PriMed news

IN SEARCH OF OIL AND SAND

58 minutes, 2012
Director : Wael OMAR and Philippe DIB (Egypt)
Production : Middle West Films (Egypt)

____

Fiction meets reality: members of the Egyptian royal family made a film about themselves just a few weeks before the coup that ousted them from power. This 16mm footage shot in 1952 not only predicts their fate, but also – unwittingly – records the last days of a dynasty.

Wael OMAR SAYED EL AHL lives in Cairo. He has worked in film and television for eight years. He has produced several documentaries which have been shown on BBC Storyville, Al Arabiya, CMN, and ITVS. In 2008 he created his own production company, Middle West Films.

Philippe DIB
Philippe L. DIB is a film director/producer of Franco-Lebanese origin residing in Cairo. In 1996 he co-wrote and directed his feature debut, “Welcome Says The Angel”, filmed during the outbreak of violence following the Rodney King case in L.A.
As recently as 2006 he directed the award-winning documentary “El Tanbura”.
He also features in the 2012 documentary “½ revolution” where he shot a third of the footage and features as a character, musician and associate producer.

GO TO THE LIST

PriMed news

A HOUSE FOR BERNARDA ALBA

52 minutes, 2011
Director : Lidia PERALTA GARCIA (Spain)
Production : Producciones Damira (Spain)

____

Eight gypsy women living in El Vacie, a Seville slum, have become very popular in Spain after appearing in Federico García Lorca’s play “The House of Bernarda Alba”. But have their lives changed? What path led them from being marginalized to popularity? This documentary is a rare story of adventure and personal development.

Lidia PERALTA GARCIA was born in Grenada (Spain) in 1970. She studied translation and interpreting, then spent several years travelling in the Middle East, Asia and Africa. In 2000 she completed a journalism course in Malaga, then she wrote a doctoral thesis on documentary films. Since 2001 she has been both editor and presenter of “Tesis”, a Canal 2 Andalucía programme about socio-cultural issues. As an independent film-maker she has made the following documentaries “Sudan, by the way” (2009); “The Caravan of the Manuscripts from Al-andalus” and “Ancient Megastructures: the Alhambra” (2007); “When the Moors ruled in Spain” (2006); “Alandalus in the mirror” (2005); and “Berbers of the High Atlas” (2003).

GO TO THE LIST

PriMed news

TROUFIONS

TROUFIONS
56 minutes, 2012
Director : Thierry DEMAIZIERE and Alban TEURLAI (France)
Production : Falabracks, France Télévisions (France)

____

50 years after signing the Evian Accord in March 1962, the documentary “Troufions” (Squaddies) talks to 5 ordinary French soldiers who fought in Algeria as simple conscripts. Today these men are in the 70’s. For all these years they have stubbornly said nothing, they have told their families, their wives or their children nothing. Before it is too late they decided to speak out, for the first time. The film releases these men from their silence, harvesting the raw but authentic accounts of their secret sufferings and hidden wounds. These men-memories are farmers, workers or civil servants, at the time they were only 20 and simple squaddies.

Thierry DEMAIZIERE is an author and film-director. From 1985 to 1997, he was a senior reporter for radio RTL where he worked until 2011.

Alban TEURLAI is an author, film-director and editor. Together they have made the documentaries “Troufions” (2012, 52′), “Ces Messieurs Dames” (2010, 52′), “Thuram” (2009, 80′), “Robert Luchini dit Fabrice” (2009, 52′), “Lagerfeld, un roi seul” (2008, 52′), “Lost in Vegas” (2007, 60′) and “L’ordre des choses” (2003, 52′).

GO TO THE LIST

PriMed news

TINGHIR-JERUSALEM, Les Echos du Mellah

TINGHIR-JERUSALEM, Les Échos du Mellah
86 minutes, 2011
Director : Kamal HACHKAR (France / Morocco)
Production : Les Films d’Un Jour (France)

____

The story of an exile, “Tinghir Jérusalem, les echos du Mellah” is about what happened to a Jewish community which left the Berber village of Tinghir (Morocco) in the 1950’s and 60’s. Kamal Hachkar, born in Tinghir, takes us to the crossroads of the two cultures, with songs, voices and stories of this dual identity shared between Jews and Muslims.

Kamal HACHKAR is a young French-Moroccan of Berber origin and a Muslim. Born in Tinghir, he left Morocco at the age of six months with his mother to join his father, who had immigrated to France in 1968. After studying history at the Sorbonne, he became a teacher. Interested in the Jewish culture and the Judaeo Moroccan heritage, he wanted to discover this culture in Israel and Morocco. Learning Hebrew, he organized cultural evenings with Jewish and Arab poets in Paris. He has participated in debates connecting Israeli and Palestinian students, making them think about what identity and the relationship to clan or tribe really mean.

GO TO THE LIST

PriMed news

IN UTERO SREBRENICA

IN UTERO SREBRENICA
54 minutes, 2012
Director : Giuseppe CARRIERI (Italy)
Production : Natia Docufilm (Italy)

____

In the middle of the night, in a forest peppered with unexploded mines, Munira is digging with her bare hands to find the bones of her son, killed during the Srebrenica genocide. She and many other mothers continue their fight for justice in Bosnia and Herzegovina, a country that still does not know peace.

Giuseppe CARRIERI was born in 1985 in Naples. He is a film-maker as well as teaching film. He has made the following documentaries: “Notturno Italiano (14 Storie d’Italia dei 150 anni)” (125 minutes, 2011), “Tu sali tra le stelle” (27 minutes, 2012), “Stelle contate sulle dita” (52 minutes, 2012) and “L’alfabeto del fiume” (52 minutes, 2012).

