4 weeks ago
Oliver Laxe’s Moroccan godforsaken rave-set play Sirāt closed nan eighth version of nan Gabès Cinema Festival (Gabès Cinéma Fen) complete nan play successful nan beingness of nan Spanish French director.
Afef Ben Mahmoud, who marked her inaugural twelvemonth astatine nan helm of nan show this year, tells Deadline that Sirāt was nan first movie that came into her mind erstwhile she was first projected nan domiciled of show director.
“There’s thing successful nan scenery of Sirāt which echoes pinch that of Gabès, moreover if it was changeable successful Morocco,” she says.
Situated connected an Mediterranean oasis a four-hour thrust southbound of nan Tunisian superior of Tunis, Gabès is simply a spot of contrasts, mixing earthy beauty pinch dense industry.
“It’s a very particular. It’s nan south. There’s nan sea, nan oasis, and astatine nan aforesaid time, nan business side,” says Mahmoud, noting nan area has hosted respective films shoots acknowledgment to nan scenery and light.
“It’s besides an highly engaged metropolis by comparison pinch nan remainder of Tunisia… and this has fed into nan show which is known passim nan Arab world for its activism,” she continues. “We’re really successful nan realm of cutting-edge, politically engaged cinema, cinema that’s proactive, that wants to change, that wants to raise awareness.”
High winds forced a planned open-air screening of Sirāt astatine nan section oasis beauty spot of Chenini to move wrong to nan main show hub of nan recently refurbished Gabès’ Mohamed Bardi taste complex.
Ben Mahmoud suggests Laxe’s clip astatine nan show – which showed each 4 of his features to day – was a occurrence nonetheless.
“He did an astonishing masterclass. He was very coming and unfastened getting astir and astir successful nan city, talking and interacting pinch people. There’s besides a belief and belief broadside to Gabès which I deliberation chimed pinch him,” she says.
Geopolitical tensions
This year’s show came together against nan backdrop of geopolitical tensions crossed nan Middle East and North Africa sparked by nan Iran-U.S.-Israel War arsenic good arsenic nan ongoing Israel-Hezbollah conflict successful Lebanon and Gaza humanitarian crisis.
Gabès lies immoderate 5,000 kilometers from nan Gulf and is not astatine threat of subject attack, but nan ripple effects of nan Iran conflict are being felt crossed nan region. Aside from wide unease complete wherever nan subject action will lead, economies crossed nan region are being impacted by nan disruption of substance supplies, waste and acquisition and travel.
Ben Mahmoud besides knowledgeable nan early days of nan Iran-U.S. War firsthand arsenic a long-time resident of Qatar, wherever partner Khalil Benkirane is Head of Grants astatine nan Doha Film Institute.
With recreation successful and retired of nan Gulf authorities restricted arsenic Iran lashed retired astatine its Gulf neighbors, Ben Mahmoud recovered herself preparing nan show remotely successful March to nan roar of rocket and drone interceptions, pinch her children astatine location arsenic they continued their schooling online.
“I’ve ever regarded creation arsenic an enactment of resistance. All nan clip that it was doable, we were going to do it because moreover if we can’t alteration nan world, if we tin touch it and raise awareness, that’s already an achievement,” she explains.
Ben Mahmoud says it was nan festival’s committedness to politically engaged programming arsenic good arsenic its clasp of nan moving image crossed cinema, virtual reality and video creation that drew her to nan event.
She has continued nan contented of governmental engagement pinch a programme tackling analyzable realities and urgent issues crossed nan MENA region, and beyond.
The show kicked disconnected connected April 26 pinch a cine-concert by Lebanese composer and pianist Cynthia Zaven and sound designer Rana Eid’s for their activity Palestine: A New Narration, combining newsreels showing Palestine betwixt 1914 and 1918 and their original soundscape.
The movie lineup featured Vladlena Sandu’s Grozny-set Chechen War group play Memory; Cyril Aris’ A Sad and Beautiful World, pursuing a emotion communicative which unfolds against Beirut’s tumultuous caller history; Hasan Hadi’s Saddam Hussein-era communicative The President’s Cake, Kamal Aljafari’s With Hasan In Gaza, and Iranian family secrets play Oh, What Happy Days! by Homayoun Ghanizadeh, who travelled from Tehran to nan festival.
Tunisian head Kaouther Ben Hania besides attended for a masterclass and screening of her Oscar-nominated Gaza drama The Voice of Hind Rajab, in what was very overmuch a homecoming arena for nan head aft an aggravated show and awards circuit tour.
“She was happy to beryllium here, and we were happy to person her among us,” says Ben Mahmoud. “There was thing very familial and friendly successful her onstage conversation, moreover though it was successful a packed 800-seat theatre.”
One of Ben Mahmoud’s main ambitions successful her first twelvemonth arsenic show head was to create stronger connections betwixt nan cinema, virtual reality and video creation sections, pinch nan second curated by Nadia Kaabi-Linke and Timo Kaabi-Linke.
“I really wanted group to consciousness for illustration they were each portion of nan aforesaid event, alternatively than arsenic if they were moving from 1 show to another, erstwhile they changed sections,” she says.
It is an attack that chimes pinch Ben Mahmoud’s ain multi-faceted profession which has spanned dance; theatre and cinema, pinch caller acting movie credits including Nouri Bouzid’s drama The Scarecrows and Mehdi Hmili’s Streams, and 2023 directorial characteristic debut Backstage, a associated characteristic pinch Benkirane which premiered successful Venice’s Giornate degli Autori.
She points to Iranian play Oh, What Happy Days! arsenic a movie that bridges nan disagreement connected 1 level for its inclusion successful nan formed successful a uncommon acting domiciled of Shirin Neshat, who is amended known arsenic a video artist.
The desire for much fluidity betwixt nan sections besides sparked nan installation Vivre Encore (Live Again). The activity is an hold of Swiss head Nicolas Wadimoff’s documentary Who Is Still Alive successful which 9 erstwhile Gaza residents, surviving arsenic refugees, recount their lives successful nan Palestinian territory done elemental chalk drawings.
“When I said pinch Nicolas, he said, ‘You know, Afef, I’ve ever wanted to do an installation of this film. I person a batch of material’,” recounts Ben Mahmoud. “I said, ‘Well here’s your opportunity.’ The thought is that nan spectator follows nan installation and ends up successful nan cinema theatre to spot nan full film.”
Other crossover events see nan XR activity Under nan Sky, by French creator Jérémy Griffaud, whose activity combines beingness creation pinch immersive technology, who besides gave a masterclass.
Ben Mahmoud besides highlights nan accumulation “Costumes connected Stage: Memories of Tunisian Cinema” devoted to nan costumes of section classics specified arsenic Moufida Tlatli’s The Silences of nan Palace, and Selma Baccar’s Khochkhach.
“We besides had sheet connected nan mobility of costumes successful Arab cinema and nan problems astir their conservation, followed by nan opening of nan exhibition… it’s this benignant of arena that helps to link nan different sections,” says Ben Mahmoud.
While this year’s opening ceremonial was headlined by Tunisian stars Hind Sabry and Dhafer L’Abidine and sewage plentifulness of play connected nan section networks, Ben Mahmoud says nan show will ne'er spell down a star-studded reddish carpet route.
“The important point for maine is to find nan correct group and projects which fresh this festival,” she says. “It’s not really a mobility of making it bigger aliases smaller, but alternatively really to enactment authentic and ne'er hide aliases suffer show of its unsocial attraction connected nan moving image successful each its forms.”
