Song of Hands
Hamze Zarei
Iran. 2017. 19 min

Song of the Hands is The story is narrated by a kid (hiwa) who is fascinated by music, and accompany other children in this passion. But under the pressure of the traditional and religious environment his father breaks his musical instrument , Hiwa is hugging the pieces of the instrument, and toward to …

HAMZE ZAREI

Hamze is born in 1986 in Iran’ Kurdish area in Kermanshah .He study Directory and Dramatic Literature in art collage in Tehran .
In his films, he tries to narrate the story of the children of his land and the rights of all human beings.

CONTACT

Hamze Zarei

zarei.hamze64@gmail.com

The Sound of Silence
Bina Paul
India. 2017. 51 min

One of the most telling testimonials in The Sound of Silence, Bina Paul’s documentary on how gender issues play out in Kerala’s colleges, is by Dinu, a student in Kozhikode.

In 2015, Dinu was suspended for breaking one of the rules stipulated by his college: “Girls and boys must sit separately in a classroom.” When Dinu tried to question the rule, he and his friends were asked to leave the classroom. The situation worsened when the principal ruled that Dinu and his classmates could enter the classroom only after they brought their parents to college.

A stay order from the local court finally got Dinu back into the classroom.

“How does sitting together on a bench become a disciplinary issue?” he poignantly asks in Paul’s compelling documentary. “It was nothing but moral policing.”

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Ek Inquilab Aur Aaya                                                                                                          Uma Chakravarti                                                                                                                  India. 2017. 66 min

“Ek Inquilab Aur Aaya” is a documentary which explores the frustrations, ambitions and struggles of women who lived in an orthodox Islamic household in Lucknow in the first half of the 20th century. The lives of two women, Sughra Fatema and her niece Khadija Ansari, residents of the Farangi Mahal are traced. The family which resided there was at the centre of learning in Lucknow from 1695 onwards.

Despite being at the centre of scholarship in Lucknow, the family refused to break the shackles of patriarchy which existed in the corridors of the Firangi Mahal. The women had to live their lives within the strict confinement of the purdah, the practice of confining women within the household, away from the eyes of men.

Director Uma Chakravarti tells us why the story needed to be told: “Because Muslim women are being flattened into a mass with no variations in their multiple histories which was rich and distinctive as the histories of women in other communities, classes and castes; today the only way to portray a Muslim woman is to put her into a hijab and hide, literally hide, everything else about her. All we now hear is triple talaq and the need to rescue them from their miseries as if Hindu women have got emancipation! We know nothing of their political participation in movements in the past and in the present; their participation in the left movement is particularly unknown. So for me as a historian turned filmmaker this was a story that was waiting to be told.”

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El gran líbano                                                                                                                           Mounia Akl / Neto Villalobos                                                                                      Lebanon-France. 2017.  16 min

When hungover Bassem wakes up by the lake shore among his
dead fishes, his sister Youmna, who he hasn’t seen for 12 years,
is there, with a coffin.

MOUNIA AKL

Mounia Akl is a director and writer from Lebanon living between Beirut and New York. She holds a bachelor’s degree in architecture from ALBA and an MFA in Directing from Columbia University. Apart from directing,
Mounia has taught film directing at the NHSI film summer institute at Northwestern University, Chicago and was a preceptor in Screenwriting at Columbia University, New York. Her previous work includes four short films, two web series and recently Lights, an omnibus feature film made of 6 chapters directed by 6 directors, including herself, from Breaking Wave Pictures, a collective she co-founded in New York. Her short film, Submarine, was in the official selection of the 69th Cannes Film Festival in the Cinefondation category. It had its North American premiere at the Toronto (TIFF) and its MENA one at Dubai (DIFF) where it won the Muhr Jury Prize. Submarine was awarded the James Bridges production grant and the Kodak Motion Picture Product Grant.

She is currently writing her feature film The Most Beautiful Place In The World with Spanish co-writer Clara Roquet.

NETO VILLALOBOS

Neto Villalobos was born in San José, Costa Rica. He graduated with
a degree in Sociology and later majored in Film Direction in Barcelona.
Besides his short films and videoclips he has participated in workshops such as “How to Tell a Story?” by Gabriel García Márquez, Rotterdam Lab and Berlinale and Buenos Aires Talent Campus. His first feature film Por las Plumas (All About the Feathers) was premiered in Toronto IFF and San Sebastian IFF and traveled around the world. Neto is currently working on two projects: producing an experimental documentary supported by
Tribeca Film Institute, Jamón, and post producing his 2nd feature film Cascos Indomables (Untamed Helmets) which was developed at Cannes Cinéfondation Residency, 3 Puertos Cine, Paris Coproduction Village, Locarno Filmmakers Academy, Produire aud Sud and 27th Rencontres de Toulouse where it won the Cinéma Développement – BrLab Award.

CONTACT

Badih Massaad
Festivals Coordinator
badih@abboutproductions.com

ABBOUT Productions 

Salamat from Germany                                                                                                    Una Gunjak / Rami Kodeih                                                                                              Lebanon-France. 2017. 17 min

Desperate to escape Lebanon and settle in Europe, Lillo buys
himself a Syrian passport and is ready to appropriate the Syrian
identity to obtain asylum. However, what he might not be ready
for yet, is everything that comes along with being a Syrian
refugee today.

