THE GROCER

52 minutes, 2013
Director: Dimitris KOUTSIABASAKOS (Greece)
Production Company: KinoLab (Greece)

Since 1980, Nikos Anastasiou, a Greek travelling grocer, has been working the same route.
Once a week, accompanied by his wife Sophia, he leaves Trikala to go up into the abandoned villages in the Pindos Mountains, northern Greece, a route of 75 km by car.
In recent years, their two sons, Kostas and Thimios, help.
The documentary follows their journey during the four seasons of the year.

Dimitris Koutsiabasakos was born in 1967. He studied film and television directing at Moscow’s National Film Institute V.G.I.K.
He has made several documentaries, series, short and longer films.
Among his recent films: “Hercules, Acheloos and My Granny” (1997 30-minute documentary), “Hill 33” (1998 43 minutes), “The Guardian’s Son” (2006 98 minutes), “The Grocer” (2013 documentary 81 and 52 minutes) and “Becoming an actor” (2014 61-minute documentary).

THE DREAM OF SHARAZAD

107 minutes, 2014
Director: François VERSTER (South Africa)
Production Company: Undercurrent Film & Television (South Africa), Fireworx Media (South Africa), Middlewest Films (Egypt), Melia Films (France)

“The Dream of Shahrazad” is a documentary showing recent political events in North Africa and the Middle East through the wider historical and cultural heritage of the famous collection of stories The Arabian Nights.
Using the metaphor of Shahrazad or Scheherazade – the princess who saves lives by telling stories at night – and filmed before, during and after the Arab Spring, the documentary weaves a canvas of music, politics and storytelling to explore ways through which creativity and political commitment can oppose oppression.
A series of characters drawing their inspiration from the Arabian Nights and putting their creativity at the service of political use – like Shahrazad.

François VERSTER
D’origine sud-africaine, François VERSTER est écrivain, musicien et cinéaste.
Il a travaillé pour l’industrie du cinéma de New York et du Royaume-Uni.
Ses films se caractérisent par des approches créatives et d’observation à des questions sociales : “Sea Point Days” (2009), “The mothers’ house” (2006), “A lion’s trail” (2002) et “When the war is over” (2002), entre autres. Il enseigne le cinéma documentaire dans plusieurs universités.

PIRATES OF SALÉ

78 minutes, 2014
Réalisation : Rosa ROGERS (Royaume-Uni) et Merieme ADDOU (Maroc)
Production : Redbird Productions (Royaume-Uni)

In the town of Salé, on what used to be Morocco’s pirate coast, a new generation of pirates set off with the county’s first professional circus. The Shems’y Circus is next to the poorest slums, and every year hundreds of young people go to the auditions there, looking for a different future.
The documentary “Pirates of Salé” follows four of them who are learning to live independently, to speak freely, to defy tradition and embrace a concept totally foreign to them: artistic freedom.

Rosa ROGERS has made several documentaries, many for Channel 4 and the BBC. Her films include: “The Greatest Show on Earth”, about a deaf dancer in the Rio de Janeiro carnival; “Dragon People”, the journey of a young photographer in today’s China; “Back to Bombay”, in which a young English woman with Indian roots sets off for her first visit to her family in India; “Bangladesh – Who will Pay?”; “Pirates of Salé”, about the Shems’y Circus; and “Casablanca Calling” about the first female imams in Morocco.

Born in Morocco, Merieme ADDOU studied law at the Mohammed V University. She lives and works in Rabat as a correspondent for Radio D-W. She is also a producer with the Moroccan production company Camino Media. She has worked as correspondent for Kuwait TV and Al Jazeera International, and as a producer for ADTV, Qatar TV, BBC 2 (“The Changing Face of Islam”), BBC Radio 4, Time Magazine, the Financial Times, BBC World, SABC, National Geographic Magazine, Fox News, CNN, and Bloomberg. She produced a documentary for national Moroccan television about Orson Welles and his relationship with the town of Essaouira.
“Pirates of Salé” is her first documentary as director.

L’ACCADEMIA DELLA FOLLIA

52 minutes, 2014
Director: Anush HAMZEHIAN (Italy)
Production Company: Point du Jour, France Télévisions (France)

How is life for the mentally ill when they are not locked up?
To answer this question Anush Hamzehian made this film in Trieste, where mad people have lived in the community since the psychiatric hospital closed in 1978. Trieste has been called the “Hollywood of the Mad” because there is a group of world-famous actors, the Academy of Madness, which puts on two shows a year in the city’s most prestigious theatre. The actors of this unique company – Claudio Dario, Donatella, Charlie, Pino – are the unforgettable characters in this film.

Anush HAMZEHIAN was born in Padua, Italy, in 1980.
Having studied communication, he began his career as a video editor and director. He made: “Le città continue” (26 minutes 2004), “La dolce tragedia di Martone” (26 minutes 2008), “Appunti su Sorrentino” (26 minutes 2009), “La mano e la voce” (52 minutes, 2009), Mediterranean Art, Heritage and Cultures Award at the 2010 PriMed, “Le jardin des merveilles” (52 minutes 2011), “Les Enfants de l’Odyssée” (52 minutes 2012), “L’Accademia della Follia” (52 minutes 2014) and “Je préfère aller en enfer” (40 minutes 2014).

