Tunisian Youssef Chebbi’s “Plague,” Moroccan Adnane Baraka’s “We Don’t Forget” and Meryam Joobeur’s “Motherhood” feature among buzz titles at this year’s Marrakech Festival Atlas Workshops, which will have Martin Scorsese as their official patron.
Consolidated as a key platform for Moroccan, Arab and African projects and pix in production made by a new generation of filmmakers and created by Marrakech Festival artistic director Remi Bonhomme, the Atlas Workshops unspool Nov. 27-30. They take place alongside the 20th edition of the Marrakech International Film Festival, which runs from Nov. 24-Dec. 2.
In a definite potential highlight of the Atlas Workshops, Meryjam Joubeur, whose “Brotherhood” was Oscar nominated for best live action short, will present 10 minutes of “Motherhood,” one of the awaited feature debuts of 2023. It is sure to spark major festival interest.
“Plague” marks Chebbi’s second feature after acclaimed Cannes Directors’ Fortnight genre blender “Ashkal: The Tunisian Investigation,...
Consolidated as a key platform for Moroccan, Arab and African projects and pix in production made by a new generation of filmmakers and created by Marrakech Festival artistic director Remi Bonhomme, the Atlas Workshops unspool Nov. 27-30. They take place alongside the 20th edition of the Marrakech International Film Festival, which runs from Nov. 24-Dec. 2.
In a definite potential highlight of the Atlas Workshops, Meryjam Joubeur, whose “Brotherhood” was Oscar nominated for best live action short, will present 10 minutes of “Motherhood,” one of the awaited feature debuts of 2023. It is sure to spark major festival interest.
“Plague” marks Chebbi’s second feature after acclaimed Cannes Directors’ Fortnight genre blender “Ashkal: The Tunisian Investigation,...
- 11/3/2023
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
Projects come from 11 different countries across the Arab world and African continent.
The Atlas Workshops, the industry platform of the Marrakech International Film Festival, has unveiled 25 projects for its sixth edition, which runs from November 27-30.
Atlas Workshops has lined up 16 projects in development and nine films in production or post-production from 11 countries across the Arab world and African continent.
The line-up includes projects from Tunisian directors Youssef Chebbi and Erige Sehiri. Chebbi’s feature Ashkal played in Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes last year, as did Sehiri’s Under The Fig Trees.
Also coming to The Atlas Workshops is Somalia...
The Atlas Workshops, the industry platform of the Marrakech International Film Festival, has unveiled 25 projects for its sixth edition, which runs from November 27-30.
Atlas Workshops has lined up 16 projects in development and nine films in production or post-production from 11 countries across the Arab world and African continent.
The line-up includes projects from Tunisian directors Youssef Chebbi and Erige Sehiri. Chebbi’s feature Ashkal played in Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes last year, as did Sehiri’s Under The Fig Trees.
Also coming to The Atlas Workshops is Somalia...
- 11/3/2023
- by Tim Dams
- ScreenDaily
The Marrakech International Film Festival has unveiled the 25 projects selected for the sixth edition of its industry-focused Atlas Workshops, aimed at nurturing emerging Moroccan, Arab and African talent.
Running from November 27 to 30, the event will present 16 projects in development and nine films in production or post-production from 11 countries, selected from among the 320 applications received from the Arab world and African continent.
In a reflection of the growing diversity of the stories being told by Arab and African independent filmmakers, the selection spans a diverse range of film genres, from Lebanese director Sandra Tabet’s horror picture Rabies to Moroccan filmmaker Hind Bensari’s humanist documentary Out of School and Adnane Baraka’s poetic work We Don’t Forget.
Moroccan filmmaker Baraka made waves with his documentary Fragments from Heaven, about a nomad living in a tent in a remote part of Morocco who goes in search of meteorite fragments to boost the family fortunes.
Running from November 27 to 30, the event will present 16 projects in development and nine films in production or post-production from 11 countries, selected from among the 320 applications received from the Arab world and African continent.
