Filmmaker Rachid Bouchreb, based in Paris, has shared the following musings about the film with the Arab Film Festival.

AFF: Issues of race, nationhood, community and kinship lie at the heart of your films. What were your specific motivations for making London River?

BOUCHAREB: I would say that all my films are concerned with the subject of meetings between different people, from different countries and different worlds. This theme of meetings is always at the heart of my films, because the characters are always on a journey. And this phenomenon goes beyond the characters on screen to the actors themselves. I find the concept of the meeting between Sotigui Kouyaté, an African actor and Brenda Blethyn, a British actor fascinating – beyond the fact of their friendship; it’s a human connection between two people of different nationalities, religions, universes. It allows one to go beyond the cinematic encounter and affords the film a level of truth about the meeting and the different cultures of these two individuals.

AFF: Did you always have Sotigui and Brenda in mind for the parts?

BOUCHAREB: Sotigui, yes. After we made Little Senegal together, I knew I wanted to work with him again and I wrote London River with him in mind. As for Brenda, I’ve had her in mind for something ever since I saw Mike Leigh’s film Secrets and Lies. When I finally met her, she was very busy working on other projects, so I waited a year for her to be free because I knew it had to be those two for the film. They were the film.

AFF: You’ve said in a previous interview that the subjects you choose to film allow you to find yourself. Did you find yourself within London River?

BOUCHAREB: In as much as this is a film about the problem of being a Muslim in Europe, then yes, this film concerns me personally. I was living in France at the time of the World Trade Center attacks and I felt the after‐effects. Suddenly it was more difficult than ever to be an Algerian in France.

AFF: How were the bombings perceived in France at the time?

I’d compare it to the impact of the Madrid bombings in France. Really, there wasn’t much coverage in the press and I’d say that the attitude of the French population at that time was, well, I didn’t hear people talking about the attacks like I did after 9/11, not with the same sense of urgency. It was as if after the initial crisis, that is, the World Trade Center attacks, nothing could be as shocking. Nothing that came afterwards could have the same effect.

AFF: The subject matter is quite sensitive…

BOUCHAREB: I hope that people who see the film will understand that the event itself is just starting a point. My film is less about the bombings themselves and more about the meeting between these two people that takes place in their wake. That’s what was important to me, that these two people who meet are united by the same problem, which is their desire to find their children. And the story is about these two people, a man and a woman from very different backgrounds, but faced with the same fears, the same anxieties. It needed a crisis to bring them together, but that crisis could have been something else, the September 11 attacks for example.

London River is first and foremost a human drama, about how people react to events such as these, how they come together in the same place and forge a connection. Events such as the attacks of 7/7 naturally divide people, but at the same time, they also bring them together. They need one another. People have to come together in the face of such crises. It’s an obligation.

AFF: What research did you do for the film?

BOUCHAREB: The coverage we see of these events on our televisions is already very strong…we don’t need to add to it, but to give these dramas a human face. Although the film contains archive footage of the events and their real life victims, I didn’t do a lot of research into the impact of the attacks on the people who lived through them – interviews with families affected and so forth. Rather, I was interested in taking these two actors, living with them, seeing how they would approach their characters and what relationship would develop between them, their encounter.

This is what lends the film its universality. Whether I had made the film with Chinese actors, Indians, Arabs or actors from other parts of Europe, it would have been the same, concerned with these same fears, worries, dramas. I didn’t want to have to stick to the historical facts and eyewitness accounts – these things are there in the film, on the televisions we see on screen. But for the story, I wanted to go beyond that, to find something deeper.

AFF: How did you go about writing the screenplay?

BOUCHAREB: I wrote the story for the film before we started shooting, but once we started, there was some improvisation. The scenes were all there, but there were gaps that needed filling. So when Brenda’s character first arrives outside the Butcher’s shop that her daughter lives above, for example, or when she first encounters Mr. Ousmane, her response in these scenes wasn’t scripted, the gestures were completely spontaneous.

There was more improvisation still at the level of the two leads, scenes that weren’t written in advance; for example, when we see them sharing an apple, or their characters’ final parting, I couldn’t have scripted the physicality of that embrace they share, when he holds himself strong and straight like a tree while she clings onto him…just as I couldn’t have scripted the song Sotigui’s character consoles Brenda’s with – that came entirely from him. He felt the need to sing then, so he did. For me, this working method produced some of the most moving moments of the film.

AFF: There’s a beautiful physical contrast between the two actors…

BOUCHAREB: Exactly. That’s why I needed those two actors and no one else. It’s a very important element of the film. In fact, you might say it is the film.

