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Morocco’s Tissa Film Festival to celebrate Gulf cinema with special programme of 14 films from Arabian peninsula – Press Release
Short films selected from Dubai’s Gulf Film Festival
Dubai, UAE; January 31, 2012: Fourteen films by Arab filmmakers have been selected for a special programme celebrating Gulf cinema at the fifth edition of the Festival du Court Mertage Maghribo-Asiatique (Asian-Moroccan Festival of Short Films) to be held in Tissa, Morocco, from February 23 to 26, 2012.
The selection of films, including award-winners from the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and Iraq, is the result of a new partnership between the Gulf Film Festival and the Tissa festival. The Dubai-based Gulf Film Festival, heading into its fifth edition from April 10 to 16, is considered the home of bold, contemporary and innovative cinema from the region. The GFF is held under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Majid Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Chairman of Dubai Culture & Arts Authority (Dubai Culture).
The programme includes UAE films Sabeel,directed by Khalid Al Mahmood, and Slow Death, directed by Jamal Salim. Sabeel, written by Mohammed Hassan Ahmed, won the first prize at the Official Gulf Competition of GFF 2011 as well as the best script award. The film is the inspiring story of two boys who live with their sick grandmother and their struggle to care for her.Slow Death, about a grave digger who is forced into retirement after 30 years of service, won special mention in the Festival’s Official Gulf Competition.
Included from Saudi Arabia areAayesh, which won first prize at GFF 2010, and Football.. Baby?. Directed by Abdullah Al-Eyaf, Aayeshcharts the life of a morgue security guard, whose life is forever altered in 10 minutes. Football… Baby? , directed by Abdullah Ahmad, combines the stories of three children trying to buy a ball, a girl wanting to join the football team and a young lover waiting for his sweetheart.
From Oman, films heading to the Tissa festival include Leaking, the first prize winner of the Student Competition at GFF 2010, directed by Amjad Al Hinai and Khamis Ambo-Saidi; andSpices, directed by Amer Alrawas and the winner of the special mention award at the Official Gulf Competition in 2011. Leaking is about a young girl who escapes the tension within her household by playing outside her home, while Spices follows the lives of four people – a 90-year-old man, an infertile woman, a child who prepares for change and a blogger.
The selections from Bahrain include Canary, directed by Mohammed Rashed Bu Ali, about four lives linked by a bird, and The Power of Generations, directed by Mohammed Jassim. Jassim’s film, winner of the third prize at the Official Gulf Competition in 2011, follows a man who watches the world develop around him as he rests in a desert.
The Kuwaiti films selected are Heaven’s Water,directed by Abdullah Boushahri, which also won a special mention for its actress Haya Abdulsalam at the Official Gulf Competition in 2011, and Sneeze,directed by Meqdad Al Kout. Heaven’s Water is about the friendship between a young pregnant woman and a peddler who visits a yellow fish at a pet shop daily. What happens when a Bengali worker accidentally sneezes in his Kuwaiti manager’s face is the theme of Sneeze.
Jassim Mohammed Jassim’s Semi-Illuminated,and Land of the Heroes, directed by Sahim Omar Kalifa, are the films selected from Iraq. Semi-Illuminated won special mention at the Official Gulf Competition in 2011, and is about how human beings react on instinct and create a fantasy realm to escape external threats. Land of the Heroes is about a 10-year-old boy and his sister, who want to watch cartoons on television but must overcome their fear of a bully.
Director Sophia Al-Marry’s Kanary about the conflict between a father and daughter caught riding in a car with a boy; and Demi Plie, directed by Faisal Al-Thani, which won special mention in the GFF 2011 Student Competition, about the passion of a young Arab girl for contemporary dance are the selections from Qatar.
Said Bakloul, General Co-ordinator of the Asian-Moroccan Festival of Short Films, said: “We decided to open up our festival to Arab films, especially those from the Gulf region, due to the quantum leap the region’s cinema has witnessed recently. The growth of the film industry in the Gulf has been both quantitative and qualitative, with the films distinguished for their creativity and elegance. The fifth edition of our Festival aims at introducing the Moroccan audience to this changing face of Arabian Gulf cinema, and enhancing their appreciation in Morocco. We thank the organisers of the Gulf Film Festival for their sincere cooperation with our festival.”
Salah Sermini, GFF Consultant and coordinator of the Tissa-GFF programme, said: “The showcase in Tissa is an important part of our work to support and showcase Gulf and Arab films and filmmakers at home and abroad. The Gulf Film Festival is the start of many journeys for student and professional filmmakers, and we look forward to welcoming a new crop of filmmakers and films to the festival this April.”
The fifth edition of the Gulf Film Festival will be held in Dubai from April 10 to 16, 2012. Submissions to the Festival’s Gulf professional and student competitions, international shorts competition and its out of competition segments are now open online at www.gulffilmfest.com. Entries will be accepted until February 29, 2012.
GFF 2012 will be held at the InterContinental Hotel, Crowne Plaza and Grand Festival Cinemas at Dubai Festival City. Emirates Airline, Dubai’s flag carrier, is the presenting sponsor of the festival, which is supported by Dubai Culture & Arts Authority and held in association with Dubai Studio City. More details on the festival are available online at www.gulffilmfest.com.
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For more information, please contact:
Mildred Fernandes
Head of Communications
Gulf Film Festival
Direct: +97 14 361 3882;
Board: + 9714 391 33 78,
mildred.fernandes
Nivine William / Divya Khanna
ASDA’A Burson-Marsteller, n.william / d.khanna
