BULAQ

BULAQ
26 minutes, 2011
Director : Davide MORANDINI et Fabio LUCCHINI (Italy)
Production : Rossellini Film & TV, One People Film (Italy)

 

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Bulaq is a district in the historic centre of Cairo. For thirty years the people living there have been fighting the Egyptian government who want to take the area over to build tourism infrastructures. The January 25th Revolution gave them hope… But the situation remains uncertain.

 

Fabio LUCCHINI is a young researcher in social anthropology and the anthropology of Islam at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris.
He is also a freelance writer and director. He was cameraman and photography assistant on “Rototom Sunsplash” in 2009. “Bulak” is his first film.

A young freelance journalist, working in both Rome and London, Davide MORANDINI has written for several international online magazines such as Frontline Club London or Il Sole 24 Ore. During his stay in Egypt, he worked as a photojournalist for the Egyptian periodical Bikya Masr. He is a graduate of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies, specializing in the Middle East. “Bulak” is his first film.

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SARAJEVO MON AMOUR

SARAJEVO MON AMOUR
52 minutes, 2011
Director : Frédéric TONOLLI (France)
Production : Sunset Presse (France)

 

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Bosko Bric, a Serb, and Admira Ismic, a Bosnian Muslim, are ready to brave all dangers to be with each other. Only seven kilometres separate them, but in besieged Sarajevo there are no more trams, so they travel there and back on foot, by turns, under the shells and shrapnel. On May 18th 1993 they left the city and, hand in hand set off across the Verbania bridge. No more than a few metres without cover, but they won’t make it. Several bullets hit them. He falls first. She, in a final effort crawls towards the body of her lover. They were 25 years old and been in love with each other for 10 years.

 

Born in 1959, Frederick TONOLLI has been a cameraman and director for over twenty years. He has filmed and directed numerous documentaries for public television channels and collaborated on programmes such as “Faut pas rêver”, “Thalassa” and “Envoyé spécial”. Many of his documentaries have received awards, including the Prix Albert Londres. Recently he has made the following films: “Les dernières chasses des seigneurs de Béring”, “Le secret des sept soeurs” and “Sarajevo mon amour”.

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MÉDITERRANÉE, UNE SOUPE DE PLASTIQUE

MÉDITERRANÉE, UNE SOUPE DE PLASTIQUE
32 minutes, 2011
Director : Sophie LE GALL (France);
Production : Ligne de Mire Production (France)

 

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Could pollution from plastic contaminate the food chain and therefore arrive on our plates? The situation in the Mediterranean is particularly worrying since it is a closed sea, its waters only completely renewed once every hundred years. In addition there is a very strong human pressure on the Mediterranean. Scientists, citizens, fishermen are now blowing the whistle on this increasingly worrying pollution by plastic.

 

Having graduated from Sciences Po in Lyon and with an MA in political science from the Sorbonne, Sophie LE GALL went to the Centre de Formation des Journalistes. She began as a reporter for France 2 and France 3, then Point du Jour. Then she joined M6’s news magazine teams. She has made countless film reports, but also a dozen documentaries, the most recent being “Du poison dans l’eau du robinet” (90 minutes, 2010); “Mauvaises Ondes” (90 minutes, 2011); “L’école, une rentrée en question”; and “Nadine Morano, la groupie du président” (30 minutes, 2011).

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LE MARTYRE DES SEPT MOINES DE TIBHIRINE

LE MARTYRE DES SEPT MOINES DE TIBHIRINE
75 minutes, 2012
Directors : Malik AIT–AOUDIA (Algeria) et Séverine LABAT (France)
Production : Peacock Productions (France)

 

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For the first time, with the rigor of a criminal investigation, based on verifiable facts and exclusive testimonies repeatedly corroborated by heads of the GIA (Groupe islamique armé), senior officers of the Algerian army, members of French and Algerian governments and members of the intelligence services on both sides of the Mediterranean, “Le martyre des sept moines de Tibhirine” reveals in “World in Action” style the underside of a drama that continues to haunt the world’s conscience.

 
Malik AIT–AOUDIA is journalist, director and producer. In 1997 he made “Gouverner c’est choisir!” for ARTE. Subsequently, he worked as a writer for shows such as “De quoi j’me mêle” and “Mots croisés”. At the same time he was making documentaries about delinquent crime and justice for minors, for street children…
Passionate about, consumed by the Arab world, particularly Algeria, he has made many films on the subject, including “Autopsie d’une tragédie : Algérie 1988-2000”. In 2006, he created a production company Peacock in Algeria and France.

Séverine LABAT is a CNRS researcher and a film-maker. She studied political science, and since 1997 has worked at the Paris branch of the CNRS / CADIS as a specialist in urban violence in France, in the Arab World (Algeria, Palestine), and human migration. In 2003 she won the FIGRA Best Investigation Award for co-directing the film ” Vol AF 8969, Paris-Alger : histoire secrète d’un détournement”.

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ISLAM RADICAL : LES DJIHADISTES EN EMBUSCADE

ISLAM RADICAL : LES DJIHADISTES EN EMBUSCADE
52 minutes, 2012
Director : Kamal REDOUANI (France);
Production : Tac Presse (France)

 

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They define themselves as Salafi jihadists, similar to those who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan. Yesterday in hiding or in jail, today they want to hijack the Arab revolutions. From Tunisia to Syria, via Libya and Lebanon, this film uncovers the strategy of radical Islamists who are trying to establish themselves as successors to the deposed dictators..