AFF: The film has a rough, documentary aesthetic, which is quite a contrast from the polish of Indigènes…

BOUCHAREB: After the precision that Indigènes (Days of Glory) demanded, I wanted complete, absolutely complete, freedom on this film. I wanted to forget cinematic aesthetics entirely, to put aside all technical discussions. All that concerned me were the characters.

We had a district of London, two actors, 15 days and we were working day‐to‐day. There was little light, a very small team. Working like this, I was free from the obligation to spend a long time preparing scenes, rehearsing, setting up shots. It was very refreshing to work like this, with very little preparation or preamble. In fact, the week before we started shooting I was in Cannes, judging the festival competition and from there I flew straight to London to begin the film. I didn’t spend weeks in advance thinking about the film; I arrived with a clear head. And as a result, both the shoot and, I think the film, were much more spontaneous and much more intimate.

3 on 1: MASQUERADES—from Concept to Comedy

By The Global Film Initiative, on August 30th, 2011

Photo courtesy of the Arab Film Festival 

For last month’s 3 on 1 column, three GFI staffers discussed the making of BECLOUD and how the film went from grant submission to Global Lens film, as well as how the director, Alejandro Gerber Bicecci, went from respected colleague to dear friend. 

This month, in honor of our DVD release of the Algerian romantic comedy (and one-time Oscar hopeful) MASQUERADES, we’ve brought together three very special people to share their experience with the film: Director Lyes Salem, GFI Founder and Board Chair Susan Weeks Coulter and Michel Shehadeh, Executive Director of the Arab Film Festival. 

Excerpts of our conversation with each are below and although everyone comes from a different country and background, together they prove that while a film may be subject to editing, language barriers or hectic screening environments, laughter never gets lost in translation! 

Lyes Salem, director-writer-actor, on the concept behind MASQUERADES: 

Lyes Salem on the set of MASQUERADES 

As I was writing the script, I aimed at finding a balance between a surrealist depiction and an unlikely story—although I am not sure the story told in Masquerades is so unlikely! 

In a country overwhelmed with confusion, hearsay and illusion are queens: there will always be people to tell preposterous stories in order to provide themselves with a certain kind of power; and there will always be people who want to believe in these stories. 

In Masquerades, one will never know to what extent the villagers believe in the story of one of their own marrying a wealthy financier who embodies everything they don’t have: money, freedom to go wherever they wish around the world, respect….In other words, a certain idea of the consumer society; but they willingly believe in it. 

I chose to film on location, in Aurès, because there is a western-like atmosphere to it. When the cars wildly chase each other, or when Mounir is posing, I wanted the audience to think of Sergio Leone’s cowboys. 

Susan Weeks Coulter, Founder and Board Chair of GFI, on the discovery of MASQUERADES in Ouagadougou: 

Susan Weeks Coulter (right) in her temporary office at FESPACO 2009 

The best flight from San Francisco (11 hours to Paris with a five hour layover, then a five hour flight with a stop in Niger) landed me and long time Board Member Shaari Ergas in Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso) at 9pm in early March 2009. Having wanted to attend FESPACO for several years, the excitement of finally arriving eliminated any jet-lag. It was unbelievably hot and humid but quickly eased the stiff back from such a long trip. Obama has just been elected President and the welcome and high-five greetings when presenting American passports left us, as well as the custom officials, grinning from ear-to-ear. 

My task in Ouagadougou: to identify and, if possible, acquire distribution rights to one or more films that would be part of the exhibition program. 

Like most film festivals, professional “delegates” pick up credentials at a central location that is also generally a meet-and greet opportunity. The local Global Film office hours were quickly established: 5-7pm each day in the air-conditioned lobby of the Hotel Independence. “Regardez le sac jaune” or” Look for the yellow bag” became our mantra, and it worked as a way of identifying GFI within a large crowd of boisterous film folks! 

But how to concentrate on meetings in a lobby with Tuareg men in royal blue turbans, or Burkinade women with amazingly creative hairstyles and spectacularly colorful robes and hats, while communicating solely in a French dialect so unfamiliar? One just does. 

Having figured out, more or less, the lay of the land, films were identified for viewing by nation or sometimes just by location, logistics and luck. So it was for Masquerades, a film by Algerian director Lyes Salem. An afternoon viewing led to several follow up discussions in our hotel lobby office, sometimes having to resort to hand gestures to be certain we were all of a similar understanding. From my perspective, this was a film in which the cinematography was so good, I could taste the dust; the story line was unusual, the characters believable, the depth of content worthy of becoming a Global Lens film. And so, discussions concluded, with an agreement to discuss the more salient details of contracts and schedule after the festival ended. 

