Arab Critics Awards to be Bestowed during Cannes Film Festival 2017
The Arab Cinema Center is launching the Critics Awards to promote and support Arab cinema internationally. The winners will be for Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actress and Best Actor.
The 26 member jury includes prominent Arab and foreign critics from 15 countries from around the world. Egyptian film critic Ahmed Shawky is serving as manager of the Critics Awards.
Film analyst Alaa Karkouti, CEO of MAD Solutions, the company in charge of organizing the Arab Cinema Center’s events and also the first Pan Arab independent distributor and PR company of Arabic content to and from the Arab world, said: “The Critics Awards marks a first-time initiative that encompasses film critics from all over the world dedicated to Arab films within the strategy of Arab Cinema Center to add initiatives and events to every large-scale international film festival around the world.”
He added: “This is the first new addition for Arab Cinema Center in 2017 and more is yet to come.”
Presenting a snapshot of the best of Arab cinema in 2016, the following films were nominated based on the criteria that they must have premiered in international film festivals outside of the Arab world during 2016, at least one of the production companies must be Arab, and they must be feature-length, whether fiction or documentary.
“A Day for Women” directed by Kamla Abou Zekri, Egypt, 2016, 105 min. This is a funny comedy about the mores of Egyptians, especially women which takes place when a new swimming pool opens in a Cairo neighborhood, with the announcement that Sundays will be only for females. This causes ripples throughout the local community and three women — Shamiya, Azza, and Lula — assess their varying lives. A great way to showcase everyday life in Middle Eastern society which includes its women on every level.
“A Magical Substance Flows Into Me” directed by Jumana Manna, Palestinian Territories, Germany, Great Britain, 2016, 68 min is a doc about Robert Lachmann who was a German-Jewish ethnomusicologist. In the 1930s, his radio show “Oriental Music” explored the musical traditions of Palestine and included regular live performances by musicians from different ethnic and religious groups. Inspired by Lachmann’s musicological studies, Palestinian artist Jumana Manna travels through Israel and the Palestinian territories of today with recordings from the program. What do these songs sound like now when performed by Moroccan, Kurdish, or Yemenite Jews, by Samaritans, members of the urban and rural Palestinian communities, Bedouins and Coptic Christians? When a true fascination for history meets the sounds of the rababa, the saz, the oud and tin cans, a cultural diversity emerges that erases the distinction between “Arab” and “Jewish”. There are no national borders here, only different kitchens where people make music together — with their guests, while cooking, while someone makes the coffee. This film about the art of music in the Middle East shows societies and their struggles.
I saw this at T-Mobile New Horizons IFF this summer where it won the Films On Art International Award. It previously screened at the Berlinale Forum, the Viennale and the International Film Festival Rotterdam. Watch the trailer.
“A Maid for Each” (“Makhdoumin”) directed by Maher Abi Samra, Lebanon, France, Norway, United Arab Emirates, 2016, 67 min. International sales by Doc & Film International. An interesting doc dealing with the social phenom that for an estimated population of 4 million, Lebanon boasts some 200,000 foreign domestic workers, contracted under a system of full custodianship that deprives them of basic rights. Implemented since the start of the civil war (1975), this system is borrowed from similar ones in the Gulf countries. It is predicated on a transaction whereby the worker is not providing a service, but is rather commodified as a product, with specialized agencies organizing their import under conditions not unlike modern-day outposts of slavery. Director Maher Abi Samra places his camera inside the offices of the El Raed agency with the full complicity of its owner Zein.
The film has already won the Peace Film Prize at the Berlinale Forum, the DOK.horizonte Award at the DOK.fest Munich, Best Non-Fiction Prize at the Dubai IFF. It also screened at the Viennale.
Basically, the true stories of the struggles of these workers is even more difficult as liberty itself is barely an option when you are enslaved.
“Barakah Meets Barakah” directed by Mahmoud Sabbagh, Saudi Arabia, 2016, 88 min. International sales by MPM. is a fun and sweet look at the mores of good but young peoples’ yearnings. In a time when traditions walk side by side with smartphones and social medias, Barakah, a funny and improbable municipal agent responsible to enforce order in town, will meet a beautiful erratic ultra-famous Instagram video blogger. The unthinkable happens: they fall in love and will try to have a proper date against all odds. Humor, love and romance: what’s not to like?
