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At Eternity’s Gate[/caption]
From November 30 to December 8, 2018, festival-goers and cinema-lovers alike will discover no fewer than 80 films coming from 29 different countries at the 17th Marrakech International Film Festival (FIFM). The Festival with open with
At Eternity’s Gate directed by Julian Schnabel, the remarkable biopic that depicts the most celebrated period of the life and works of Vincent Van Gogh will open the Festival.
The line-up is divided into several sections, the main ones including the Official Competition; Gala Screenings; Special Screenings; The 11th Continent; Moroccan Panorama; Jamaa El-Fna Square Screenings; Audio-described Cinema; and a Tribute section. International Film Festival.
Fourteen (14) films, six directed by women, are in the running to win the Marrakech Etoile d’Or (or, the Gold Star), in the Official Competition. Tributes will be made to four great names in cinema, namely: Robert De Niro, Jillali Ferhati, Agnès Varda, and Robin Wright.
2018 Marrakech International Film Festival Official Selections
COMPETITION
THE GOOD GIRLS (Las niñas bien) / Mexico
By Alejandra Márquez Abella
Cast: Ilse Salas, Cassandra Ciangherotti, Paulina Gaitán, Johanna Murillo, Flavio Medina
JOY / Austria
By Sudabeh Mortezai
Cast: Joy Anwulika Alphonsus, Precious Mariam Sanusi, Angela Ekeleme Pius, Gift Igweh, Sandra John, Chika Kipo, Ella Osagie, Christian Ludwig, Mary Kreutzer
DIANE / USA
By Kent Jones
Cast: Mary Kay Place, Jake Lacy, Andrea Martin, Estelle Parsons, Deirdre O’Connell, Joyce Van Patten, Phyllis Gallagher, Glynnis O’Connor et Paul McIsaac
THE LOAD (Teret) / Serbia, France, Croatia, Iran, Qatar
By Ognjen Glavonić
Cast: Leon Lučev, Pavle Čemerikić
THE CHAMBERMAID (La camarista) / Mexico
By Lila Avilés
Cast: Gabriela Cartol, Teresa Sánchez
RED SNOW (Akai yuki) / Japan
By Sayaka Kai
Cast: Masotoshi Nagase, Nahana, Arata Lura, Yui Nastukawa, Koichi Sato
LOOK AT ME (Fi ‘ainaya / Regarde-moi) / Tunisia
By Nejib Belkhadhi
Cast: Nidhal Saadi, Idryss Kharroubi, Sawssen Maalej, Aziz Jebali, Mouna Nourredine
IRINA / Bulgaria
By Nadejda Koseva
Cast: Martina Apostolova, Hristo Ushev, Irini Jambonas, Kasiel Noah Asher, Krassimir Dokov, Alexander Kossev
VANISHING DAYS (Màn yóu) / China
By Zhu Xin
Cast: Jlang Li, Huang Jing as, Qiu Xiaqiu, Chen Yan, Li Xiaoxing, Lu Jiahe
URGENT (Tafaha al-kail / Une urgence ordinaire) / Morocco, Switzerland
By Mohcine Besri
Cast: Rachid Mustapha, Fatima Zahra Benacer, Youssef Alaoui, Saïd Bey, Ghalia Ben Zaouia, Ayoub Layoussifi, Younes Bouab.
ROJO / Argentina, Brazil, France, the Netherlands, Germany
By Benjamín Naishtat
Cast: Dario Grandinetti, Andrea Frigerio, Alfredo Castro, Diego Cremonesi
AKASHA / Sudan, South Africa, Germany, Qatar
By hajooj kuka
Cast: Ekram Marcus, Kamal Ramadan, Ganja Mohamed Chakado, Abdallah Alnur Najla Kamal
THE GIRAFFE (La ahdun hunak) / Egypt
By Ahmed Magdy
Cast: Amr Hosny, Shaza Moharam, Haidy Koussa, Salma Hassan, Rasha Magdy
ALL GOOD (Alles ist gut) / Germany
By Eva Trobisch
Cast: Aenne Schwarz, Andreas Döhler, Hans Löw, Tilo Nest, Lisa Hagmeister, Lina Wendel
Gala Screenings
AT ETERNITY’S GATE / USA, France
By Julian Schnabel
Cast: Willem Dafoe, Rupert Friend, Mads Mikkelsen, Mathieu Amalric, Emmanuelle Seigner
EUFORIA / Italy
By Valeria Golino
Cast: Riccardo Scamarcio, Valerio Mastandrea, Isabella Ferrari, Valentina Cervi, Jasmine Trinca
ROMA / Mexico, USA
By Alfonso Cuarón
Cast: Yalitza Aparicio, Marina de Tavira
GREEN BOOK / USA
By Peter Farrelly
Cast: Viggo Mortensen, Mahershala Ali, Linda Cardellini
YOMEDDINE / Egypt, USA, Austria
By A.B.Shawky
Cast: Rady Gamal, Ahmed Abdelhafiz, Shahira Fahmy
CAPERNAUM (Capharnaüm) / Lebanon, USA
By Nadine Labaki
Cast: Zain Al Rafeea, Yordanos Shifera, Boluwatife Treasure Bankole, Kawthar Al Haddad, Fadi Youssef,
Nadine Labaki.