Michel Shehadeh, Executive Director of the Arab Film Festival, on the exhibition of MASQUERADES and the audience reaction to the film: 

A packed house for MASQUERADES on the opening night of the Arab Film Festival in San Francisco. Photo courtesy of the Arab Film Festival 

When I first heard about the film Masquerades, I thought to myself what kind of a film could have such a name. In Arabic, masquerades, pronounced maskhara, is a word that means silliness, or absurdity, or a similar emotion. I don’t know if the origin of the word is Arabic or a Latin derivative. I had to see it. The name gave me no clue of what to expect, so I went in with no expectations. And boy, I was taken by the story, the actors, the humor, the multi-layered meanings and symbolism. This film has it all. We decided to have it as our Opening Night film for the 14th Arab Film Festival and what a hit it was! More than a thousand people attended. Everyone I spoke with loved it. The Q&A with the filmmaker Lyes Salem was brilliant. The consensus was that Maquerades was one of our most successful opening night films. If films are magic, Masquerades made our opening night magical. 

Ever since, we have used the film in many screenings and are happy to introduce people to Arabs through their comedy. Audiences identified easily with the Arab humor despite the subtitles. I speak Arabic but don’t understand the Algerian dialect so I was reading subtitles also, but didn’t stop laughing. Instantly language barriers disappeared, and everyone spoke one language—the language of film. 

MASQUERADES is available on DVD through the Global Film Initiative’s film catalogue. It was originally presented in theaters as part of Global Lens 2010 along with nine other films from around the world—click here to read more about this and other new releases! 

What do you do if your name is Ahmed Ahmed and it matches that of a terrorist – so every time you’re at an airport, the authorities double check on you?

This is a joke that Egyptian American standup comedian Ahmed Ahmed likes to tell every time he’s on stage. You can hear it along with many others in his directorial debut, the documentary Just Like Us (2010).

In October 2010 at the Doha Tribeca Film Festival, Ahmed premiered the 72-minute documentary of his tour across the Middle East. It scored great success among audience and critics alike.

After touring a number of festivals, Just Like Us finally premiered last week in New York, before its commercial release. Negotiations are underway with Egyptian distributors to screen the film soon in local cinemas.

Stand-up comedy is a performing art that’s not strange to Egyptians. In the old days, Ismail Yasin and now Hamada Sultan perform social commentary songs and jokes. In Egypt, we call them monologists. In the US, stand-up comedy is a widely popular performing art, due to the presence of comedy clubs as well as channels like Comedy Central and TV shows like Saturday Night Live. All of these were the fuel for discovering new comic talents, launching the careers of Steve Martin, Bill Murray, Eddie Murphy and Jim Carrey.

The story of Just Like Us started a few years ago when Ahmed decided to make a comedy tour with his gang of stand-up performers in Cairo, Beirut, Dubai and Riyadh.

At the last minute, Ahmed took along a digital camera and shot everything from performances to backstage encounters, interviews with fans and even family gatherings. In his family’s house, Ahmed’s father tells us why he immigrated to the US in the ’70s without speaking a word of English.

Just Like Us, which targets a Western audience, is meant to negate misconceptions about Arabs having little sense of humor. In fact, they’re “just like us,” the film shows – “us” meaning Westerners.

The film also targets various taboos in Arab countries.

In Egypt, Ahmed was forbidden to comment about the former Mubarak regime. In Lebanon, he was asked not to tell jokes about religion or the military. He was censored and prevented from entering Dubai for a year for telling a joke about how Dubai has contradictory lifestyles, with nightclub music beats and adhan(meaning the call for prayer) heard back-to-back.

Ahmed and his gang should be credited for even daring to perform in Saudi Arabia, a country that still doesn’t have cinemas or theatrical performances. In fact, the comedians identified themselves during the visit as “consultants,” revealing the challenge of being funny without the crutches of sex, politics or religion. During his visit to Riyadh, he even discovered some Saudi talents, young men and women who wanted to venture into the comic genre.

Obviously, Ahmed inherited his sense of humor from his father, who throws jokes at everyone and everything. At the end of the movie, we see Ahmed Senior holding a Canada Dry bottle and saying, “A few moments ago, it was wet!” We also see Ahmed’s personal journey and how he and many others have been using comedy to break down stereotypes about Arabs and Middle Easterners.

Ahmed studied at the Academy of Dramatic Art in Pasadena, California. Before focusing on live performances, he got some roles in films, although he was typically cast as a terrorist. Since 2000, he’s been performing regularly at The Comedy Store in Los Angeles.