L’HÉRITAGE DU SILENCE

52 minutes, 2015
Director: Anna BENJAMIN (France) and Guillaume CLERE (France)
Production Company: Découpages, Toute l’Histoire (France)

Armen, Dogukan, Yasar and Nazli are Turks and Kurds. But a recent discovery has upset their existence: they are also Armenian.
In 1915, their parents or grandparents survived the genocide by hiding their true identity. Some were rescued by Turkish and Kurdish families, others went into hiding. All converted to Islam, were assimilated and forgotten.
Today, after a century of fear and silence, this history has resurfaced. Over the last ten years, more and more Turks are discovering this family secret and claiming their ancestors’ Armenian heritage. While Armenians across the world prepare to commemorate the centenary of the genocide, “L’Heritage du Silence” gives a face to these descendants of Islamised Armenians, who are probably more than a million today in Turkey .
The film follows Armen, Dogukan, Yasar and Nazli in their struggle on an inner journey through the history which was told to them and hidden from them.

Anna BENJAMIN, graduating in 2012 from Strasbourg’s school of journalism (Cuej), made this documentary having worked on several on-line current affairs sites such as LeMonde.fr, TF1 News, the TF1 and LC1 web-sites, Rue89 and LesInrocks. Co-author of two web-documentaries, “Palestiniennes, Mères Patrie” and “Etudiants en Temps de Guerre”, today she is making longer documentaries.

Guillaume CLERE was born in Singapore. He grew up in Portugal, France and the Lebanon, then studied in Latin America. He has always been fascinated by questions of identity. During his training as photojournalist at Strasbourg’s school of journalism (CUEJ), he made a transmedia documentary “I Goth My World”, broadcast on Arte, lemonde.fr and LesInrocks in October 2012. He worked for 2 years as investigative photojournalist for LCP’s État de santé. He was also cameraman on “Renaître à Bahia”, a 52-minute documentary on KTO

LE PEUPLE DE NEJMEH

52 minutes, 2015
Director: Jonathan CADIOT (France)
Production Company: Talweg Production (France), Road 2 Films (Liban), Histoire (France), Al Jazeera Documentary (Qatar), with the support of TV5 Monde (France), Radio Télévision Suisse, RSI (Switzerland), RDI Radio Canada (Canada)

In recent years, political and sectarian tensions in Lebanon have become such that the military have replaced supporters at football matches. Historically, football, politics and religion are inseparable there. Every community has a football club, each funded by a political party. In this context, Nejmeh’s club is exception. The most popular team in the country, its players and fans are of all faiths. They call themselves “the incredible people of Nejmeh”.
Tracing the club’s history shows another Lebanon and brings a new reading to the country’s religious-political history since 1945. Above all, Nejmeh seems to have resisted all crises, all wars and embodies for many the allegory of a united, ideal Lebanon.

Jonathan CADIOT
Having studied geography, specialising in developing countries, Jonathan CADIOT made his first documentaries in Latin America: “Sin maiz no hay pais” and “Par la raison ou par la force”. In both Mexico and Chile he became interested in social issues connected to the indigenous peoples. “Le Peuple de Nejmeh” is his first historical film.

LA REVOLUTION DES FEMMES – Un siècle de féminisme…

54 minutes, 2014
Director: Feriel BEN MAHMOUD (France, Tunisia)
Production Company: Drôle de Trame, with the support of France Télévisions (France)

What role have the Arab revolutions given women? As they took to the streets alongside men, women’s rights and status have un-leashed passions and political battles. Yet 50 years ago, in the wake of independence, liberation and emancipation for Arab women seemed round the corner as political leaders proclaimed they wanted freedom for all. 50 years later however, Arab women have to fight more than ever to conquer or defend their hard-won rights. What has happened? And how do Arab women manage to rattle societies padlocked by sexism and patriarchy? This film tells the story of their struggles, which began more than a century ago. From Beirut to Casablanca, passing through Riyadh, Cairo, Tunis, and Algiers, Feriel Ben Mahmoud has collected testimonies from early activists, committed artists and today’s young feminists.

An historian by training, Feriel BEN MAHMOUD, has made many reportages and a dozen documentaries for television. Her central preoccupation as a director is the Muslim-Arab world, as it is now and as it was in the past. Among her longer films is one on French military prisons at Foum Tataouine in Tunisia for France 5; “Tunisie, histoire de femmes”, also for France 5 and more recently “Tunisie, année zéro”, for the Public Sénat about the chaotic beginnings of Tunisian democracy. She is also author of several historical films: “L’Algérie coloniale”, “Le tourisme en Orient”, and “Bataillons d’Afrique”.