SPECIAL SCREENINGS
THE ACCUSED (Acusada) / Argentina
By Gonzalo Tobal
Cast: Lali Espósito, Leonardo Sbaraglia, Inés Estévez, Daniel Fanego, Ferardo Romano, Gael García Bernal
WILDLIFE /USA
By Paul Dano
Cast: Ed Oxenbould, Carey Mulligan, Jake Gyllenhaal
EXT. NIGHT (Leil kharigi) / Egypt
By AhmadAbdalla
Cast: Karim Kassem, Mona Hala, Sherief El Desouky, Ahmad Magdy, Aly Kassem
HER SMELL / USA
By Alex Ross Perry
Cast: Elisabeth Moss, Cara Delevingne, Dan Stevens, Amber Heard, Agyness Deyn
THE TOWER / Norway
By Mats Grorud
Film d’animation
LIONHEART / Nigeria
By Genevieve Nnaji
Cast: Genevieve Nnaji, Nkem Owoh, Pete Edochie, Onyeka Onwenu
REAL LOVE (C’est ça l’amour) / France, Belgium
By Claire Burger
Cast: Bouli Lanners, Justine Lacroix, Sarah Henochsberg
RAFIKI / Kenya
By Wanuri Kahiu
Cast: Samantha Mugatsia, Sheila Munyiva, Jimmi Gathu, Nini Wacera, Dennis Muskoya
POISONOUS ROSES (Ward masmum) / Egypt
By Fawzi Saleh
Cast: Koky, Mahmoud Hemida, Ibrahim El Nagary
BIRDS OF PASSAGE (Pájaros de verano) / Colombia, Denmark, Mexico
By Cristina Gallego et Ciro Guerra
Cast: Carmiña Martínez, Jose Acosta, Natalia Reyes, Jhon Narváez, Greider Meza, José Vicente Cote
DIVINE WIND (Rih Rabbani) / Algeria
By Merzak Allouache
Cast: Sarah Layssac, Mohamed Oughlis, Messaouda Boukhira, Hacene Benzerari, Abdelatif Benahmed, Brahim
Derris
THE 11th CONTINENT
VIEWS FROM MOROCCO AND THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE
Presented by Jay Weissberg
BURNING / South Korea
By Lee Chang-dong
Cast: Yoo Ah-in, Steven Yeun, Jun Jong-seo
ANGELO / Austria, Luxembourg
By Markus Schleinzer
Cast: Makita Samba, Alba Rohrwacher, Larisa Faber, Kenny Nzogang, Lukas Miko
NERVOUS TRANSLATION / The Philippines
By Shireen Seno
Cast: Jana Agoncillo, Angge Santos, Sid Lucero, Cocoy Lumbao
HALE COUNTY THIS MORNING, THIS EVENING / USA
By RaMell Ross
Documentary
THE DEAD AND THE OTHERS (Chuva é cantoria na aldeia dos mortos) / Brazil
By João Salaviza, Renée Nader Messora
Cast: Henrique Ihjãc Krahô, Raene Kôtô Krahô
SRBENKA / Croatia
By Nebojša Slijepčević
Documentaire
ERASED,ASCENTOFTHE INVISIBLE (Tirss, rihlat al sou’oud ila al mar’i) / Lebanon
By Ghassan Halwani
Documentary
ENDLESS TAIL (Beskrajni Rep) / Croatia
By Željka Suková
Cast: Julie Suková, Kašpar Suk, Prolaznici Tokijom, Željka Suková, Aleš Suk
MANTA RAY(Kraben rahu) / Thailand, France, China
By Phuttiphong Aroonpheng
Cast: Wanlop Rungkumjad, Aphisit Hama, Rasmee Wayrana
THE SOUND OF MASKS / South Africa, Portugal
By Sara CF de Gouveia
Documentary
YESTERDAY (Tegnap) / Hungary, France, the Netherlands, Morocco, Sweden, Germany
By Kenyeres Bálint
Cast: Vlad Ivanov, Djemel Barek, Jacques Weber, Gamil Ratib, Johanna Ter Steege
STILL RECORDING (Lisah’am tsajil) / Syria, Lebanon, Qatar, Germany
