to forget,” says the film-maker.

For Taiwanese director Hou, Dubai is the icing on the cake of a very sweet year that brought him the best director prize at Cannes for The Assassin, a seat on the Venice jury and now a glitzy showcase at DIFF. Set during the Chinese Tang Dynasty, the film stars Shu Qi as a hitwoman ordered to kill the man she once intended to marry.

“There were a lot of female assassins during the Tang dynasty,” Hou says. “It was a unique era, all kinds of female assassins. Some of them just hid themselves in a normal life for many years, just to wait for the right moment to complete their mission.”

For Hou and the other Oscar-ready film-makers at DIFF, the festival is an important stop-off on the way to Hollywood’s Dolby Theatre on February 28. Only then will their mission be s complete. ■

December 13, 2015 Screen International 11

Screenings Edited by Paul Lindsell

» Screening times and venues are correct at the time of going to press but subject to alteration

paullindsell@gmail.com

poll battle of May 2014, in the holy Hindu city of Banaras — Indian prime minister Narendra Modi’s parliamentary constituency. In the process, the documentary lays bare for the first time the equation and politics of a democracy called India. Over a 44-day schedule in Banaras, it makes for a fascinating mix of history and presentday politics in the world’s largest democracy.

Cinema of the World MOE 17 PUBLIC

MY FATHER’S GARDEN

Festival 09:00

15:15

HALAL LOVE

A DECENT MAN

(Germany, Lebanon) Films Distribution.

94mins. Comedy, drama.

Dir: Assad Fouladkar.

Cast: Darine Hamze, Rodrigue Sleiman, Hussein Mokaddem, Ali Sammoury, Zeinab Hind Khadra, Mirna Moukarzel, Fadia Abi Chahine.

Four tragi-comic interconnected stories that follow devout Muslim men and women as they try to manage their love life and desires without breaking any of the religion’s rules.

(France) Bac Films Distribution. 111mins.

Drama. Dir: Emmanuel Finkiel. Cast: Nicolas Duvauchelle, Melanie Thierry, Driss Ramdi.

Eddie is depressed for he no longer lives with Karine and their son Noam. As he walks home inebriated one night, he is mugged and badly injured. Suddenly, Eddie

Arabian Nights Madinat Arena PRESS

15:15 A DECENT MAN See box, above

ARABIAN NIGHTS: VOLUME 1 — THE RESTLESS ONE

(Portugal, France, Germany, Switzerland) The Match Factory.

125mins. Drama.

Dir: Miguel Gomes.

Cast: Crista Alfaiate, Adriano Luz, Americo Silva, Rogerio Samora, Carloto Cotta, Fernanda Loureiro.

In which Scheherazade

tells of the restlessness: “It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that in a sad country where people dream of mermaids and whales, unemployment spreads. Forests burn into the night despite the falling rain; men and women long to set out to sea in the middle of winter. In this country, where things are not what they appear to be, men of power promenade on camels and hide permanent and shameful erections; they await the moment when taxes are collected so they can pay a wizard whom…” And seeing the morning break, Scheherazade fell silent.

12 Screen International at Dubai December 13, 2015

becomes a hero to his son and a victim to his wife. He is asked to move back home and is offered a new job. However, when Ahmed — the perfect scapegoat for the attack — is charged, the gravity of the accusation pulls Eddie into a spiral of self-doubt and lies, marking the start of a dangerous freefall.

18:15 THE BATTLE FOR BANARAS

(India) 133mins. Nonfiction. Dir: Kamal

Swaroop. Cast: Arvind Kejriwal, Narendra Modi.

Captures the excitement, the madness and the noise behind the high-octane

(Iraq) 13mins. Drama.

Dir: Shwan Attoof.

Cast: Shano Ahmed, Kamran Mansoor, Shalaw Jamal.

A young Kurdish mujahid regrets his decision to join the jihadist movement. He is torn between his father’s expectations and the mujahideen leader, ending up a victim of his own internal turmoil.

Muhr Gulf Short MOE 03 PUBLIC

Cinema of the World MOE 04 PUBLIC

Cinema of the World MOE 13 PUBLIC

18:00 SUFFRAGETTE See box, right

THE WHEEL

(Egypt) 14mins.

Drama. Dir: Menna Ekram. Cast: Shady Khalil, Ola Abu Shalashel.

A circle could be a sign of infinity or a space that is closed, with no way out.

‘The Wheel’ examines a relationship as a circle of unity or as a rollercoaster of the same emotions over and over.

Muhr Short MOE 14 PUBLIC

Festival 18:00 SUFFRAGETTE

(UK) Pathé International. 106mins.

