In about four weeks will be given the start of the second edition of the El Gouna Film Festival (GFF) which will take place from September 20 to 28, 2018.
According to a press release published by the Festival management, a large number of films selected for this edition were welcomed and rewarded at prestigious festivals, such as the Cannes festival or the Berlinale. This was also confirmed by Intishal Al Timimi, director of the GFF, who said: ” The second edition of the Festival will present a number of films that have already succeeded in the most important film festivals in the world. The El Gouna Film Festival has unlimited ambitions and the ability to make them. We have put the bar very high in our inaugural edition and we work hard to fall under a notch or two this year “. The artistic director of the festival, Amir Ramses, also said: “The selection of films for the 2nd edition of the El Gouna Film Festival aims to present the best of recent films. We aspire to create a quality program that will appeal to our international guests and Egyptian moviegoers. ”
This is how the 2018 selection includes six awarded films at the Cannes Film Festival and 5 award -winning films at the Berlin, Rotterdam and Sundance festivals:
– A family affair (Shoplifters), (2018) From the Japanese Hirokazu Kore-Eda, winner of the Golden Palme d’Or of the 71st edition of the Cannes Film Festival will be one of the highlights of the GFF program this year. A family affair is the tender story of a poor family who manages to join both ends by performing small scams. Although this family barely manages to survive, it decides to welcome a homeless child found in the street. The film, which features Lily Franky and Kirin Kiki, received a warm welcome from criticism, professionals and the general public.
– Cold War (2018)from Pawel Pawlikowski, winner of the Best Director Prize in Cannes. This film recounts the Cold War in the 1950s in Poland, Berlin, Yugoslavia and Paris through the tumultuous relationship between the pianist Wiktor (Tomasz Kot) and the singer-singer Zula (Joanna Kulig), two Polish who commute between the two sides of the iron curtain.
– Italian drama Dogman (2018) De Matteo Garrone, whose main actor, Marcello Fonte, won the prize for best male interpretation at the Cannes Film Festival. The film tells the story of Marcello, a groomer for discreet dogs and appreciated by all, who sees his friend Simoncino, a former cocaine boxer returning from prison from prison who, very quickly, rackete and brutal the neighborhood. First confident, Marcello lets himself be drawn in spite of himself in a criminal spiral. He then learns betrayal and abandonment, before imagining fierce revenge …
– winner of the prize for the best scenario at the Cannes Film Festival, HAPPY AS LAZZARO (2018) Directed by Alice Rohrwacher tells the story of Lazzaro, a young peasant so good that he is often taken for simple minds. He seals a bond of friendship with a nobleman, not knowing that this friendship that will change his life will bring him into an unexpected journey.
– Samouni Road (2018) From Stefano Savona, winner of the Documentary Golden Eye Prize at the Cannes Film Festival. The documentary combines action live, superb animation according to the scratchboard technique and recreates drone images to capture the life of a family of farmers before, during and after the 2009 Israeli invasion which left 29 dead and devastated land.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvxcuzrhvmg
– All These Creatures (2018) From Charles Williams, winner of the Palme d’Or of the short film at the Cannes Film Festival, will be part of the festival short films program. He tells the story of a 13 -year -old boy who tries to unravel his memories of a mysterious epidemic, the collapse of his father and small creatures inside us.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMRMUU11AUW
– Mug (2018)winner of the silver-large jury price in Berlin is one of the films that we talked about the most during the Berlinale. The film talks about a young man who suffers from facial deformity after a work accident. He undergoes a facial reconstruction operation and returns home. But no one recognizes him anymore and he becomes like a stranger … The film reveals the shallow depth and hypocrisy of the inhabitants of his city. The film is directed and written by Małgorzata Szumowska, a public filmmaker awarded many times.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Scnoylyv-vq
– The heirs (Las Herederas) (2018), Directed by Marcelo Martinessi and the winner of the silver bear for the best actress for Ana Brun, the Alfred Bauer Prize and the 2018 Berlinale Fipresci Prize. The film tells the story of Chela and Chiquita, both from wealthy families who lived together and spent their inheritance. When their debts led Chiquita to be imprisoned for fraud, Chela begins to get out of her shell and get involved in the world, launching into her own personal and intimate revolution.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieslbi7q7d4
– Winter Flies (2018)directed by Olmo Omerzu, winner of the best staging award at the Karlovy Vary festival, is an interesting road movie on the elusive link of childhood, friendship and irrepressible desire to live something, even if you don’t know exactly what.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lr-lpdy0mw
-from the Sundance Film Festival and the Rotterdam International Film Festival arrives the Danish masterpiece The Guilty (2018), Written and directed by Gustav Möller. This film tells the story of the former police officer Asger Holm, who responds to an emergency call from a kidnapped woman. With the phone as a single tool, ASGER enters a race against the watch to save the woman in danger. But soon he realizes that he is dealing with a much more important crime than he thought at the start.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psgeqfrwss4
– GFF is proud to announce that the winner of the Prize for best documentary film at the Sundance Film Festival, Of Fathers and Sons (2017)produced by the Syrian director based in Berlin, Talal Derki, will also be on the program for this year. The film offers a rare overview of what it means to grow with a father whose only dream is to establish an Islamic caliphate.
Very very nice selection. Very interesting films to discover or review therefore during this second edition of the El Gouna Film Festival.
Neïla Driss
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