Ahmed was one of the members of the 2005 Axis of Evil comedy tour that tried to use comedy to deal with the difficulties of being an Arab in post-9/11 America. In addition to Ahmed, the gang featured Palestinian-Americans Aron Kader and Dean Obeidallah as well as Iranian-American Maz Jobrani. In 2007, they were given their own Comedy Central Special.

But instead of being weighed down with sentimentality, Just Like Us is a perfect blend of laughter and tenderness. Through his new production and distribution company, Cross Cultural Entertainment, Ahmed has been promoting the new film and producing a sequel to Just Like Us.

By Mohsen Hosni

When the International Federation of Film Producers Associations (FIAPF) approved the cancellation of the 2011 Cairo International Film Festival due to security concerns, anxiety spread that this would damage the festival’s reputation. Some feared that another country would seize the opportunity to usurp the festival’s status.

Founded in 1976 and classified by the FIAPF as one of 12 A-list film festivals worldwide, this year’s event was scheduled to coincide with Egypt’s parliamentary elections.

Moneib Shafie, chairman of Egypt’s Chamber of Cinema Industry (CCI) and Egypt’s representative to the FIAPF, countered concerns in a statement to Al-Masry Al-Youm. “I would like to assure everyone that Cairo International Film Festival will not be relegated to a lower status, and no other country will hold the festival in Cairo’s place.”

He said reassurances were made during a FIAPF meeting, which coincided with the Cannes Film Festival, and stressed that that Egypt’s relationship with the FIAPF is good.

He favored the idea of cancellation, the first in the festival’s history. “It is inappropriate to hold the festival this year in light of security chaos, the counter-revolution and 800 deaths,” he said, also mentioning the recent sectarian violence.

He expressed a hope that young people will continue producing films in the same way they helped produce the 25 January revolution, so Egyptian cinema can preserve its global prestige.

“Egypt’s participation in Cannes Festival was not out of political courtesy. Rather, it stemmed from international attention and recognition of Egypt’s innovative filmmaking.” He pointed out that Egypt began producing films after France in the late 19th century, and preceded many countries that now have extensive experience.

“If France honored us this year, then we should be proud and we should not reject the honor,” he said. “France honors Egyptian and Tunisian cinema, but there is difference between this and that, and our Tunisian brothers recognize this. It is simply that Egypt has a 100-year history of filmmaking.”

But Shafie admitted that Egypt’s participation at Cannes did not reach the level expected from a country with such extensive experience.

“I hope future participation would be much better, but the recession, which affected every aspect of life in Egypt including politics, economy, culture and arts, affected Egyptian cinema as well. But I believe Egyptian cinema will change post-revolution.”

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The Ministry of Culture announced Wednesday that it would cancel the Cairo International Film Festival this year due to the country’s political and economic instability.

In a statement, the ministry canceled the 35th annual film festival and said the festival would resume next year, referring to parliamentary and presidential elections scheduled for this fall. The culture minister also called on the National Cinema Center to review all of Egypt’s cinematic events and make a plan, according to which international and national festivals would be organized and financially supported.

First held in 1976, the Cairo International Film Festival is considered one of the ten most important such events worldwide. Ezzat abu Ouf, who has presided over the festival since 2007, said in March that it would be difficult to hold the festival in November as scheduled due to unrest and the lack of sponsors.

“It would be hard if 560 guests from around the world came to Egypt in such a state of insecurity. Any problem may provoke a crisis,” Ouf said.

Translated from the Arabic Edition

The story of the fall of former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak has transformed from a political event into a thrilling movie story.

Egyptian newspaper “Al Messa” announced that film director Mohamed Al Sahar is planning a short documentary about former president Mubarak, addressing his career before and after the presidency, as well as reflecting on important decisions, his personality and thoughts.

The director preferred not to specify a budget for it, because he expects it to grab the attention of film festivals and satellite television.

Al Sahar also recently finished filming his documentary “Mosh Mohim El Enwan” (The Title Isn’t Important) about national unity between Egyptians, at a cost of USD $25,000 dollars.

The movie was criticized for resembling the concept of the movie “Hassan Wa Murkus” by actor Adel Emam, but the director defended himself and his movie, particularly as it is not a comedy like the Emam film.

Warner Bros and Universal Studios contracted with the Tunisian producer Tarak Ben Ammar for the production of the movie starring Antonio Banderas entitled “Black Gold”.

Warner Bros and Universal Studios contracted with the Tunisian producer Tarak Ben Ammar for the production of the movie starring Antonio Banderas entitled “Black Gold”.