Drama. Dir: Sarah Gavron. Cast: Helena Bonham Carter, Meryl Streep, Carey Mulligan, Anne-Marie Duff.

An intense drama that tracks the story of the foot soldiers of the early feminist movement.

Fighting for the right to vote, these women were not only from the genteel educated classes, there were working women

among them who had seen peaceful protest achieve nothing. Radicalised and turning to violence, they were willing to lose everything in their fight for equality.

Cinema of the World Madinat Theatre PUBLIC

www.screendaily.com

Further DIFF coverage, see screendaily.com

Festival 18:30 MOUNTAIN CRY

(China) Fortissimo Films. 107mins. Action, drama, romance. Dir: Larry Yang. Cast: Yueting Lang, Ziyi Wang, Taishen Cheng, Ailei Yu, Jin Guo, Caigen Xu, Chendong Zhao, Siying Li. Set in a remote, spectacularly scenic mountain village in China in the mid 1980s, ‘Mountain Cry’ weaves a tale that begins with the sudden violent death of a man under unusual circumstances, leaving behind a mysterious

widow — a young, mute woman with two children. The bereaved family is from a distant province and upsets the village’s tight-knit traditional community structure. As the village leaders struggle with how to handle the matter, the widow forms a bond with a hardworking young man who is tasked with providing for her and the children. Both he and the villagers discover she has a dark story to tell, and the power to tell it without words.

Cinema of the World MOE 01 PUBLIC

than sad! The residents of a tower block in the suburbs will save parrots and piss inside lifts while surrounded by dead people and ghosts; including in fact a dog that…” And seeing the morning break, Scheherazade fell silent.

“Damned tales! If things continue this way, my daughter will surely end up with her throat slit!”

Scheherazade’s father, the Grand Vizier, thinks in his palace in Baghdad.

This film is the final lead performance of the late Omar Sharif.

Muhr Gulf Short Madinat Arena GALA

THE FOREIGN SON

(France, Qatar) 79mins.

Non-fiction. Dir: Abdallah Badis. Cast: Abdallah Badis, Lisa

Ghodbane, Amina Oussahla, Mohamed Amine Terchi, Amar Ziadi, Nassim Zerrouk.

Answering the call of his

Cinema of the World

MOUNTAIN CRY See box, left

18:45 AS I OPEN MY EYES See box, right

18:30 ARABIAN NIGHTS: VOLUME 2 — THE DESOLATE ONE

(Portugal, France, Germany, Switzerland) The Match Factory.

131mins. Drama. Dir: Miguel Gomes. Cast: Crista Alfaiate, Adriano Luz, Americo Silva, Rogerio Samora, Carloto Cotta, Fernanda Loureiro.

In which Scheherazade tells of how desolation invaded men: “It hath reached me, O auspicious

www.screendaily.com

King, that a distressed judge will cry instead of giving out her sentence on a night when all three moons are aligned. A runaway murderer will wander through the land for over 40 days and will tele-transport himself to escape the police, while dreaming of prostitutes and partridges. A wounded cow will reminisce about a 1,000-year-old olive tree, while saying what she must say, which will sound none less

19:00 1001 INVENTIONS AND THE WORLD OF IBN AL-HAYTHAM

(UAE, UK) 1001 Inventions. 14mins.

Adventure, animation, historical. Dir: Ahmed Salim. Cast: Omar Sharif, Macey Chipping.

The fascinating story of a brave young scientist from 11th century Arabia, Ibn Al Haytham, who uncovers ancient mysteries that will change our world forever.

Festival 18:45 AS I OPEN MY EYES

(France, Belgium, Tunisia, UAE) Doc & Film International.

102mins. Drama, music.

Dir: Leyla Bouzid.

Cast: Baya Medhaffer, Ghalia Benali.

Summer 2010. Tunis. It is a few months before the revolution and 18-year-old Farah has just graduated.

Her family has charted out her future as a doctor, but she doesn’t share the same view. She sings in a political rock band and

has a different approach to life as she embraces alcohol, love and the night — all against the approval of her mother, who knows Tunisia and its dangers better than Farah.

Muhr Feature MOE 06 PUBLIC

December 13, 2015 Screen International at Dubai 13

»

Screenings

And seeing the morning break, Scheherazade fell silent.

Cinema of the World MOE 13 PUBLIC

DIASPORA

(Tunisia) 13mins.

Animation, drama. Dir: Alaeddin Abou Taleb.

The story of a man in a wheelchair, who lives alone in his flat in Tunis.

His routine consists of consuming any media, until he is surprised by an announcement about jobs. He abandons his isolation and leaves his wheelchair.