 

Kamal REDOUANI was a reporter for RFI from 1996 to 2004. He made more than a hundred radio documentaries and reports from all round the world, then chose to move into television. Recently he made “Retour au Bled” about returning to one’s home country. He was in Tunis when Ben Ali was thrown out and decided to go to meet the young rebels of the Arab world. He made two films about that: “Jeunesse marocaine : l’appel au changement” and “La jeunesse de Bab el Oued”. Then he went to the Turkish- Syrian border and made a film diary for France 3 about the opponents of Bashar al- Assad’s regime, and the portrait of a writer who, by the force of circumstance, has become the revolution’s poet.

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WE ARE HERE

WE ARE HERE
52 minutes, 2012
Director : Abdallah YAHYA (Tunisia)
Production : Perspective Production (Tunisia)

 

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“We are here” is a documentary film about how several young people searched for a way out of their dark reality to find positive energy. In a Tunis suburb a group of young rappers try to make their voices heard in songs reflecting their daily suffering. Elsewhere a group of school students show solidarity by taking a citizens’ initiative …

 

Abdallah YAHYA was born in Gafsa (Tunisia) in 1979. He studied at the Manouba Higher Institute of Multimedia Arts. He was assistant director on various series and telefilms for Tunisian television and on foreign film and television productions. He has directed several clips and commercials. “We are here” is his first documentary.

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SACRED STONES

SACRED STONES
52 minutes, 2012
Réalisation : Muayad ALAYAN et Laila HIGAZI (Palestine)
Production : Palcine Productions (Palestine)

 

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Natural stone is often seen as Palestine’s “white gold”, because it is the Territory’s most requested raw material. But what the stone industry produces is largely requisitioned for Israeli needs – which includes the illegal settlements in Palestinian territory. In the villages, towns and refugee camps, the stone is hacked out at incredible speed, causing serious ecological, social and health problems. The only response Palestinian citizens get to their complaints is heavy Israeli repression, the indifference of international organizations or the denial of Palestinian authorities, powerless in the face of changes in the industry.

 
Muayad ALAYAN is a Palestinian director and cameraman. Having studied film in San Francisco he returned to Palestine and now lives in Jerusalem. He made a short film “Lesh Sabreen?” which has been selected by several festivals. He teaches film at the Dar Al Kalima College in Bethlehem.

Laila HIGAZI is a biologist. Having studied at the Vrije Universiteit van Brussel, she moved to Jerusalem where she trained as a documentary film-maker. She coordinates several environmental projects on the West Bank.

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LIVING SKIN

LIVING SKIN
48 minutes, 2010
Director : Fawzi SALEH (Egypt)
Production : AlBatrik Art Production (Egypt)

 

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Watching children working in a leather tannery in Cairo we discover the inhuman conditions which the people who live and work in the tanneries have to endure, surrounded by very dangerous chemicals, harmful to man and the environment.

 

Fawzi SALEH is a script-writer, filmmaker and Human Rights activist. He obtained a degree in script-writing at the Cairo Film Institute in 2009 and a Masters in history at the Suez Canal University in 2003. He has collaborated on several documentary films, drama films, TV series and sitcoms.
In 2006 he made a short film “Mocha”, and now the documentary “Living Skin”.

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ICH LIEBE DICH

ICH LIEBE DICH
75 minutes, 2012
Director : Emine Emel BALCI (Turkey)
Production : Unafilm (Allemagne), Motiva Film (Turkey), ZDF (Germany)

 

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“Ich Liebe Dich” is a film about love and expectation. It shows us the life of peasant women in one of the most remote, impoverished regions of Turkey who dream of learning German. According to the new German law on immigration, to obtain a visa they have to prove they have a basic knowledge of the language. If they want to join their husbands in Germany, these women must work hard to learn the language of Goethe.

 

Emine Emel BALCI was born in 1984. She studied film and television at Istanbul’s Mimar Sinan University of Fine Arts. Having worked as an assistant director and scriptwriter, she began shooting her own films: the documentary “Gölun Kadınları – Women of the Lake” and a short drama film “Bekleyiş – The Waiting”.

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YASMINA & MOHAMMED

63 minutes, 2012
Réalisation : Régine ABADIA (France)
Production : La Huit (France)

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Yasmina Khadra’s story is rather unusual. Her life is an epic. This best-selling authoress, whose early novels are set against the background of the Algerian civil war of the 1990’s, is in fact a man. His real name is Mohammed Moulessehoul. An Algerian army officer, he fought the Islamist wave which plunged Algeria into a bloodbath. He spent his sleepless nights writing novels which were published under a pseudonym made up of his wife’s two first names. As a sort of road movie between Algeria and France, this film unfolds as a journey through Yasmina Khadra’s work, his complex personality, and his life story which has been mixed up with the great History of Algeria since independence.

Régine ABADIA made her first short film “Premier Outrage” in 1985. She then made several short and medium-length drama films, including “Les Bêtes”. For the last fifteen years, she has made documentaries, the most recent being: “Yasmina & Mohammed”, “Jenny Bel’Air”, “La tête à l’envers” and “Pourquoi marcher quand on peut rouler?”. She is also a photographer.

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