The film won the Ecumenical Jury Prize at the Berlinale Forum and played in the Hong Kong International Film Festival.
“Blessed Benefit” (“Inshallah Estafadit”) directed by Mahmoud Al Massad, Jordan, Germany, Netherlands, Qatar, 2016, 83 min. International sales by Beta. This tells a good story with humor and heart. You love the people you meet in this comedy which actually has a disheartening message and for that, it has been banned in Al Massad’s home country, Jordan. Imprisoned on an unfair charge of fraud, a mild-mannered Jordanian contractor discovers that prison has its own rhythms, rules, and economies — and he soon begins to carve out a position for himself in this place where fraud isn’t a crime so much as a way of life. This commentary on the economy is told with humor even while it is set in a prison which in itself is a microcosm of society.
I first saw this film at the Toronto International Film Festival world premiere. After that it played Busan International Film Festival, Dubai International Film Festival and Black Movie Festival.
“Brooks, Meadows and Lovely Faces”(“Al ma’wal khodra wal wajh el hassan”) directed by Yousry Nasrallah, Egypt, 2016, 115 min. International sales by Pyramide. Very sweet and funny, and again, however, not without its sad side. Perhaps Egyptian comedies inevitably have a touch of tragedy. The story depicts a family of cooks who cater weddings in the Egyptian countryside. Refaat and Galal, the sons of Yehia the cook, eventually manage to muster up the courage and, braving social constraints, express their feelings to the women they love.
I first heard great praise for this film at the Festival del film Locarno where it premiered. After that it went to Göteborg Film Festival and Istanbul Film Festival
“Clash” directed by Mohamed Diab, Egypt, France, Germany, 2016, 97 min. International sales by Pyramide. Cairo during the summer of 2013, two years after the Egyptian revolution, in the wake of the ouster of Islamist president Morsi, a police truck full of detained demonstrators of divergent political and religious backgrounds roams through violent protests.
It was Opening Night film at the Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard Opening Fllm. It won FICCI’s Bronze Tanit, the second prize in the Official Feature Film Competition, Best Photography, Best Editing, University Award for Cinematic Criticism for Best Film ; Best Film at Zagreb FF, Best New Director at Seminci Valladolid IFF, Best Film, Audience Award at IFF of Kerala and played Moscow Intl FF and London BFI.
“Foreign Body” directed by Raja Amari from France, Tunisia 2016; 92 min. International sales by UDI. In the turbulent aftermath of the Tunisian revolution, young Samia flees her homeland. She braves hostile seas in the crossing to France, but once there she finds that her struggles have only just begun. With no friends, no family, and — most crucially — no immigration papers, Samia has to figure out how to make a life and a living in a foreign land. She meets a young man, Imed, who is a friend of her brother and tries to help and soon finds work in the employ of the elegant Leila. But her presence in Leila’s middle-class household triggers a shift in its dynamics, and soon Samia is enmeshed in a web of sexual tension. With the backdrop of politics, refugees and their struggles, The sexuality brings a different aspect to what we register when we watch films about refugees and the politics around them.
This played in Toronto, Dubai and the Berlinale Forum.
“Halal Love (and Sex)” directed by Assad Fouladkar. Germany, Lebanon 2016; 95 min. International sales by Films Distribution. This is a very funny comedy of manners with four stories about Muslim men and women who all try to reconcile their love lives (and sex lives) with the dogmas of Islam. A couple in love or actually divorced, a husband and children who ask too much of one woman, and two girls who worry about where children come from.
When I saw it at Sundance where it premiered, I wrote my high praise, calling it “Divorce Sharia Style”. After Sundance it went to Rotterdam, Helsinki and Göteborg Film Festivals.
“Heaven Sent” (“Tombé du ciel”) directed by Wissam Charaf, France, Lebanon, 2016, 70 min. After 20 years apart, a former militiaman who was presumed dead reappears in the life of his little brother who has become a bodyguard in Beirut. Between drama and comedy, he is not quite able to come to terms with a country he no longer recognizes.