Muhr Short MOE 14 PUBLIC

THE IDOL

Festival 19:00 THE LADY IN THE VAN

(UK) Sony Pictures Releasing. 104mins.

Biography, drama.

Dir: Nicholas Hytner.

Cast: Maggie Smith, Jim Broadbent, Alex Jennings.

Big-screen adaptation of Alan Bennett’s successful play about a grumpy homeless woman first

homeland, of which he has only childhood memories, a 50-year-old man returns to Algeria.

There seems to be a path unfolding in front of him, and it is tortuous.

Providence provides a child to guide him.

Muhr Feature MOE 04 PUBLIC

THE LADY IN THE VAN See box, above

WE HAVE NEVER BEEN KIDS See box, right

21:30 3000 NIGHTS

(Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, France, UAE, Qatar) Intramovies.

103mins. Drama.

Dir: Mai Masri. Cast: Maisa Abd Elhadi, Nadira Omran, Abeer

encountered by Bennett when he moves to Camden, London, in the early 1970s. They form an unlikely friendship and he eventually allows her to temporarily move her battered Bedford van into his driveway, only to find she stays for 15 years.

Cinema of the World The Beach PUBLIC

Haddad, Karim Saleh, Haifa Al Agha, Anahid Fayad, Rakeen Saad, Hana Chamoun, Raida Adon.

Layal, a newlywed Palestinian schoolteacher is arrested after being falsely accused and is sentenced to eight years in prison.

She is transferred to an Israeli women’s prison, where Palestinian political prisoners are incarcerated with Israeli criminal inmates. The prison director pressures her to spy on the Palestinian inmates. While in prison, Layal gives birth to a baby boy. Against all odds, she manages to find a meaning to her life. As prison conditions deteriorate and the Palestinian prisoners decide to go on strike, Layal is forced to make a choice

14 Screen International at Dubai December 13, 2015

that will forever change her life.

Muhr Feature Madinat Theatre PUBLIC

ARABIAN NIGHTS: VOLUME 3 — THE ENCHANTED ONE

(Portugal, France, Germany, Switzerland) The Match Factory GmbH. 125mins. Drama.

Dir: Miguel Gomes. Cast: Crista Alfaiate, Americo

Silva, Carloto Cotta, Jing Jing Guo, Chico Chapas, Quiterio.

In which Scheherazade doubts that she will still be able to tell stories to please the King, given that what she has to tell weighs 3,000 tonnes.

She therefore escapes from the palace and travels the kingdom in search of pleasure

and enchantment. Her father, the Grand Vizier, arranges to meet her at the ferris wheel and Scheherazade resumes her narration: “O auspicious King, in old shanty towns of Lisbon there was a community of bewitched men who, with all dedication and passion, devoted themselves to teaching birds to sing…”

(Palestine, Netherlands, Qatar, UK, UAE) Seville International. 98mins.

Drama, music. Dir: Hany Abu-Assad. Cast: Tawfeek Barhom, Ashraf Barhoum, Ali Suliman, Eyad Hourani, Maisa Abd Elhadi, Hiba Atallah, Qais Atallah, Ahmed Qassim, Abd-Elkarim Abu-Barakeh.

Gaza is home to Mohammed Assaf and his sister Nour. On TV one evening he falls for an impossible dream: the auditions of Arab Idol, the most popular show in the Arab world, are taking

Festival 19:00 WE HAVE NEVER BEEN KIDS

(UAE, Egypt, Qatar, Lebanon) January

For Arts & Culture Production. 104mins.

Non-fiction. Dir: Mahmood Soliman.

An Egyptian woman is

trying to look after her four children, especially in the lead-up to, and aftermath of, her divorce from their father.

However, over time, the circumstances around her change on all levels.

Muhr Feature MOE 05 PUBLIC

www.screendaily.com

is alone and lost. With nothing but fear and her natural instinct for selfpreservation, she is looking for something she has never found in her home country Lebanon: freedom.

Muhr Feature MOE 17 PUBLIC

22:15 FRANCOFONIA See box, left

WEIGHT OF THE SHADOW

Festival 22:15 FRANCOFONIA

(France, Germany, Netherlands) Films Boutique. 87mins.

Drama, creative documentary.

Dir: Alexander Sokurov. Cast: LouisDo De Lencquesaing, Benjamin Utzerath, Vincent Nemeth.

The story of two remarkable men, Louvre museum director Jacques Jaujard and Nazi occupation officer Count Franziskus Wolff-

place in Cairo. Despite the closed borders, he makes it in front of the judges in Egypt. From there, destiny awaits.

Arabian Nights Madinat Arena PUBLIC

21:45 TWILIGHT OF SHADOWS

(Algeria) Sunset Entertainment. 110mins.