By Saeed Al Batal, Ghiath Ayoub
RENAULT 12 / France
By Mohamed El Khatib
Docu-fiction
MOROCCAN PANORAMA
VOLUBILIS (Walili)
By Faouzi Bensaïdi
Cast: Mouhcine Malzi, Nadia Kounda, Abdelhadi Taleb, Nezha Rahil, Faouzi Bensaidi, Mouna Fettou
WE COULD BE HEROES
By Hind Bensari
Documentary
THE HEALER (Mbarkaa)
By Mohamed Zineddaine
Cast: Ahmed Moustafid, Fatima Atif, Mehdi Laarroubi, Hanane Elkabani, Nosrine Adam
SOFIA
By Meryem Benm’Barek
Cast: Maha Alemi, Lubna Azabal, Faouzi Bensaidi, Sarah Perles, Hamza Khafif, Raouia
STATELESS (Bila mawtin)
By Narjiss Nejjar
Cast: El Ghalia Ben Zaouia, Avishay Benazra, Aziz Fadili, Nadia Niazi, Mohamed Nadif, Julie Gayet
CATHARSYS, OR THE AFINA TALES OF THE LOST WORLD
By Yassine Marco Marroccu
Cast: Mohamed Zouaoui, Aziz Dadas, Sonia Okacha, Ljubisa Ristic
JAHILIYA
By Hicham Lasri
Cast: Mostapha Houari, Salma Eddlimi, Hassan Ben Badida, Rami Fijjaj
CINEMA FOR YOUNG AUDIENCES
THE TOWER (Al borj) / Norway
By Mats Grorud
Animated film
IQBAL, A TALE OF A FEARLESS CHILD / Italy, France
By Michael Fuzellier, Babak Payami
Animated film
THE PRINCESS BRIDE / USA
By Rob Reiner
Cast: Robin Wright, Carey Elwes, Mandy Patinkin, Chris Sarandon, Christopher Guest, Wallace Shawn, André the Giant, Fred Savage
THE BIG BAD FOX AND OTHER TALES (Le Grand Méchant Renard et autres contes) / France, Belgium
By Benjamin Renner, Patrick Imbert
Cast: Guillaume Darnault, Jules Bienvenu, Augustin Jahn Sani, Violette Samama, Céline Ronté
Film d’animation
THE BREADWINNER / Canada, Ireland, Luxembourg
By Nora Twomey
Animated film
LE CINÉMA EN AUDIODESCRIPTION POUR LES MALVOYANTS
FACES PLACES (Visages villages) / France
By Agnès Varda et JR
Documentary
THE EAVESDROPPER (La Mécanique de l’ombre) / Belgium, France
By Thomas Kruithof
Cast: François Cluzet, Denis Polalydès, Sami Bouajila, Siman Akbarian, Alba Rohrwacher
LAHNECH / Morocco
By Driss Mrini
Cast: Aziz Dades, Majdouline Idrissi, Fadila Benmoussa, Mouhcine Malzi, Abdelghani Sannak
BLADE RUNNER 2049 / USA, United Kingdom, Hungary, Canada
By Denis Villeneuve
Cast: Ryan Gosling, Robin Wright, Harrison Ford, Ana de Armas, Sylvia Hoeks,
LADY BIRD / USA
By Greta Gerwig
Cast: Robin Wright, Saoirse Ronan, Laurie Metcalf, Tracy Letts, Lucas Hedges, Timothée Chalamet
JEMAA EL FNA
KORSA / Morocco
By Abdellah Toukouna
Cast: Abdellah Ferkous, Bouchera Ahraich, Khouloud Batioui, Fadilla Ben Moussa, Omar Azzouzi
AS LONG AS I LIVE (Jab tak hai jaan) / India
By Yash Chopra
Cast : Shah Rukh Khan, Katrina Kaif, Anushka Sharma
THE UNTOUCHABLES / USA
By Brian De Palma
Cast : Robert De Niro, Kevin Costner, Charles Martin Smith, Andy Garcia, Sean Connery
KUNDUN / USA
By Martin Scorsese
ALEXANDRIA AGAIN AND FOREVER (Iskandariyya Kaman wa Kaman) / Egypt, France
By Youssef Chahine
