The 2020 edition of Carthage Cinematographic Days (JCC) begins in a few days.
For this special session, which returns to the 30 JCC editions, almost 120 films will be screened for 5 days in 16 different cinemas. One hundred and twenty films between long and short films, fictions, documentaries, reports … in different sections, including 5 recent movies in preview, 34 films in Best Off Fouts Fouts, 21 Tunisian tannits, 7 favorites.
It is obvious that I do not know all the films that are scheduled this year at the JCC 2020, but I have seen some over the years and I would discover others with you.
How did some of these films age? I don’t know, there are some that I saw their outings, a long time ago. Do they have as much interest today as at the time of their exit? Probably yes, a good film crosses the years without having wrinkles.
For my part, I will try to discover the maximum of films, in particular Tunisian films, because they are part of our cinematographic heritage and tell a part of our history.
In addition to the five movies in preview, which are The man who sold his skin by Kaouther Ben Hania (Tunisia), The Night of the Kings of Philippe Lacôte (Ivory Coast), 200 meters by Ameen Nayfeh (Palestine), Harba by Ghazi Zaghbani (Tunisia) and Disqualified From Hamza Ouini (Tunisia), I advise some to see absolutely:
In the Best Off Fait Fait Section:
Synopsis:
Farès and Meriem form with Aziz, their son, a modern Tunisian family from a wealthy environment. During a trip to the south of Tunisia, their car is targeted by a terrorist group and the young boy is seriously injured.
- Amal (2018), directed by Mohamed Siam – Egypt.
Golden Tanit of the Documentary at the 2018 JCC.
Synopsis:
Amal is a chipie: she blows the candles of others, stands up to the police in demonstration, she smokes if she wants, she grows if she wants. She is looking for herself. If being a woman in a post-revolutionary Egypt means renouncing her freedom, then what good?
Synopsis:
Talal Derki returns to Syria and wins the confidence of a family of jihadists whose life he shares for two years.
- El Gort (2014), directed by Hamza Ouni – Tunisia.
Tanit de Bronze for a 2014 documentary film.
Synopsis
Two young Tunisians try to survive by working in the hay trade. Their working day begins very early and never seems to end. Without any alternative between unemployment and exploitation, dreams of carefree youth quickly turn into despair. A film with wild energy and bitter taste that says everything that can be said about Tunisia today …
In the favorite section:
- They are the dogs (2014), directed by Hicham Lasri – Morocco.
Silver Tanit for a 2014 feature film film.
Synopsis:
While Lotfi Sawssen, Daoud Hasska and Ali are filming a report on the 2011 demonstrations, they met a man, arrested during the 1981 bread riots, who has just left prison after 30 years of detention. They decide to help him in his search for his family.
- Ali Zaoua, Prince of the Street (2000), directed by Nabil Ayouch – Morocco.
Synopsis:
Undisputed leader of the dissident group, Ali Zaoua dreams of becoming a sailor to go around the world and one day find “the island in the two suns”. Alas, he is killed during a confrontation with the DIB band. Kwita convinces Omar and Boubker to offer him a burial worthy of a prince.
- Gold hooves (1988), produced by Nouri Bouzid – Tunisia.
Prize for male interpretation JCC 1988 for Hichem Rostom.
Synopsis:
Youssef Soltane, a 45 -year -old intellectual, is the pure product of a generation that has known the euphoric periods of the great ideologies of the 1960s and also their collective bankruptcy. Youssef was imprisoned for a long time and tortured for his activities as a political opponent. His tumultuous affair with Zineb, the young and beautiful bourgeois, who made her discover love and hosted him and hidden at the time of her clandestine activities, only earned her setbacks. A few months after his release from prison, his repudiated wife, Fatma, died, leaving the three children at the guard of their grandmother. During this long winter night, that of the Achoura feast, Youssef will wander in search of an emotional refuge, a tenderness, prey to all the questions that shake his memory.
In the Tunisian Tanits section ::
- Zaineb doesn’t like snow (2016) Directed by Kaouther Ben Hania – Tunisia.
Tanit d’or JCC 2016.
Synopsis:
Zaineb is nine years old and lives with his mother and little brother in Tunis. Her father died in a car accident. Her mother is about to start his life with a man who lives in Canada. We told Zaineb that there, she can finally see the snow! But she doesn’t want to know anything, Canada does not inspire her confidence and then Zaineb does not like snow.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHCF80HLIQM
- Clay dolls (2002), directed by Nouri Bouzid – Tunisia.
Silver Tanit and interpretation prize for the best actor: Ahmed Hafiane for the role of Omrane JCC 2002.
Synopsis:
The work of Omrane, the forties, a former employee of the house, consists in placing the young girls in his village in Tunis as well as good to do everything. He receives their salary, redistributes him to families and guarantees girls’ virginity. Rebeh, the most rebellious of his recruits, fled from his place. Omrane wants to find it in order to put it back in the right way. He is accompanied by Fedhah, 8, which he must also place. But Rebeh is pregnant and does not admit to renouncing his freedom. For her part, little Fedhah – at the start enthusiastic about going to town – will quickly discover a world where childhood has no place …
- The Silences of the Palace (1994), produced by Moufida Tlatli – Tunisia.
Tanit d’or and female interpretation prize for Hend Sabry for her role as young Alia at the JCC 1994.
Synopsis:
1965. Alia, a young singer of twenty-five, is tired of the monotony of the banquets which she animates. She has lived for ten years with Lotfi, who refuses her marriage and regularly forces her to abort. When she learned of the death of Prince Sid’ali, of which her mother was the servant, she decides to return to the scene of her childhood, a palace on the suburbs of Tunis, now dilapidated. It was there that she was born, of a slave mother, the beautiful Khedija, and an unknown father. Alia remembers life at the palace at the time of her last fires, her mother’s struggle so that her daughter escapes the lust and the domination of princes, her games with Sarra, the niece of Sid’ali…
- Halfaouine (1990), produced by Fédé Boughdir – Tunisia.
Tanit d’Or, prize for the best interpretation, prize for the best staging and UNESCO Prix to JCC 1990.
Synopsis:
Noura, 12, lives in Halfaouine, a popular district of Tunis. Due to his smallness, he is still admitted to the hammam of women, where he can at leisure to contemplate the anatomy of women in the neighborhood and bring the details to his older comrades, already passed in the world of men. The rest of the time, Noura visits her friend Salih, shoemaker and poet with libertarian thoughts, and always observes the female world from the roofs of the terraces that overlook private lessons. He looks at Latifa, a cousin of his mother, with anti -conformist behavior, repudiated because she refused the veil. But it was with Leïla, a young 15 -year -old orphan, that he manages to satisfy her curiosity and desires when he was chased from the hammam for having observed his neighbor too closely.
- The man of ash (1986), produced by Nouri Bouzid – Tunisia.
Tanit d’Or at the JCC 1986.
Synopsis:
A young cabinetmaker from Sfax, Hachemi, must follow his parents’ decision and get married. However, he and another boy, Farfat, were violated in their childhood by their counterman aur, and remain traumatized.
Among the short films, there are also little jewels, such as for example WANAS/FALSE (Tanit de Bronze JCC 2017) by Ahmad Nader, Glue pot (Tanit d’Or JCC 2014) by Kaouther Ben Hania, Broth (Tanit d’or JCC 2018) by Myriam Jober, or Visa (Tanit d’or JCC 2004) by Brahim Letaief.
As said above, this year, there are a lot of films that I do not know, some being released when I was a little child. It is an opportunity to discover them.
Neïla Driss