Drama, war. Dir: Mohammed LakhdarHamina. Cast: Samir Boitard, Nicolas Bridet, Laurent Hennequin.

Algeria, 1958.

Commander Saintenac, entrenched in the heart of the Sahara desert, pursues his brutal war. For him, Algeria is France.

www.screendaily.com

Metternich — enemies then collaborators — whose alliance would be the driving force behind the preservation of museum treasures.

The film explores the relationship between art and power, the Louvre as a living example of civilisation, and what art tells us about ourselves even in the midst of one of the bloodiest conflicts the world has ever seen.

22:00 OPEN WOUND

(US) 6mins. Drama.

Dir: Sarra Alshehhi.

Cast: Maral Tatar, Hamid Tavakoli.

At a family gathering, Nadia, a professional boxer finally has an opportunity to confront her uncle Ali, who abused her. Will she

manage to pack a punch?

Muhr Emirati MOE 01 PUBLIC

PARISIENNE

(France, Lebanon) Films Boutique. 121mins.

Romance, social. Dir: Danielle Arbid. Cast: Manal Issa, Vincent Lacoste, Paul Hamy.

Lina, 19, arrives in Paris during the 1990s. She

(Morocco, UAE) HAK Films. 82mins. Nonfiction. Dir: Hakim Belabbes. Cast: Ali Itekou, Fatma Itekou.

Thirty-five years ago, H’mad Itekou, a Moroccan/Amazigh student was abducted during what came to be known as ‘The Years of Lead’ in Morocco. His elderly parents, Ali and Fatma Itekou, have been holding to a thread of hope to find out the truth about their son’s disappearance.

The Moroccan Equity and Reconciliation Commission had no answers. Following the death of Fatma, her frail husband still waits for answers.

Muhr Feature MOE 05 PUBLIC

22:30 BORDERS OF HEAVEN See box, below

Arabian Nights MOE 03 PUBLIC

DIFF dailies editor and Asia editor Liz Shackleton lizshackleton@gmail.com Reporter Melanie Goodfellow, melanie.goodfellow@ btinternet.com Reviews editor Fionnuala Halligan, finn.halligan@screendaily Contributor Colin Brown, colinbrown1@earthlink.net Features editor Louise Tutt, tuttlouise@gmail.com Production editor Mark Mowbray, mark. mowbray@screendaily.com Sub editors Paul Lindsell, Adam Richmond, Richard Young Commercial director Nadia Romdhani, nadia. romdhani@screendaily.com, +44 7540 100 315 Sales manager Scott Benfold, scott.benfold@screendaily. com, +44 7765 257 260 US sales and business development executive Nikki Tilmouth, nikki. screeninternational@gmail. com, +1 323 868 7633 Production manager Jonathon Cooke, jonathon. cooke@mb-insight.com Group commercial director, MBI Alison Pitchford, alison. pitchford@mb-insight.com

Cinema of the World MOE 06 PUBLIC

The soldier Lambert, a conscientious objector, arrives from Paris.

Saintenac views him as a traitor. The commander wishes to redress this insubordinate youth.

His solution is to torture Khaled, a native of the desert fighting the colonial injustice, so as to punish the idealistic Lambert.

Saintenac orders Lambert to execute the enemy.

Beyond this slender and sombre page of history, between convictions and doubts, trapped in the chaos of the Algerian revolution, three men will face their destiny.

DIFF editorial office Press and publicity office, Madinat Jumeirah Conference Centre

Chief executive, MBI Conor Dignam Printer Atlas Group, Street 26, Al Quoz 4, PO Box 14833, Dubai, +971 4 340 9895, admin@atlasgroupme.com

Screen International London 1st Floor Unit F2/G, Zetland House, 5-25 Scrutton Street, London EC2A 4HJ Tel: +44 20 3033 4267 Festival 22:30 BORDERS OF HEAVEN

(Tunisia, UAE) 83mins.

Drama. Dir: Fares Naanaa. Cast: Lotfi Abdelli, Anissa Daoud, Mouna Noureddine.

Sami and Sara, a Tunisian couple in their 30s, lead a peaceful life and seem happy, until a tragedy befalls them.

The story of an ordinary family whose life takes a

dramatic turn. Between despair, guilt and the desire for life, how does one rebuild when faced with the unacceptable?

Muhr Feature MOE 04 PUBLIC

Subscription enquiries Tel: +44 1604 828 706, help@subscribe.screendaily. in association with com Chime Consulting

in association with in association with Chime Consulting Chime Consulting

December 13, 2015 Screen International at Dubai 15