Most recent articles
24 February 2021
Interview with Ibrahim Handal, director of Bethlehem 2001
by Abla Kandalaft
Why did you choose to revisit this – I presume traumatic – event as a short film?
Actually, I am still trying to understand what I have done and why. However, I have held in these memories and feelings throughout these years with the purpose of sharing them in a short film. Other filmmakers might have already told this story differently, but I tried to use my own memories to show events that have happened. These events might not even feel as traumatic anymore, because I shared them with the (...) Continue Reading »
24 February 2021
Interview with Sami Tlili, director of Hors-jeu flagrant [Obvious Offside]
by brasserieducourt.com, Elise Loiseau
Do you have a particular interest in football? In your opinion, what place does football have in Tunisia?
I am both a big fan of football as well as a critic of its excesses (the business of football, the political exploitation of football, the fanaticism of both the fans and the major actors in this sport, to cite a few examples). I often go to the stadium to watch my favorite team play but I don’t like to talk about football, and it annoys me when debates over football are put front and (...) Continue Reading »
19 February 2021
Pick of IFFR: Sexual Drive, directed by Yoshida Kota
by Tommy Hodgson
International Film Festival Rotterdam had some dazzling pieces in its programme this year, but Sexual Drive seriously stands out in its ambition and creative execution. Japanese director Yoshida Kota’s odd but undeniably endearing film is triumphant in illustrating the intimate link between food and sex, at the sweaty intersection of lust and repressed desires. Sexual Drive is a striking piece in that the plot is three separate vignettes, all involving a seemingly sudden and dramatic (...) Continue Reading »
17 February 2021
Interview with Wissam Charaf, Director of Pas de Panique [Don’t Panic]
by Elise Loiseau
How did your film come about?
In the beginning, there was the desire to talk about what had happened to Lebanon since October 2019, precisely, a catastrophic economic crisis and the protest movement that ensued. What happened in Lebanon in the space of a year is of such tremendous violence and vulgarity, namely the loss of all the people’s savings due to the regime’s vile kleptocracy, that I wanted to make a film that would do justice to this brutal and vulgar violence. Last year in (...) Continue Reading »
12 February 2021
Our Picks + Be Kind Rewind
by Coco Green, judy
This week, guest and Mydylarama co-founder Judy Harris joins us to discuss the beauty of amateur cinema, community cohesion, gentrification, colourblind casting and the joys of play in Michel Gondry’s Be Kind Rewind.
We also touch on the issues around race and casting choices in Netflix hit show Bridgerton.
When she’s not doing revisions on a PhD on the utopian film theory of the poet Vachel Lindsay, which the viva panel described as "conceptually ambitious but let down by its (...) Continue Reading »
12 February 2021
Interview with Ramzi Bashour, director of The Trees
by Abla Kandalaft, brasserieducourt.com
How much are you aware of the severity of the droughts in Lebanon? Is this what sparked your interest in this subject matter?
A lot of the environmental science concerned in the film derived from discussions with my father who is a soil-chemist and professor of agriculture in Lebanon. Droughts were not specifically what sparked my interest. It was more about sustainable agriculture and climate change on the whole. We don’t only have dry years, we also flood sometimes – but this is because (...) Continue Reading »
10 February 2021
Interview with Alexe Poukine, director of Palma
by Abla Kandalaft, brasserieducourt.com
Can you explain your choice of title?
During the preparatory stages and the shooting of the film, the project was called Kiki, after the class mascot. The film was written as a tragi-comedy, but the project went through a transformation as time went on. At the end of editing, we realized that the original title didn’t really correspond anymore to the film, which ended up more dramatic than I had first imagined. We decided to call it Palma because that is the name of the town where the two (...) Continue Reading »
7 February 2021
Interview with Lorna Nickson Brown, director of Ned And Me
by Abla Kandalaft, brasserieducourt.com
Obvious question. Why did you choose to explore this subject matter? Have you had any personal experience of the issues around euthanasia?
I was drawn to this subject matter because I think it is one of the greatest questions of our age, or any age, and I don’t have an answer for it. I wanted to make a film which explores my doubt surrounding euthanasia and also how it relates to other human transactions. How and when we die are often taboo subjects and, in recent years, due to challenges (...) Continue Reading »
7 February 2021
Interview with Suzannah Mirghani, director of Al-sit
by Abla Kandalaft, brasserieducourt.com
This is a very moving story. Is it based on personal experience or someone you know?
The story of the arranged marriage depicted in my film Al-Sit is a common one in Sudan and the norm for many Sudanese families. While I did not personally experience an arranged marriage, I grew up in this cultural environment and know many young girls whose marriages were arranged by their parents, or, especially, their grandmothers. I am always curious about what goes through the mind of a young girl (...) Continue Reading »
6 February 2021
Interview with Don Josephus Raphael Eblahan, director of Hilum (Remedy) - AWARD WINNER!
by Abla Kandalaft, brasserieducourt.com
Can you explain the choice of title?
Hilum means two different things in our language. In the Tagalog language, “hilum/hilom” means “remedy”, while in the Visayan language it means “silence”. I grew up in Manila where we speak Tagalog, while my mother grew up in the Visayan region where they speak Bisaya – the language they also speak in the Camotes Islands where we shot our film. I figured I’d combine our cultures together and create a title that captures the feeling of “a silent healing”. As (...) Continue Reading »
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