The film played in the Cannes sidebar ACID and was workshopped with EAVE support.
“Hedi” (“Inhebbek Hedi”) directed by Mohamed Ben Attia, Tunisia, Belgium, 2016, 88 min. International sales by Lux. About a quiet man who finally rebels against his mother and mores. This simple young man is not very talkative or reactive and does not expect much from the life that is planned for him. He allows his authoritarian and overwhelming mother to organize his marriage. He allows his boss to send him on a trip to Mahdia during the week of his wedding celebrations, and he allows his brother to dictate how he should behave. But on his trip to Madhia, things take a turn for the unexpected. He meets the activity leader in a hotel and is intrigued by her insouciance and frivolity, and gets deeply involved in a passionate love relationship.
The film has won numerous awards, Best First Feature Film Award and Silver Bear for Best Actor (Majd Mastoura) in Berlinale Competition, Golden Athena for Best Film at Athens IFF, Domaine Clarence Dillon Grand Jury Prize, Erasmus Jury Prize at Bordeaux IFF, City of Amiens Award for Best Director, Best Actress (Rym Ben Attia), CCAS Award at Amiens IFF, and has played at Valletta, Istanbul, Dubai International Film Festivals.
“Houses Without Doors” (“Manazil Bela Abwab”) directed by Avo Kaprealian, Lebanon, Syria, 2016, 90 min. Original version: Arabic, Armenian, French. This fascinating doc packs a quiet wallop. It is about the Armenians in Aleppo who fled the Turkish Genocide of 1916 and are now leaving with the Syrian Civil War in 2016. From the balcony of his home, the director films with a small camera the changes in his neighbourhood and his own family, interweaving his images with extracts from classical films to illustrate the parallels between the Armenian genocide and Syrians’ reality today. So close and yet so far, as the family watches devastation on TV until it reaches their own street. It played in the Berlinale Forum.
Director’s Statement
What to remember, what to forget?! What to capture, what to ignore?! When the Syrian uprising began in spring 2011, I decided to return to my hometown Aleppo from Damascus, where I had studied acting at the High Institute of the Dramatic Arts. In Aleppo, I was returning to my memories, to the magical alleyways of the Old City, to my friends and family; and to a symbol for us Armenians: Aleppo is where we survived the genocide and started a new life. When I arrived to the city, there was a feeling that this city was going towards a catastrophe. So I started filming the daily life of the people all over Aleppo from inside a car. At that time, filming became the most difficult thing to do in Aleppo — or in Syria for that matter — something that could get you arrested and subjected to the most horrific forms of torture, and sometimes killed. Despite this knowledge I continued to film short clips here and there, until “they” arrested me and destroyed the hard disk; so all my filmed memories were gone…
To recreate memory, I started filming again. Film my family and neighbours, the lane outside our building, the vast wave of refugees with their tired and lost faces arriving to our neighborhood, Al Midan, an area that had brought shelter to the persecuted Armenians 100 years ago. In front of my eyes and my camera, history was repeating itself in our lane: residents started to move away, abandoning the space to the new refugees who inherited an ancient burden. It reminded me of the souls of my Armenian forefathers, who suffered massacres, injustice, treachery and displacement — even now those souls do not lie peacefully in their graves. After three years of intermittent filming and while reviewing my footage for the film, I discovered that war had been sending us warning signals all the time. I saw its inevitability clear as day. I saw that the smoke had not been so very distant, that what was far was really as close as could be, and led to the tragedy of my family, the residents of Al-Midan and entire Syria.
“In the Last Days of the City” (“Akher ayam el madina”) directed by Tamer El Said, Egypt, Germany, UK, United Arab Emirates, 2016, 118 min.
A melancholic telling of sad young talented filmmakers who are friends and who have watched or are watching their cosmopolitan Arab cities being destroyed by war. It’s fiction but with documentary footage, it does not feel like fiction at all.