Cast: Youssra, Youssef Chahine, Hussein Fahmy, Hesham Selim, Taheya Cariocca
FORREST GUMP / USA
By Robert Zemeckis
Cast: Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, Gary Sinise, Mykelti Williamson, Sally Field
BROOKS, MEADOWS AND LOVELY FACES (Al-ma’ wal-khodra wal-wajh al-hassan) / Egypt
By Yousry Nasrallah
Cast: Laila Elwi, Bassem Samra, Menna Shalabi, Zeina Mansour, Sabreen
HUSBAND MATERIAL (Manmarziyaan) / India
By Anurag Kashyap
Cast: Taapsee Pannu, Vicky Kaushal, Abhishek Bachchan
ANT-MAN AND THE WASP / USA
By Peyton Reed
Cast: Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Michael Peña, Michelle Pfeiffer, Laurence Fishburne, Michael Douglas
ASTERIX & OBELIX: MISSION CLEOPATRA (Astérix & Obélix: Mission Cléôpatre) / France, Italy
By Alain Chabat
Cast: Gérard Dépardieu, Christian Clavier, Jamel Debbouze, Monica Bellucci, Alain Chabat, Claude Rich, Gérard Darmon
LAHNECH / Morocco
By Driss Mrini
Cast: Aziz Dades, Majdouline Idrissi, Fadila Benmoussa, Mouhcine Malzi, Abdelghani Sannak
Tributes
ROBERT DE NIRO
GOODFELLAS / USA
By Martin Scorsese
Cast: Robert De Niro, Ray Liotta, Joe Pesci, Lorraine Bracco, Paul Sorvino
THE UNTOUCHABLES / USA
By Brian De Palma
Cast: Robert De Niro,Kevin Costner, Charles Martin Smith, Andy Garcia, Sean Connery
RAGING BULL / USA
By Martin Scorsese
Cast: Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, Cathy Moriarty, Frank Vincent, Nicholas Colasanto
AGNÈS VARDA
CLEO FROM 5 TO 7 (Cléo de 5 à 7) / France
De Agnès Varda
Interprétation: Georges de Beauregard, Carlo Ponti, Corinne Marchand, Antoine Bourseiller, Dominique Davray
FACES PLACES (Visages villages) / France
By Agnès Varda, JR
Documentaire
VAGABOND (Sans toit ni loi) / France
By Agnès Varda
Cast: Sandrine Bonnaire, Macha Méril, Stephane Freiss, Yolande Moreau, Patrick Lepczynski, Yahiaoui Assouna
ROBIN WRIGHT
THE PRINCESS BRIDE/ USA
By Rob Reiner
Cast: Robin Wright, Carey Elwes, Mandy Patinkin, Chris Sarandon, Christopher Guest, Wallace Shawn, André the Giant, Fred Savage
SHE’S SO LOVELY / USA
By Nick Cassavetes
Cast: Sean Penn, Robin Wright, Harry Dean Stanton, James Gandolfini, John Travolta
FORREST GUMP / USA
By Robert Zemeckis
Cast: Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, Gary Sinise, Mykelti Williamson, Sally Field
BLADE RUNNER 2049 / USA, United Kingdom, Hungary, Canada
By Denis Villeneuve
Cast: Ryan Gosling, Robin Wright, Harrison Ford, Ana de Armas, Sylvia Hoeks
Read more
The Green Fog. Regie/directors: Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson, Galen Johnson[/caption]
The Forum program of the 2018 Berlin International Film Festival will feature 44 films, 35 of which world premieres. This year, Arsenal – Institute for Film and Video Art is putting on the Forum as part of the Berlinale for the 48th time.
