Most recent articles
Posted on 17 June 2019
Short of the Week: The Boy and The Sea by Samer Ajouri
by carrieThis entrancing, hypnotising and moving animation is now available to watch online!
Once upon a time there was a boy who had joy in drawing the sea. One day, into the bottom of the sea he dove, in hope of escaping war and misery.
The story did not begin with the worldwide TV snatched image of the Syrian child Elan, thrown on the Turkish shores by the waves, and it definitely did not end with it.
Once upon a time there was a boy who had joy in drawing the sea.
One day, into the bottom of (...) Continue Reading »
Posted on 11 June 2019
Knife + Heart (Un couteau dans le coeur) by Yann Gonzalez - Fragments 2019
by Abla KandalaftYou And The Night, celebrated at Cannes’s Critics’ Week in 2014, cemented Yann Gonzalez’s reputation as a truly original director, with his own brand of stylish, colourful and erotic filmmaking. With Knife+Heart, Gonzalez offers up a stylised slasher flick in the vein of Italian gialli, set in the heart of the gay porn industry in the seedier parts of 1970s Paris.
The film opens with a particularly gruesome murder in which a masked killer stabs his victim repeatedly with a dildo-shaped knife. (...) Continue Reading »
Posted on 10 June 2019
Searching Eva by Pia Hellenthal - Fragments 2019
by Ania D. Brett, Coco GreenSearching Eva does not use titular character, Eva Collé, as a metaphor for Generation Z taken for granted intersectionality and ‘always on’ social media. Eva’s identity laundry list and reluctance to ‘be’ a gender, culture or nationality is simply context. Its probe into her life through social media posts and vignettes is simply the setup. The true offering of this documentary is its reflection on perception and presentation. In the age of social media, whose domination isn’t limited to just one (...) Continue Reading »
Posted on 4 June 2019
Normal by Adele Tulli - Fragments 2019
by Abla KandalaftNormal is an experimental, non-fiction work, a series of observational vignettes displaying mundane actions carried out by men and women in Italy. Mum and baby fitness classes, hen dos, multiplayer video game sessions, performances of the rites of passage into adulthood that mark a woman’s femininity and a man’s masculinity. The film plays out chronologically. We start off with snapshots of kids undergoing their own initiations into their lives as a grown woman (having her ears pierced) and (...) Continue Reading »
Posted on 30 May 2019
Short of the Week - Oksijan by Edward Watts
by Abla KandalaftEdward Watts’s powerful, claustrophobic short Oksijan is available to watch for a week as part of BBC Arabic’s Cinema Badila’s Cannes 2019 episode, at 29 min in. The short is followed by an interview with Edward Watts.
This independent short film, based on an incredible true story, follows a seven-year old Afghan refugee’s battle to survive as he is smuggled to the UK in the back of a refrigerated lorry and the air inside begins to run (...) Continue Reading »
Posted on 25 May 2019
Arab presence in Cannes 2019
by Mydylarama teamThe 72nd Cannes Film Festival kicked off on Tuesday with its own brand of pomp and circumstance. Following a strong 2018 edition of the festival for Arab filmmakers, the 2019 line-up proved equally impressive.
In the Un Certain Regard competition - headed by Lebanese filmmaker Nadine Labaki, whose Capernaum won the Jury Prize last year - is Adam by Moroccan filmmaker Maryam Touzani. The film, starring the ubiquitous and charismatic Lubna Azabal, is the story of a life-changing encounter (...) Continue Reading »
Posted on 25 May 2019
Interview with Aung Rakhine, director of The Last Post Office
by Abla KandalaftInterview with Bangladeshi filmmaker Aung Rakhine about his short film "The Last Post Office", a stunning, dream-like short with a entrancing soundtrack selected as part of the 2019 International Competition at the Clermont-Ferrand International Film Festival. A video directed by the students of the ARFIS École, in collaboration with Brasserie du Court and Mydylarama.
On the edge of Bangladesh, between mountains and water, stands a post-office, the only sign of civilization. It has a (...) Continue Reading »
Posted on 18 May 2019
Interview with Jian Luo, director of What Do You Know About the Water and the Moon
by Abla Kandalaft, brasserieducourt.comInterview with the Chinese filmmaker Jian Luo about her short film What do you Know About the Water and the Moon? selected as part of the 2019 International Competition at Clermont-Ferrand. A video directed by the students of the ARFIS École in collaboration with the Brasserie du Court and Mydylarama.
During an attempted abortion, a girl gives birth to a live jellyfish.
A magic realist film that’s both hypnotic and troubling from a very promising and original young director.
More on Jian (...) Continue Reading »
Posted on 13 May 2019
Interview with Yann Berlier & Lola Cambourieu, directors of Automne Malade
by brasserieducourt.comInterview with Yann Berlier & Lola Cambourieu about their short film Automne Malade selected as part of the 2019 National Competition (F5 programme) at the Clermont-Ferrand Film Festival. A video directed by the students of the ARFIS École in collaboration with the Brasserie du Court and Mydylarama.
Troubled by her mother’s sickness, Milène leaves Paris to prepare her exams. Seeking calm on a farm in the Auvergne, she struggles to concentrate. The surrounding countryside and her encounter (...) Continue Reading »
Posted on 1 May 2019
Woman at War by Benedikt Erlingsson - Q&A
by Abla KandalaftBenedikt Erlingsson is an Icelandic director, author and actor. His first feature, Of Horses and Men, was a hit on the festival circuit and won many international awards, including the New Directors Prize at the 2013 San Sebastián Film Festival and the 2014 Nordic Council Film Prize. His latest film, Woman at War, tells the story of Halla, an environmental activist fighting the local aluminum industry in Iceland through acts of sabotage, some of them large-scale enough to become the focus (...) Continue Reading »
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