This film within a film is a haunting yet lyric chronicle of recent years in the Arab world, where revolutions seemed to spark hope for change and yield further instability in one stroke. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Khalid Abdalla (“The Kite Runner”, “The Square”) plays the protagonist of Tamer El Said’s ambitious feature debut, a filmmaker in Cairo attempting to capture the zeitgeist of his city as the world changes around him — from personal love and loss to the fall of the Mubarak regime. Throughout, friends send footage and stories from Berlin, Baghdad, and Beirut, creating a powerful, multilayered meditation on togetherness, the tactile hold of cities, and the meaning of homeland. Shot in 2008 and completed this year, the film explores the weight of cinematic images as record and storytelling in an ongoing time of change.
It won the Caligari Film Prize at Berlinale Forum, Best Director at BAFICI, Grand Prix at T-Mobile New Horizons IFF and played at New Directors/New Films, IFF Vilnius, IndieLisboa, Festival du Nouveau Cinéma Montréal, Viennale.
Director’s Statement
In the winter of 2007, I started working on this film driven by a need to understand my relationship with Cairo, the city where I live and that has made me what I am. I was haunted by a strong and peculiar feeling shared by everyone in the Arab world that we can’t keep going like this — the end is near. We longed for it to bring a new beginning, while fearing it would take with it everything we loved. I finished shooting in December 2010. Six weeks later the entire world was watching Cairo. It seemed that what we had been longing for was happening. Now, three years later I am finishing the film wondering how these images could feel so close and yet so far, how nothing seems to change while everything is changing.
“Mimosas” directed by Oliver Laxe, Spain, Morocco, France, Qatar, 2016, 93 min. International sales by Luxbox. A Sufi desert fevered western. A caravan escorts an elderly and dying Sheikh through the Moroccan Atlas. His last wish is to be buried with his close ones. But death does not wait. The caravaneers, fearful of the mountain, refuse to continue transporting the corpse. Saïd and Ahmed, two rogues travelling with the caravan, say they know the way and promise to take the corpse to its destiny. In another world, Shakib is chosen to travel to the mountains with a mission to help the improvised caravaneers.
Winner of the Nespresso Grand Prize at La Semaine de la Critique in Cannes, Golden Pyramid for Best Film — Cairo IFF, Special Mention — FIFDH, it also screened at Karlovy Vary IFF, T-Mobile New Horizons International Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, BFI London Film Festival, Viennale, International Film Festival Rotterdam, Göteborg Film Festival, Cartagena International Film Festival, Istanbul Film Festival
“The Last of Us” (“Akher Wahed Fina”) directed by Ala Eddine Slim, Tunisia, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, 2016, 94 min. No dialog.
N is coming from the desert to reach the north of Africa and make an illegal crossing to Europe. Alone in Tunisia, he decides to cross the solitary sea. He steals a boat and begins his journey, but it soon sinks into the water. From that moment, N embarks in a special and unique voyage: he discovers different and infinite spaces, makes intense and fleeting encounters, and meets another altered image of himself.
Winner of Lion of the Future at Venice International Film Critics’ Week, and screened at Black Movie, International Film Festival Rotterdam, Istanbul Film Festival
“Tramontane” (“Rabih”) directed by Vatche Boulghourjian, Lebanon, France, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, 2016, 105 min. Rabih, a young blind man who is a great singer, lives in a small village in Lebanon. His life unravels when he applies for a passport and discovers that his identification card is a forgery. Traveling across rural Lebanon in search of a record of his own birth, he meets people on the far fringes of society who tell their own stories, open further questions and give him minor clues about his identity. He encounters a nation incapable of telling his, or its own, history.
His songs sear through the rational/ irrational and create a world we all could use to transcend the absurdity of our existence.
The film won Special Mention (International Competition) at Pula FF,Best Director at Bratislava IFF, Jury Prize at Brussels Mediterranean FF, Best Actress (Julia Kassar) — Dubai IFF, and screened at Karlovy Vary, La Semaine de la Critique, Dubai International Film Festivals, the International Film Festival Rotterdam and Göteborg Film Festival.
