The Carthage Cinematographic Days (JCC), the most anticipated Tunisian cultural event of the year, start in three days.
It is obvious that I do not know all the fiction films which are scheduled this year at the JCC, but I have seen some of them, being a member of the commission which selected the Tunisian feature and short fiction films for the official JCC competition and by participating in the 74th edition of the Cannes Festival andth Edition of the El Gouna Film Festival.
In official competition, it is absolutely necessary to see the three Tunisian films, that is ::
- Insurrection by Jilani Saadi.
A caricature, both very funny and sad, of Tunisia and Tunisians. No one is spared and all will recognize themselves!
Synopsis:
A night of insurrection in Tunis. A madness took hold of the Tunis capital and its periphery. Nothing works anymore and the streets are delivered to the confrontation between police officers and demonstrators.
- Butterfly from Abdelhamid Bouchnak.
Abdelhamid Bouchnak immerses us in his particular universe and will share with us his feelings and his sufferings. He also proves, his great talent as a director.
Synopsis:
Moez, thirty -something policeman with the bloody past, meets a little boy with whom he undertakes a fantastic journey …
Synopsis
Ahmed, 18, French of Algerian origin, grew up in the Parisian suburbs. On the benches of college, he meets Farah, a young Tunisian full of freshly landed energy in Paris. While discovering a corpus of sensual and erotic Arab literature from which he did not suspect existence, Ahmed falls very in love with this girl.
Also in the official competition, you have to see the two Egyptian films:
- Feathers/feathers From Omar El Zohairy.
Feathers won 7 prizes at various festivals, including two at the Cannes Film Festival: the Grand Prix of the Critics Week and the Fipresci Prize for International Criticism, parallel section, and one at the El Gouna Film Festival: L’Etoile d’El Gouna for the best Arab fiction film.
During his first in Egypt, this film was the subject of a very great controversy, some believing that it undermines the image of Egypt by showing extreme poverty which would no longer exist in the country.
Feathers is a very singular film, which you can love or hate. But it deserves to be seen, for the particular universe of the director, and above all his very personal way of expressing himself.
Synopsis:
A magic tour is wrong during the birthday of a passive mother’s son. The magician transforms her authoritarian husband into a hen. She has no choice but to assume the role of family head, while doing everything to find her husband. Struggling to survive with her children, she gradually becomes an independent and strong woman.
- Amira of Mohamed Diab.
Selected at the 78th edition of the Venice Festival in September 2021, in the Horizons section, Amira won three prizes there: the price of the magic lantern, the interfilm prize and the Cict-Unesco prize “Enrico Fulchignoni”.
Amira is the 3rd film by director Mohamed Diab, after Bus women 678 (2010) and Clash (2016) who had opened the Un certain Look selection at the Cannes Film Festival. Although the realization is classic and the fall is a little rushed and leaves an unfinished taste, it is a beautiful film, which gives us an overview of the Calvary suffered by the Palestinian prisoners in Israel in their family relationships. Ali Sulaiman, in the role of the dad is sublime.
Synopsis:
The world of a Palestinian girl is upset when she learns that the man alongside which she grew up, is not her real father.
In the cinema section of the world:
- Titanium de Julia Ducournau (France)
Of course should not be missed the film TitaniumPalme d’Or of the 2021 Cannes Film Festival. It is a very special film, which one can also like or hate. But it is in tune with the times I think, since the question of gender arises in the Western world. This film goes even further, it goes beyond debates on men and women, and even deals with machine/human relationships and beings that could be born. I explain in this article “Cannes 2021 – Why the Palme d’Or for titanium? »» The reasons why, in my opinion, this film won this award.
Synopsis:
Seriously injured in a road accident, Alexia, is saved by the installation of a titanium implant in his skull. Suffering from post-traumatic syndrome, it is taken from deadly impulses. At the same time, Vincent, a firefighter, found his son disappeared for 10 years after his arrest by customs inspectors at an airport. In reality, it is Alexia, who took the appearance of a young man in order to escape the police.
Titanium is prohibited in France under 16 years. It would be better to avoid taking your young teenagers there.
- The event/happening Audrey Diwan (France)
After winning the Golden Lion and the Fipresci Prize for criticism at the Venice Festival, presented at the Saint Jean de Luz International Film Festival, The event Also left with the Jury Grand Prix and the Critics’ Prize.
I saw this film at the El Gouna film festival and I loved it. A very strong film which recalls that it was not very long ago, women were not allowed to abort and that they had to undergo, alone, the consequences of the sexual relations they had. And somewhere, this film warns us that if we do not pay attention, we could find ourselves in this same situation, since this right to abortion and to have his body is being called into question in several countries.
Be careful, difficult scenes, but I still advise you to take your daughters there, so that they see and understand …
Synopsis:
The story of Anne, a very young woman who decides to abort in order to finish her studies and to escape the social destiny of her proletarian family. The history of France in 1963, of a society which condemns the desire of women, and sex in general. Anne has a short time in front of her, the exams are approaching, her belly rounds up …
- Julie (in 12 chapters) of Joachim Trier (Norway)
In official competition at the Cannes Film Festival, Julie (in 12 chapters) won The price of best female interpretation for Renate Reinsve. Personally, I was not very sensitive to this film, but as well in Cannes as in El Gouna, he touched the public enormously.
Synopsis:
For 4 years, Julie, a young woman, will sail in the troubled waters of her sentimental life and find with difficulty what career to follow, which led her to take a realistic look at whom she is really.
- Nitram By Justin Kurzel (Australia)
Inspired by the Port-Arthur killing in Tasmania in 1996, which left 35 dead, this film plunges us into the head of the killer, masterfully interpreted by Caleb Landry Jones (Prize for the best male interpretation at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival) and try to understand the how and the why of this murderous act: a young unbalanced and not medically followed, of parents outdated and not supported by institutions and the free sale of weapons.
Synopsis:
In Australia in the mid -90s, Nitram lives with her parents, where time has passed between solitude and frustration. While offering his services as a gardener, he meets Helen, a marginal heiress who lives alone with his animals. Together, they build a separate life.
For those who don’t know them yet, you have to see the two films The Silences of the Palace (1994) by Moufida Tlatli, to which the JCC pay homage through the poster of this edition And Bus women 678 (2010) by Mohamed Diab, guest of the festival.
There are surely many other beautiful films in this year’s selection. It is impossible to quote them all. There are also many films that have had excellent criticisms, but that I have not yet seen. I hope to discover them soon with you.
You will find the detailed program of all the projections by rooms here.
Good festival!
Neïla Driss
