The showcase curated by the Association Sole Luna, un ponte tra le culture is an event promoted by the Department of Culture of the Municipality of Palermo as part of the Biennale Arcipelago Mediterraneo BAM initiatives
12th FEBRUARY > 9th MARCH 2017
CANTIERI CULTURALI ALLA ZISA – SALA DE SETA
Free entrance
SUNDAY 12th FEBRUARY 2017| H 20.30
EGYPT | OUM Kalthoum, L’astre De L’orient
France, 2008, 52’, original version, English and Italian subtitles
Direction Feriel Ben Mahmoud Nicolas Daniel. Photography: Thierry Rodon. Editing: Elisabeth Sacier. Production: Treize au Sud
The “voice of Egypt,” was the most celebrated musical performer of the century in the Arab world. More than forty years after her death, her devoted audience, drawn from all strata of Arab society, still numbers in the millions. The film explores the great moments of Oum Kalthoum’s life as a singer who had become more than a idol, an icon for the entire Arab and Mediterranean world, regarding her strong devotion.
Trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKt5GyGV3m8
PORTUGAL | Orquestra Geração
Portugal, 63’, 2011, original version, English and Italian subtitles
Direction: Filipa Reis and João Miller Guerra. Photography: Vasco Viana. Editing: Mariana Gaivão. Production: Vende-se Filmes
Born in 2007 on the initiative of the Escola Nacional de Música do Conservatório, Câmara Municipal de Amadora and the Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, with the support of the EQUAL Programme (European Social Fund), the Orquestra Geração project works on the social inclusion following the model of the orchestras for young people in Venezuela.
Trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDqUmeIpYL8
WEDNESDAY 15th FEBRUARY 2017 | H. 20.30
ISRAEL/PALESTINE | Cinema Jenin
Germany, 2011, 94’, original version, English and Italian subtitles
Direction: Marcus Vetter. Photography: Alex Bakri. Editing: Saskia Metten. Production: Filmperspektive Gmbh
“Cinema Jenin” follows an ambitious initiative to re-open a previously abandoned cinema in the West Bank city of Jenin. Founded in the 1960s, it was once the largest cinema in Palestine, today it stands as a hollow echo of its society.
The Cinema Jenin, which will re-open its doors one year after the realisation of this documentary, closed its doors forever last 10th December. The owners of the cinema sold it to an investor who wants to build a shopping centre.
Trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDqUmeIpYL8
THURSDAY 16th FEBRYARY 2017 |H. 20.30
LEBANON | Aaks El Seir/Against The Current
Lebanon, 2011, 43’, original version, English and French subtitles
Direction: Michèle Tyan. Photography: Rachel Aoun. Editing: Simon el Haber. Production: Djinn House Productions
A highlight on the power of faith against radicalism through the positive role played by Prince A-K Al Jazairi, Bishop S. Ghazal, Imam M Sader and Reverend M. Kozah to ensure communication and solidarity during times of crisis we feel the urge to react in our more divided and intolerant societies.
Trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjTApsXqUQk
ALBANIA | DI LÀ
Italy, 2015, 8’, Italian, English subtitles
Direction, Photography, Editing, Production: Giulio Tonincelli
The film tells the story of Erminando, photographer and professor of fashion photography in a Milan academy, and raised in Brescia where he studied until graduation. In April 2014, after more than 20 years after his arrival in Italy, he decided to return to his Albania. Finding himself in places and with people of his childhood he remembers the feelings and the experience of that November night when, thanks to the courageous decision of his mother, his life radically changed.
Trailer https://vimeo.com/143423997
CROATIA | SEVDAH
Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina 2009, 66’, original version, English and Italian subtitles
Direction: Marina Andree. Photography: Vincent Pinckaers. Editing: Effi Weiss. Production: Centre Video de Bruxelles – CVB
At the height of the Bosnian war, a group of renowned musicians gather to form the Mostar Sevdah Reunion Band, in order to make music that would transcend the common conflict that surrounds them. The documentary is an emotional and personal journey of images, rhythms, and words through Bosnia musical traditions.
Trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKbqtZ6NBzQ
FRIDAY 17th FEBRUARY 2017 | H. 18.30
SPAIN | Out Of Cordoba
Spain, 2009, 83’, original version, English and Italian subtitles
Direction, Photography e Editing: Jacob Bender. Production: Mr. Bender e MLK Producciones
Out of Cordoba is a documentary film that explores some of the most irritating questions of our time: the religious faith inevitably results in xenophobia and violence?
Trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkmCm3aqkXE
SUNDAY 19th FEBRUARY 2017 | H.17.00
GREECE | The call of the mountain
Greece, 2009, 52’, original version, English and Italian subtitles
Direction e Photography: Stelios Apostolopoulos, con Nikos Dayandas. Editing: Nikos Dayandas & George Helidonidis. Production: Rea Apostolides & Yuri Averof
The story of a man who abandons his wife and his eight-year-old son in Athens after the murder of his cousin, Ilias, in the White Mountains of Crete. Returning to the small, remote community where he grew up, Yiannis confronts his past and pledges to honour his cousin by tending the family herd. He struggles to carry on Ilias’ calling, a dying tradition kept alive by a handful of isolated men, high on the barren mountainsides of Crete overlooking the Libyan Sea.
Trailer https://vimeo.com/ondemand/callofthemountain
WEDNESDAY 22nd FEBRUARY 2017 |H. 20.30
MOROCCO |La grande distribution
France 2012, 20’ no dialogues
Direction: Emanuelle Lacosse. Photography: Denis Le Paven. Editing: Emanuelle Lacosse, Denis Le Paven. Production: Les choses du kolkhoze.
Douar Touggana. A Berber village where, every night, an unchanging and timeless choregraphy is performed. By dawn, the great round begins….
Trailer http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xz9wyg_la-grande-distribution-d-emmanuelle-lacosse_shortfilms
SYRIA | My Love in Palmyra
Syria – Russia, 2007, 19’ original version, Italian subtitles
Direction, Photography, Editing: Housam Abdoulghani. Production: Saint Petersburg University of Cinema and TV
Every day, the little Khaldun comes to the ruins of ancient Palmyra to sell some postcards to the tourists and tells his own version of the city’s history.
ISRAEL/PALESTINE | There Must Be Another Way
Israel, 2009, 62’ original version, English and Italian subtitles
Direction: Yariv Mozer. Photography: Dani Gershon. Editing: Vika Shor. Production: Israel Broadcasting Authority (IBA), Israeli Television – Channel One
Following the military operation in Gaza and despite resistance from left and right, Israel sent for the first time for the Eurovision Song Contest a Jewish-Arab duo: NOA, considered to be the leading Israeli singing artist abroad, and the Arab singer MIRA AWAD. This experience will be the culmination of a musical friendship, along five years, between Noa and Mira, who represents their mutual desire for coexistence between their nations. Against the backdrop of the Gaza war of 2009, and despite the opposition of the left, the two women embark on a journey that finds its fulfillment in Moscow for the May competition. A film from the Middle East, with a different sound.
Trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RN8B1xvCxI0
FRIDAY 24th FEBRUARY 2017 | H. 18.30
LIBYA | Yusef’s song
Greece-Libya, 2013, 75’, original version, English and Italian subtitles
Direction: Kostas Pliakos. Photography: Mohanned Ben Ghuzi, Kostas Pliakos, Kais Bchir. Editing: Dimitris Klagos. Production: Wide-Angle, Kostas Pliakos
The story takes place in post-revolution Libya. It is a documentary on a country’s rebuilding from scratch after a revolution. The film’s main character is Yusef; a young rapper. Through his eyes the film unfold young Libyans’ vision for their country after Gaddafi.
Trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5t8BcDx9W4
SATURDAY 25th FEBRUARY 2017|H. 18.30
ALGERIA | BLA CINIMA
France, 2014, 82’ original version, English and Italian subtitles
Direction: Lamine Ammar-Khodja. Photography: Sylvie Petit. Editing: Francine Lemaitre. Production: The Kingdom
A filmmaker ventures out onto the streets of Algiers to interview the people about cinema and is quickly swept away by spontaneous meetings and the realities of the city. The film paints a vivid portrait of the city of Algiers and is a reflection on cinema within the country.
Trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xko0jmsROa4
SUNDAY 26th FEBRUARY 2017 |H. 20.30
FRANCE | The Barefoot Poetess
France, 2012, 51’, original version, Italian subtitles
Direction: Bernard Louargant. Photography: Loetitia Lemaire. Editing: Isabelle Feder. Production: Generation Video
Maram Al Masri, born in Syria, is a poetess and a contemporary writer. This film, born from a meeting between a poet and a filmmaker, is a mix of words and images, sounds and sensual atmospheres which reflect the poetic language and its breath of freedom.
Trailer https://vimeo.com/45782256
IRAN | I comme Iran
Netherlands, 2015, 52’, original version, English and Italian subtitles
Direction: Sanaz Azari. Photography: Vincent Pinckaers. Editing: Effi Weiss. Production: Centre Video de Bruxelles – CVB
Brussels, behind the closed doors of a classroom. Using a textbook dating from the Islamic revolution, Sanaz Azari, the director, learns how to read and write in Persian, her mother tongue. Over the course of the lessons, the teacher initiates her to the basics of the language, which becomes a gateway to the history and culture of Iran. Gradually, the didactic method of the lessons evolves into a poetic, visual collage, which introduces the notion of freedom and questions the meaning of a revolution.
trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMNVgGFN_3Y
WEDNESDAY 1st MARCH 2107 | H. 18.30
MONTENEGRO | Karst
France, Serbia, Montenegro 2014, 85’ original version, English subtitles. Direction: Vladimir Todorovic
An ambitious Italian diplomat choses an almost inaccessible Montenegrin karst landscape as a perfect spot to build his dream house.
Trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8j69mHytfvE
WEDNESDAY 8Tth MARCH 2017 | H. 20.30
TUNISIA | Kène ya ma kène fi hadha ezzamène
Tunisia 2009, 85’ original version, English subtitles
Direction: Hichem Ben Ammar. Photography: Hatem Nechi, Louise Purnell, Anne Closset, Elodie Colomar, Walid Mattar. Editing: Inès Chérif. Production: 5/5 Production
A trombonist member of a fanfare in Tunis has the dream to see his son become a great musician. The child appropriates the project of his father and develops a virtuosity which enables him to join the most prestigious violin academy in the world: the Yehudi Menuhin School. Founded in 1963 by the famous violinist who gave it his name, the Yehudi Menuhin School is an academy which vocation is to train young virtuosos from all around the world. Anès Romdhani is the second Arab child who managed to join this highly selective British school. His admission to the Yehudi Menuhin School in September 2007 occurred in particular conditions, involving the mobilization of a part of the Tunisian civil society. This documentary follows the stages of this uncommon itinerary punctuated with obstacles and deals with the question of the nature of virtuosity and the status of exception in a rather conformist context. The film follows Anès to observe his growing up and to throw light on the conditions of his exile and the essence of his cultural roots.
THURSDAY 9th MARCH 2017|H. 20.30
TURKEY | Copte Dostoeysvki Buldum
Turkey, 2011, 100’, original version, English subtitles
Direction: Enis Riza. Photography: Koray Kesik e Ozan Turgut. Editing: Burak Dal
Production: VTR Film Research Production
Oktay is an amalgamation of a beggar, a rubbish collector even a glue sniffer, a father, a Muslim, and a leftist. He began to read the books in garbage’s, and to collect books in Istanbul streets. Now he runs a second hand book store…
Trailer https://www.izlesene.com/video/copte-dostoyevski-buldum-part-1-belgesel/7622646