UNA GUNJAK

Una Gunjak was born and raised in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. She graduated in Film Studies at the Universita’ degli Studi di Torino and then went to attend the National Film and TV School in the UK where she obtained an MA in Film Editing. In her previous lives, Una has extensively worked as film editor on feature films and documentaries, and has occasionally directed commercials.
Her short film The Chicken premiered at the Cannes Film Festival Critics’ Week in 2014, won the European Film Award for Best Short Film 2014 and went on to screen in the International Competition at the Sundance Film Festival 2015, New Films, New Directors 2015 and nearly 200 other festivals, winning along 45 awards so far. Una is currently developing her first feature Alfa which focuses on a toxic relationship between a mother and daughter as they try to pursue
their dream of a better tomorrow outside of their defunct homeland.

Alfa was selected for the Cannes Film Festival Cinefondation Residence, and has so far received financial support from the Bosnian Film Fund.

RAMI KODEIH

Rami Kodeih was born in Beirut. His short films have won awards and screened at festivals around the world. His first feature film project was selected for the Sundance Feature Film Lab and Berlinale Talents and was also a finalist in HBO’s screenwriting competition, where it was selected from 2,000 scripts around the United States. His filmography includes:
Maki & Zorro (2017), Wheels Of War (2015; Best Documentary at BIFF; Arab Film Festival Zurich). The Mill (2010; Namur Film Festival; Second Prize Lebanese Film Festival). A Sheherazade Tale (2006, Clermont- Ferrand; Best Arab Film Jordan Short Film Festival; Uppsala Film Festival; Special Mention Tangier Short Mediterranean Film Festival). He is currently working on his first feature film and on his first TV series.

CONTACT

Badih Massaad
Festivals Coordinator
badih@abboutproductions.com

ABBOUT Productions 

Hotel Al Naim                                                                                                                        Shirin Abu Shaqra / Manuel María Perrone                                                          Lebanon – France. 2017. 14 min

The octopus believes that the hand in front of it is a prey, but it
doesn’t know that behind every hand, there is an arm…

SHIRIN ABU SHAQRA

Shirin Abu Shaqra received her MFA with honors in 2010 from Le Fresnoy, National Studio for Contemporary Arts in France. Before entering the artistic field, she studied History and Political Science at Saint-Joseph University Beirut. She worked for a decade as archivist, librarian and researcher, publishing several academic articles.

In her artwork, she uses History for its collective memory, music for its Dionysian effect, and animation for its distanced wit. Thematically, exile and disembodiment are omnipresent elements, love and kinship a constant concern.

Her filmography includes: What Happens to a Displaced Ant? (2017), Sulayma (2014), Conversations with Changes (2010), Hold on My Glamorous (2009), Walking Distance (2008), Sabra’s Barrels (2007).

MANUEL MARÍA PERRONE

Manuel Maria Perrone was born in 1981 in Bellinzona, Switzerland. Italian and Swiss, Manuel is a film and stage director, poet and actor. Trained in the theaters, he started his career in the streets, which took him to Argentina where he lived for 5 years, exploring the world of masks and objects. He came to cinema by chance. He had a project with a group of old women which led him to a change of language from theater to cinema, for suiting the lack of memory and group energy. Afterwards, he settled down in France, and went on with cinema, while keeping a foot on stage. In 2011, he did a Writing residence with G.R.E.C. in Nice. Since 2011, he’s the artistic director
of Cappuccino Long Street Film Festival (7 editions, 350 Films).

Since 2013, he works with the Agency of Error, a cinema troupe. In 2015, he was part of the Filmmaker Academy at Locarno Film Festival. He’s developing his first feature film La Danza del Quijote.

CONTACT

Badih Massaad
Festivals Coordinator
badih@abboutproductions.com
http://www.abboutproductions.com

Welcome to Sajjanpur                                                                                                       Shyam Benegal                                                                                                                        India. 2008. 130 min

Sajjanpur (roughly translates to town of gentlemen) narrates its tale through the voice of a letter-writer, the only educated man in this village somewhere in interior India. Amidst the rural setting and the small-town problems, Benegal does what he does best – portray the human condition that is generalizable beyond the story he chooses. His protagonist is an aspiring novel writer, and we the audience become essentially his target readers as he publishes a novel with the story of his life. So, in effect, the satirical exaggeration of the village-ness of the characters, is through his eyes. Being the only one with education, he views a lot of the events with amusement. As a letter-writer, he is in a perfect position to observe, as all correspondence – personal or business – goes through him. Yet, despite himself, he does not maintain detachment from the people who come to him everyday.

Junoon                                                                                                                                        Shyam Benegal                                                                                                                      India. 1979. 140 min

Junoon, based on Ruskin Bond’s novel A Flight of Pigeonsis the story of Javed Khan (Shashi Kapoor), a pathan, who is smitten by Ruth (Nafisa Ali), a British girl and his obsession for her. Ruth’s father is killed by Sarfraz Khan (Naseeruddin Shah), an indian revolutionary and brother-in-law of Javed. Ruth, her mother and grandmother are all kidnapped by Javed Khan from a money lender’s home where they had taken refuge. Javed Khan, wants to marry Ruth and take her as a second wife but her mother Mariam opposes the marriage by laying out a condition. The rest of the movie is whether Javed keeps his word or will his obsession get the better of him.

Munda                                                                                                                                      Tinna Hrafnsdottir                                                                                                          Island. 2017. 18 min

Munda, a 60 years old woman pastor, has silently been harboring an obsession for over forty years. But one day when she finds out she is being forced to retire everything changes. On the brink of losing everything, Munda finally gathers the courage to confront her fears and hopeless desires.

TINNA HRAFNSDOTTIR

Tinna Hrafnsdóttir is an Icelandic director, screenwriter and producer both in theater and films. She is also a two time Edda Awards nominated actress, holds a MBA degree from Reykjavik University, runs her own independent theater company, Háaloftid, and film production company, Freyja Filmwork.

CONTACT

Tinna Hrafnsdóttir

tinna@internet.is