21 years after his directorial debut The Day a Pig Fell into the Well, Korean director Hong Sangsoo makes a more auspicious return to the Forum. Grass is another cheerfully melancholy story about the guests at a small café whose owner loves classical music. Kim Minhee, who won the Silver Bear for Best Actress in 2017, plays a café regular who always seems to be at the table in the corner writing on her laptop. She repeatedly draws inspiration from what’s happening around her, picking up the threads of the dialogue and spinning them further and sometimes even actively intervening in conversations. Is she perhaps the author of these relationship dramas in miniature, whose stores and themes mirror one another?
French director Claire Simon is equally willing to try out new experiments in her documentary works. In her new film Premières solitudes (Young Solitude), she creates a cinematographic space for open, intimate discussion together with pupils from a school in the Paris suburbs. As they talk together about their backgrounds, parents, first loves, longings and fears for the future, ten ordinary teenagers forge ever closer bonds. It’s good to realise you’re not alone.
For his part, Ukrainian director Sergei Loznitsa is showing a film at the Berlinale for the very first time. In Den’ Pobedy (Victory Day), he observes the huge crowds that gather each year at the Soviet War Memorial in Berlin-Treptow on May 9th and records the hustle and bustle with quiet precision, as different moods come to the fore: pride, contemplation, patriotism, curiosity, the desire for recognition.
Two films from this year’s program draw on video material shot by their directors in periods of political upheaval and imbue it with new significance. At the end of the 1980s, Kristina Konrad collected opinions on the streets of Uruguay in relation to a referendum to be held on a law granting impunity to those responsible for the military dictatorship. Unas preguntas (One or Two Questions) takes a magnifying glass to the democratic process.
Around the same time, the scandal surrounding the Nazi past of former UN General Secretary and Austrian president Kurt Waldheim was making headlines worldwide. Edited together entirely from archive footage, Ruth Beckermann’s Waldheims Walzer (The Waldheim Waltz) is a documentary essay of frightening topicality.
Julien Faraut also works with material largely shot in the 80s in L’empire de la perfection (In the Realm of Perfection). Back then, tennis-obsessed director Gil de Kermadec attempted to use film as means of analysing the game. His meticulously shot footage of John McEnroe matches during the French Open forms the starting point for an ironic look at the parallels between film and the sporting world: cinema lies, sport does not.
Corneliu Porumboiu’s Fotbal Infinit (Infinite Football) takes an equally peculiar look at the world of sport, this time in provincial Romania, following a local official’s attempts to bequeath the world an improved version of the beautiful game. But does everything here really just revolve around football?
Two features from the US shine a light on intellectual escapism. Ted Fendt’s second feature Classical Period is once again shot in Philadelphia on 16mm and tells a drolly melancholy story about intellectualism and loneliness. The members of a reading group exchange cultural and literary references with such vigour that there’s little room for anything else: an attempt to leave the modern world behind or merely their own solitary existences?
Ricky D’Ambrose’s debut Notes On an Appearance may be set in Brooklyn, but unfolds in a similar milieu. Before the backdrop of the disquiet spread by the followers of a controversial philosopher, the film uses both real-life documents and smartly falsified writings to tell the story of a young man who one day disappears without warning. An eerie look at modern life with shades of dystopia.
Josephine Decker’s Madeline’s Madeline on the other hand plunges into the analogies of creativity and insanity. The young titular heroine doesn’t like spending time with her mother, played by actress Miranda July, and feels far freer when with her theatre group. But where does the border lie between personality and role?
Two features from Morocco explore gender relations. Jahilya by Hicham Lasri (the title alludes to the pre-Islamic “time of ignorance”) is a furious condemnation of the misogyny of Moroccan society and all its attendant malice.
Narjiss Nejjar’s Apatride (Stateless) gives an account of a historical event from a female perspective, an event that still dictates the relationship between Morocco and Algeria to this day. Full of beguiling images, her feature shows how a gentle, yet determined woman attempts to prevail over the border between the two countries.
It would be more than appropriate to refer to the electrifying directorial debut An Elephant Sitting Still as a new hope for Chinese cinema. But its 29-year-old director Ho Bu, who had previously made a name for himself with two novels, took his own life soon after the film was completed. This visually stunning work links together the biographies of a range of different protagonists in virtuoso fashion, narrating the course of one single, tension-filled day from dawn until dusk, painting a portrait of a society marked by selfishness in the process.