GO TO THE LIST

PriMed news

MAUDIT SOIT LE PHOSPHATE

MAUDIT SOIT LE PHOSPHATE
85 minutes, 2012
Director : Samy TLILI (Tunisia)
Production : Nomadis Images (Tunisia)

____

January 5, 2008, a sit-in organized by a group of young unemployed in front of Redeyef’s Town Hall, in south-western Tunisia, marked the beginning of a movement of civil dissent which lasted six months. 21 years after the coup d’Etat which brought him to office, General Ben Ali faced his first popular uprising. Their names are Moudhaffer, Bashir, Adnene, Leila, Adel or Haroun – teachers, unemployed, or youth in despair. Some are in the streets to express their anger, others to support these young people. They came together in a popular movement unprecedented in Tunisia at that time, “the revolt for dignity”. In this coal mining region the equation is simple, yet absurd: phosphate is produced in an area forced to suffer all the harmful consequences (environmental and other), without receiving any benefit. Four years later, what remains of this human adventure? Broken souls, wounds still raw – but also pride and dignity.

Born in 1985 in Kairouan (Tunisia), Samy TLILI is a young Tunisian director. He is also a lecturer at the University of Sousse. He has three short films to his credit. “Maudit soit le phosphate” is his first long documentary.

GO TO THE LIST

PriMed news

LE THE OU L’ELECTRICITE

LE THÉ OU L’ELECTRICITÉ
93 minutes, 2012
Director : Jérôme LE MAIRE (Belgium)
Production : Iota Production (Belgium)

____

The arrival of electricity in an isolated, landlocked village in the heart of the Moroccan High Atlas. For more than 3 years, season after season, the director patiently reveals how the web of change is closing inexorably on the inhabitants of Ifri. We watch the arrival of a pitiless modernity to which the village will be connected.

Born in 1969, Jérôme Le Maire is a director, writer and cameraman. After studying Journalism and Communication in Brussels, he trained as a director at Louvain-la-Neuve’s Institut des Arts de Diffusion. He has directed several short drama films and documentaries including “Où est l’amour dans la palmeraie ?” (2007), “Un jour, une vie” (2004) and “Volter ne m’intéresse pas” (2003). His feature film, “Le Grand Tour” was selected for the Rotterdam International Festival, the Cannes Film Festival in the section ACID, and the Namur International Festival of Francophone Film. In Belgium it was given theatrical release in 2011.

GO TO THE LIST

PriMed news

ITALY : LOVE IT, OR LEAVE IT

ITALY : LOVE IT, OR LEAVE IT
75 minutes, 2011
Directors : Gustav HOFER et Luca RAGAZZI (Italy)
Production : Hiq Productions (Italy)

____

Two Italians, two different visions of their homeland: while Gustav wants to emigrate, his companion Luca wants to prove that there are still great people on the peninsula. From the worsening working conditions at Fiat to property speculation disfiguring the Calabrian coast, there are many reasons for despair. But when Luca introduces Gustav to a Sicilian entrepreneur fighting the Mafia, or the amazing communist, catholic and homosexual who governs the region of Puglia, he convinces him that all is not lost. Gustav eventually reconsiders his position and regains hope.

Gustav HOFER was born in 1976 in Italy, Alto Adige (South Tyrol). He studied communication in Vienna (Austria) before studying film in London. He lives in Rome, where he is a correspondent for the television channel Arte. He works as a freelance journalist and independent filmmaker. As a director, he made “Korea Prioritaria” in 2002, “Men for all Seasons” in 2005 and “Suddenly, Last Winter” in 2008.
Luca RAGAZZI, was born in 1971 at Rome. He is a journalist, film critic and photographer. He studied literature and philosophy at Rome. “Suddenly, Last Winter” was his first film as director.

GO TO THE LIST

PriMed news

FIVE BROKEN CAMERAS

FIVE BROKEN CAMERAS
90 minutes, 2010
Director : Emad BURNAT (Palestine) and Guy DAVIDI (Israel)
Production : Guy DVD Films (Israel), Burnat Films (Palestine), Alegría Productions (France)

____

Emad BURNAT is a freelance Palestinian cameraman and photographer. He has filmed for Al-Jazeera, the Israeli channels 1, 2 and 10, as well as for Palestinian television. He works regularly with Reuters, and has filmed sequences of several documentaries such as “Bil’in My Love”, “Palestine Kids”, “Open Close” and “Interrupted Streams”..
Guy DAVIDI, born in Jaffa, is a documentary film director and teaches cinema.
He was cameraman on “Hamza” and “Journal D’une Orange” for France 3. He has also made many short documentaries such as “In Working Progress”, “Keywords” and “Women Defying Barriers”. In 2010, his first feature film “Interrupted Streams” opened the Jerusalem International Film Festival.

GO TO THE LIST

PriMed news

DANCE OF OUTLAWS

82 minutes, 2012
Director : Mohamed EL ABOUDI (Moroccco, Finland)
Production : Illume Ltd, Road Movies, Piraya Films As (Finland)

___

Hind, 22, is a dealer’s daughter. Driven from her home at 14 because she had been raped, she dances at weddings and prostitutes herself. Officially Hind does not exist. She can’t find her birth certificate and therefore has no right to identity papers. Yet she dreams of a better future: of marrying her lover, regaining custody of her children, getting a job and a real home.

Mohamed EL ABOUDI was born and grew up in Morocco. He studied theatre at Fez University, then cinema and television at Bond University, Australia. Amongst his recent films: “Fight of Fate” (2010), “City Folk Helsinki” (2007), “Inside / Offside” (2006), “Two Mothers” (2005), “Ramadan” (2004) and “My Father, the Freemason” (2003).

GO TO THE LIST