Festival of cinemas from Maghreb Festival of cinemas from Maghreb Upheaval in the Maghreb cinema
The festival "Panorama des Cinémas du Maghreb et du Moyen-Orient" (Overview of Cinemas from the Maghreb and Middle East), which acts as a showcase of the Persian-Arab-Berber cinema renewal, will hold its 10th edition from March 31st to April 19th in Saint-Denis. This year, Morocco is under the spotlights.
Festival of off-screen cinemas
The aim of Panorama des Cinémas du Maghreb et du Moyen-Orient (Overview of Cinemas from the Maghreb and Middle East) is to promote films from the South world area, which are poorly valued by mainstream programmers, and help them find a distribution in France.
The festival holds political and cultural ambitions, and has become in the course of its decade of existence an acknowledged venue for film buffs. Its program gathers a challenging selection of films from Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Lebanon, Palestine and Syria. Long-duration films are featured along with short-duration films, and fictions mix with documentaries.
This year, the programme gives "carte blanche" to the Cinémathèque d’Alger and offers a master class with Moroccan filmmaker Hakim Belabess, exhibitions or free concerts. The festival will close on Sunday 19th of April in the l’Institut du monde arabe with the screening of surprise film.
Red carpet for Morocco
This year focuses on Moroccan cinema, with 15 films programmed. The liberalisation of films in Morocco since the rise of Mohammed VI has contributed to turn the country in the new film lab in Maghreb. Today, the country produces committed and dynamic films, particularly in the critic of radical Islam.
A screen against obscurantism
What's better than cinema to assess the political level of a country? A revolutionary wind is blowing among the Maghreb and Middle East filmmakers. With Le Chant des Tortues (The song of the turtles), Moroccan filmmaker Jawad Rhalib talks about the uprising of the "Facebook generation" in 2011. No Land’s Song by Ayat Naiafi talks about the fight of Iranian women yearning to break free; 10949 by Nassima Guessoum tells the story of a forgotten hero of the Algerian revolution, etc.
The film production in those regions echoes the Arab Spring. A libertarian dynamic will feed the city of Saint-Denis until April 19th.
Check out the official trailer of the PCMO