What happens with the Beirut International Film Festival, whose eleventh edition is held from October 5 to 13? No film on the “Arab Spring” and, therefore, the “revolution” was programmed! The only Tunisian film to be in competition is the short film by Malick Amara “Sage Linen”, while nearly 67 films by directors from 29 countries will be screened.
Let us recall that “Linen Sage” speaks, through the history of Si Radhi, of men who suffer, in silence, from the exaggerated authority of their partners.
According to France 24, Colette Naufal, director of the festival, had “asked for all the films that treated these revolutions. The directors first agreed to come, before finally deciding to participate in the Gulf festivals ”. What is quite strange, at least for Tunisian documentaries, since only the film “Rouge speech” by Elyes Baccar, relating the popular demonstrations at the origin of the fall of Ben Ali, will be screened at the “Doha Tribeca” cinema festival (Qatar, from October 25 to 29), and this, at first World Cup, and none will be at the Abou Dhabi festival (United Arab Emirates).
In any case, the director of the Beirut International Film Festival said she was very “disappointed to have none of these films” (on revolutions) in her programming. Following this, Colette Naufal decided to organize the next edition of the Beirut International Film Festival at the end of October, after the holding of Doha and Abu Dhabi festivals, in order to avoid any disappointment of this kind.