“We Have Never Been Kids” (“Abadan lam nakon atfalan”) directed by Mahmood Soliman, United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Qatar, Lebanon, 2016, 87 min. Afascinating look at Egypt and its working poor.
This documentary won for Best Director, and Best Muhr Non-Fiction Feature at Dubai IFF, Best Feature Documentary at Luxor African FF, Prix de la première œuvre at Festival du Cinéma Méditerranéen de Tétouan, Best Feature Film at Festival del Africano, d’Asia e America Latina, Martine Fillip Award Of Discovery at International URTI Grand Prix Author’s Documentary, Jury Prize at Oran International Arab FF, Special Jury Mention at Edición del Fesitval de Cine Latino Árabe, Coup de coeur documentaire at Festival des Cinémas d’Afrique du Pays d’Apt, Political Film Prize Nominee at FilmFest Hamburg, Special Jury Prize at Festival international du film documentaire de Khouribga and screened at Milano Film festival (FCAAAL),Durban IFF, Sarajevo FF, Budapest IDFF, Arabische Filmfestival Tübingen Carthage FF, This Human World FF, Dubai International Film Festival, Durban International Film Festival, Göteborg Film Festival
A family in the chaos of historic events: after separating from her husband, Nadia is bringing up her four children alone. She earns a meagre living with a knife sharpening cart on the streets of Cairo. Despite the material misery, she tries to give her kids values and education. She’s a political person and follows what goes on around her. When the Arab Spring breaks out and the Mubarak regime finally falls, Nadia is filled with hope. But the chaotic circumstances cause deep wounds within her family. Told over a heartbreaking period of 13 years, the film tells the impressive story of an Egyptian Mother Courage.
“Withered Green” (“Akhdar yabes”) directed by Mohammed Hammad, Egypt, 2016, 72 min
After the death of her parents, Iman, a traditional and conservative young woman, has to take care of her younger sister, Noha. When her sibling is faced with a marriage proposal, Iman has to ask her uncles to meet the groom and his family, as customs in Arab societies require the presence of a man from the bride’s side for the marriage agreement. But as the men are all too preoccupied and unavailable, Iman decides to disregard the tradition.
Winner for Best Director at Dubai IFF, the film also screened at Festival del film Locarno.
“Zaineb Hates the Snow” (“Zaineb takrahou ethelj”) directed by Kaouther Ben Hania, Tunisia, France, Qatar, Lebanon, United Arab Emirates, 2016, 94 min. International sales by Autlook.
This documentary begins in 2009 when Zaineb is nine years old and has lived with her mother and younger brother in Tunis since her father died in a car accident. But when her mother expresses the desire to rebuild her life with a man who lives in Canada, Zaineb rejects the idea. She has no confidence in her stepfather, nor in that new country, and on top of all, she doesn’t like snow!
Winner of the Ulysse CCAS-Montpellier Méditerranée Métropole Prize at CINEMED, the film also screened at the Festival del film Locarno and Doha Film Institute Qumra.
Here is the list of critics participating in nominating and selecting the winners for the Arab Cinema Center’s Critics Awards:
Ahmed Shawky | Egypt
Ibrahim Al Ariss | Lebanon
Ossama Abdel Fattah | Egypt
E. Nina Rothe | USA, Italy
Olivier Barlet | France
Bashar Ibrahim | Palestine, UAE
Deborah Young | USA
Dragan Rubesa | Croatia
Jay Weissberg | USA
Hussam Assi | Iraq, USA, UK
Hamadi Keroum | Morocco
Khalil Demmon | Morocco
Ziad Khouzaie | Iraq, UK
Samir Farid | Egypt
Sydney Levine | USA
Tarek El Shennawi | Egypt
Abdul Sattar Naji | Kuwait
Ola Al-Sheikh | Palestine, UAE
Kais Kassem | Iraq, Sweden
Mohammed Bougalleb | Tunisia
Mohamed Rouda | Lebanon
Nabil Hadji | Algeria
Nadim Jarjoura | Lebanon
Erfan Rashid (Iraq, Italy)
Hauvick Habechian | Lebanon
Houda Ibrahim | Lebanon, France
