1. FAMILY ALBUMS in Clermont-Ferrand
2. MY NAME IS NOT ALI in Windhoek/Namibia
3. FIDAI in Heidelberg
4. LEAVING BAGHDAD in Benghazi/Libya
5. DVD of the month – MAKE A WISH
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1. FAMILY ALBUMS in Clermont-Ferrand

We are happy to announce that the collective documentary FAMILY ALBUMS (Mawsem Hisad) by Nassim Amaouche, Mais Darwazeh, Erige Sehiri and Sameh Zoabi is currently showing at the International Short Film Festival in Clermont-Ferrand as a short film program. Nassim Amauche’s part “En terrain connu” is part of the national competition at the festival.

Content
Identity is our legacy and not our inheritance; our invention and not our memory. (Mahmoud Darwich)
Questioning the Poet’s sentence about identity and transmission, four filmmakers draw up a sensitive portrait of the Arab world, driven by their own concerns, composed by their daily and intimate life, in four different places. In Kabylia, Nassim Amaouche digs with his father in the rubble of the family home bombed in 1957 searching for his father’s lost childhood or a new start between both men.
Erige Sehiri too, must rediscover her father. It seems that the Tunisian revolution and his new addiction to Facebook drived him away. He even left his family and went back to his small Tunisian village.
In the case of Ahmad, Sameh Zoabi’s childhood friend, Facebook doesn’t measure up. This handsome 35 years old guy is still single, a quite problematic situation in this little Palestinian village of northern Israel. As his mother gave up to find him a wife, Sameh decides to take it over.
Mais Darwazeh also lives alone. In Amman, a city of uprooted people, she builds her own identity by gathering around her table close friends, chosen ingredients, and old recipies.

Nassim Amaouche, Mais Darwazah, Erige Sehiri, Sameh Zoabi, France/Palestine/UAE 2012, 82 min, digital, Arabic/Berber/French/English with English, French or Arabic subtitles
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2. MY NAME IS NOT ALI in Windhoek/Namibia

Viola Shafik’s feature length documentary MY NAME IS NOT ALI (Jannat Ali) is having it’s Namibian premiere in Windhoek on February 23rd, 2013.

content
His anti-racist film “Ali – Fear Eats Soul” (Original title “Angst Essen Seele Auf”), 1973, gained German director Rainer Werner Fassbinder international acclaim. The protagonist, an Arab foreign worker, was played by Moroccan El Hedi Ben Salem M’barek Mohammed Mustafa, Fassbinder’s lover at that time. Collage-like, through interviews of his colleagues, family and archive material, the film courageously deals with the racism of post-war German society, the complexity of the real El Hedi Ben Salem – victim vs ambivalent aggressor – and the invention by the Fassbinder troupe, an image not revised by most of its members till today.
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3. FIDAI in Heidelberg

Damien Ounouri’s award winning feature documentary FIDAI fwatured at the Mediterranean Film Days in Heidelberg last week. The mec film co-production is open in German theatres in May.

Content
During the Algerian revolution, my great-uncle joined his sister in France and integrated a secret FLN armed group. Settling of scores, attempted murder, hiding, imprisonment and finally expulsion in 1962, his personal journey tells the story of countless ex-fighters for Algerian independence, and echoes the current effervescence of the Arab World. Today, at the age of seventy, El Hadi reveals this dark part of his life.
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4. LEAVING BAGHDAD in Benghazi/Libya

Koutaiba al-Janabi’s LEAVNG BAGHDAD was invited to participate at Arab Screen Independent Film Festival in Benghazi later this month. Koutaiba al-Janabi will be present a the festival and teach a workshop to young Libyan directors.

Content
Baghdad in the early 2000s: Sadik, a personal cameraman to Saddam Hussein escapes Iraq. Hoping to join his estranged wife in London, he traverses several countries, is passed on from one smuggler to the next. The disappearance of his son, who did not share his father’s enthusiasm for the regime, and scenes Sadik had filmed for work, haunt him alike whilst he tries to find his way out of the omnipresent and tormenting shadows of the regime.
As footage shot by fictional Sadik, Koutaiba Al-Janabi weaves real footage from Saddam Hussein’s now accessible archive into his documentary style, slow paced fiction.
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5. DVD of the month – MAKE A WISH

Very moving and thought provoking. The Austin Chronicle

Content
A young Palestinian girl will do whatever it takes to buy a birthday cake. Eleven year-old Mariam begs her mother for the extra money she needs to buy a cake at the local bakery. Her mother begrudgingly relents, but when Mariam arrives at the bakery, she realizes that she still doesn't have enough. Determined to get the cake, she sets out to brave the obstacles and land some cash. What begins as a simple trip to the bakery turns into a journey that depicts not only the subtle tensions of a politically charged environment, but also illustrates the grief that can result from growing up under occupation.

Cherien Dabis, Palestine 2006, fiction, shortfilm, 12 min, Arabic
Subtitles: English (EAN: 4280000025098) or Spanish (EAN: 42800000025128)
PAL, region free, English on stock, Spanish on demand, delivery within 14 days

Awards
Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival - Prix de la Presse; Mention Spéciale du Jury
Aspen Shortsfest - Special Jury Award; BAFTA Award for Excellence
Dubai International Film Festival - Gold Muhr Award for Best Short Film
Cairo International Film Festival for Children - Ministry of Culture’s Golden Prize for Best Short Film & Bronze Cairo for Best Short Film
Arab Film Festival Rotterdam - Silver Hawk Award for Best Short Film
Big Bear Lake International Film Festival - Jury Award, Best Family Film
Chicago International Children’s Film Festival – Liv Ullmann Peace Prize & Certificate of Excellence

Institutional rights: according to the rights you whish to acquire and your territory the fee varies, please place your order at info@mecfilm.de
Price 10,-€
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