A 55-million-dollar budget was allocated for the production of the movie, in which Antonio Banderas plays the leading role together with the Algerian Tahir Rahim and the Indian star Freida Pinto.

The film revolves around a conflict between two fictional kingdoms in the Arabian Desert, and a big war breaks out between them because of oil. This is the first film dealing with the Arabian Desert and tribal life fully after the famous movie “Lawrence of Arabia” directed by David Lane more than half a century ago.

The film is adapted from the classic novel “The Great Thirst” by the Swiss writer Hans Ruesch published in 1957. The events of the novel occur during the 1930′s in a fictional place in one of the Arab areas in the desert where tribes are fighting for oil.

The movie will be directed by the famous French filmmaker Jean-Jacques Annaud after having nominated the famous Algerian director Lakhdar Hamina. The script for the movie is written by the American Mino Magis who has previously worked with director Steven Spielberg.

POMEGRANATES AND MYRRH (AL MOR WA AL RUMMAN) BY NAJWA NAJJAR
c. 2009

Starring:
Hiam Abbass
Ali Suleiman
Yasmine Al Massri
and Introducing
Ashraf Farah

Synopsis:
Dancer Kamar’s joyful wedding to Zaid is followed almost immediately by Zaid’s imprisonment in an Israeli jail for refusing to give up his land. Free-spirited Kamar wants to support her husband and be a dutiful wife but struggles with the idea of giving up dance and her own dreams. Matters are complicated when a new dance instructor, Kais, returns to the studio after many years in Lebanon and takes a special interest in Kamar. She struggles to deal with the weight of Kais’s attention, which brings to the surface her attempts to balance her own desires with her duties as the wife of a prisoner.

The film has screened at over 70 festivals including Sundance, Rotterdam, Edinburgh, Warsaw, Cairo etc.. and won 10 international awards is now available for institutional purchase.

Contact Hani Kort at pomegranates.myrrh@yahoo.com

Press:

Romantic elements, first-rate acting and an unusual pedigree could make tyro helmer Najwa Najjar’s heartfelt drama a specialty hit, particularly in the proper hands….As happens with the best political films, the politics themselves are almost incidental. (Was “To Kill a Mockingbird” primarily about racism, or Scout? Was “Reds” about the Bolsheviks?) “Pomegranates and Myrrh” isn’t obsessed with the political circumstances in which its story is set; it’s concerned with people. But the fact that everything that happens to these people happens because of the untenable politics surrounding them makes for a scathing critique.
-John Anderson VARIETY REVIEW

Pomegranates And Myrrh is both accessible and remarkably well-made – not just for a film from this region, but anywhere. The director has a strong and seductive voice, and undoubtedly we’ll be hearing it again.
-Screen International Fionnuala Halligan

‘Myrrh’ spices up San Sebastian …Pomegranates,” Najwa Najjar’s warm, well-crafted portrait of a Palestinian dancer attempting to establish a life for herself after her husband is slammed in a detention center, won most of the cash prizes” – John Hopkins Variety

” **** 100% worth a look ……The debut film from Palestinian director Najwa Najjar, Pomegranates and Myrrh is a quiet and internally emotional drama that succeeds by interweaving the daily struggles of the typical Palestinian life in Israel with an engaging tale about courage over adversity ” - Slyder efilmcritic

“Film helps people see strangers as brothers”
- USA Today

“Pomegranates and Myrrh raised a controversy among Palestinian liberals and conservatives “ – Wafa Amr Reuters

“Najwa Najjar’s heartfelt Palestinian romance, which won the Best Arab Film award at Doha, works in deceptive ways. Although its central story, about a newlywed couple whose life is upended by the Israeli army, is fraught with political overtones, the film remains fixed — both spiritually and visually — on its main characters, allowing character psychology to help reveal political realities, instead of vice versa.”
-Bilge Ebiri, New Yorker Magazine

“Deftly balancing human drama with a social conscience, Najjar imbues her characters with an emotional depth that feels remarkably authentic. “Pomegranates and Myrrh” …does create a sensitive portrait of a culture whose members are often shackled by different forms of oppression. The film’s vision of Palestine as a community brimming with life is embodied by Najjar’s seasoned screenwriting and cinematographer Valentina Caniglia’s delicate framings of faces and cityscapes; each performance is first-rate, especially that of Abbass, whose charismatic screen presence allows her to shine even in a relatively low-key supporting role.”
-David LuiThe Daily Californian

Trailer for film: Pomegranates and Myrrh

Fabulous Picture Show July 4, 2009 on Pomegranates and Myrrh

Facebook group for Pomegranates and Myrrh
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=11000944879&ref=ts

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