In Middle East, Doha Film Institute Stays the Course
As Al Gouna Film Festival opens its second year, as Dubai Film Festival and Market closes its doors, as Saudi Arabia purports to be entering the Western world of filmmaking, DFI has stayed the course and presented 12 films in TIFF it had helped to fund.
Doha Film Institute continues its commitment to nurturing emerging filmmakers through its Grants Programme for Film, TV and Web Series.
First and second time filmmakers from around the world, alongside established directors from the MENA region, are all invited to apply for funding.
At TIFF 2018 their films include:
The Load (Teret) by Ognjen Glavoic — — Vlada works as a truck driver during the NATO bombing of Serbia in 1999. Tasked with transporting a mysterious load from Kosovo to Belgrade, he drives through unfamiliar territory, trying to make his way in a country scarred by the war. He knows that once the job is over, he will need to return home and face the consequences of his actions. (IMDb)
Divine Wind by Merzak Allouache — — Nour and Amine don’t know each other. They meet in a house, near the city of Timimoun, in the Algerian Sahara. They are supposed to launch an armed action against an oil refinery. But things don’t turn out quite as they expected. (DFI)
Freedom Fields by Naziha Arebi (Short Cuts) — — An intimate look at post-revolution Libya through the eyes of an aspiring all-female soccer team, whose struggle to gain mainstream acceptance mirrors the broader challenges facing women in contemporary Libyan society. (IMDb)
Screwdriver by Bassan Jarbawi — — Young Ziad is the star of the Jalazon Refugee Camp basketball team in Palestine. When his best friend is shot dead by Israeli forces, Ziad and his teammates attempt to assassinate an Israeli settler. Ziad is captured and imprisoned, then released 15 years later. (DFI)
The Wild Pear Tree (Ahlat Agaci) by Nuri Bilge Ceylan (Special Presentations) — — An aspiring writer returns to his native village, where his father’s debts catch up to him.
Brotherhood by Meryam Joobeur — — Mohamed is a hardened shepherd living in rural Tunisia with his wife and two sons. His life is shaken when his oldest son Malik secretly returns home from Syria with a new wife named Reem, a mysterious Syrian woman who wears the niqab. Malik’s mother and younger brothers are quick to embrace Malik’s return but Mohamed is uncomfortable with his presence and potential radical influence on the family. The tension between father and son rises over the course of three days until finally reaching a breaking point.
A Kasha by hajooj kuka — -A Kasha is a universal offbeat love story set in a time of civil war — but the war is in Sudan and it is happening right now. We follow Adnan, an AK47-loving rebel, his long-suffering love interest, Lina, and the armydodging Absi, over a fateful 24 hours in a rebel-held area of Sudan.
Capernaum by Nadine Labaki (Wavelengths) — -A politically-charged fable, featuring mostly non-professional actors, about a child who launches a lawsuit against his parents.
The Day I Lost My Shadow by Soudade Kaadan — — In Syria in 2012 a mother ventures into a war zone to find a gas cylinder so she can prepare a meal for her son. She discovers that in the besieged area the people there have lost their shadows.
Long Day’s Journey into Night by Gan Bi (Contemporary World Cinema) — — A man went back to Guizhou, found the tracks of a mysterious woman. He recalls the summer he spent with her twenty years ago.
Too Late to Die Young by Dominga Sotomayor — — Democracy comes back to Chile during the summer of 1990. In an isolated community, Sofía (16), Lucas (16) and Clara (10), face their first loves and fears, while preparing for New Year’s Eve. They may live far from the dangers of the city, but not from those of nature.
Look at Me by Najib Belkadhi — — Lotfi, a forty-something Tunisian immigrant, leads the life of a small-time thug in the Noailles neighborhood of Marseille. His daily life is occupied by his home-appliance store and Monique, his French girlfriend, but the past catches up with him when his brother calls from Tunisia to inform him that his wife has had a stroke. Now, Lotfi has to go back home to reclaim custody of his nine-year-old autistic son, Amr, whom he has not seen for six years. Thus begins a journey where Lotfi will face his son, who completely ignores the father he has never known. It is Amr’s avoidance of eye contact that drives Lotfi’s quest to connect with his son and open him up to the world.
Consideration for funding is now open to TV and web series from the MENA region, a well as short and feature length films in development, production and post-production, subject to eligibility criteria.
Since 2010, Doha Film Institute has supported more than 400 filmmakers throughout the world.
For more information: www.dohafilminstitute.com/financing/grants/guidelines