In a reflection of the growing diversity of the stories being told by Arab and African independent filmmakers, the selection spans a diverse range of film genres, from Lebanese director Sandra Tabet’s horror picture Rabies to Moroccan filmmaker Hind Bensari’s humanist documentary Out of School and Adnane Baraka’s poetic work We Don’t Forget.
Moroccan filmmaker Baraka made waves with his documentary Fragments from Heaven, about a nomad living in a tent in a remote part of Morocco who goes in search of meteorite fragments to boost the family fortunes.
- 11/3/2023
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
A meteor shower is the central mystery of a documentary set in the Moroccan desert that feels like a cinematic sleeping pill
Here is an arthouse documentary from Morocco that moves at geological speed, demanding every single last shred of your attention. It’s a cinematic essay about the origins of human life, but for me many of the scenes felt too opaque and ponderous to really dig into the ideas.
It begins in the bleak emptiness of the Moroccan desert, where a nomad shepherd called Mohamed describes watching a meteor shower: blue fire lighting up the sky followed by a noise so loud people thought it was an earthquake; the ground beneath him trembled. Mohamed lives in a tent with his family, but his way of life is disappearing. The land is so dry (presumably as a result of climate change) that there is not enough grass for sheep to graze.
Here is an arthouse documentary from Morocco that moves at geological speed, demanding every single last shred of your attention. It’s a cinematic essay about the origins of human life, but for me many of the scenes felt too opaque and ponderous to really dig into the ideas.
It begins in the bleak emptiness of the Moroccan desert, where a nomad shepherd called Mohamed describes watching a meteor shower: blue fire lighting up the sky followed by a noise so loud people thought it was an earthquake; the ground beneath him trembled. Mohamed lives in a tent with his family, but his way of life is disappearing. The land is so dry (presumably as a result of climate change) that there is not enough grass for sheep to graze.
- 4/3/2023
- by Cath Clarke
- The Guardian - Film News
Armenia’s submission to the Oscars, animated feature “Aurora’s Sunrise,” took home the top Jury Award for best documentary at the MiradasDoc Festival, Spain’s foremost documentary film festival, which wrapped its 16th edition on Feb 4.
The festival closed on a strong note, reaffirming its relevance where interest in and demand for documentaries have only grown in strength, thanks largely to wider exposure and distribution on streamers.
Directed by Inna Sahakyan, the Armenian-German-Lithuanian co-production tells the true harrowing tale of Aurora, a survivor of the 1915 Armenian genocide who lost her family, fled slavery and later endured the grinding publicity machine of Hollywood. Doc had its world premiere at Annecy 2022.
Announcing their choice, the jury made up of Hicham Falah, Jane Mote and Ricardo Acosta, described “Aurora’s Sunrise” as “a convincing story elegantly told, through archives, animation and fiction, about a little-known genocide that sheds light and awareness on today’s political tensions and challenges.
The festival closed on a strong note, reaffirming its relevance where interest in and demand for documentaries have only grown in strength, thanks largely to wider exposure and distribution on streamers.
Directed by Inna Sahakyan, the Armenian-German-Lithuanian co-production tells the true harrowing tale of Aurora, a survivor of the 1915 Armenian genocide who lost her family, fled slavery and later endured the grinding publicity machine of Hollywood. Doc had its world premiere at Annecy 2022.
Announcing their choice, the jury made up of Hicham Falah, Jane Mote and Ricardo Acosta, described “Aurora’s Sunrise” as “a convincing story elegantly told, through archives, animation and fiction, about a little-known genocide that sheds light and awareness on today’s political tensions and challenges.
- 2/5/2023
- by Anna Marie de la Fuente
- Variety Film + TV
Iranian director Emad Aleebrahim-Dehkordi’s feature directorial debut A Tale Of Shemroon won the top Étoile d’Or—the Festival Grand Prize – at the Marrakech International Film Festival on Saturday.
The feature, which was among 14 first and second films competing in the festival’s main competition, world premiered in the San Sebastian’s New Directors section earlier this year.
Set in contemporary Tehran, the timely work revolves around two brothers living with their invalid father, and still reeling from their mother’s death.
The older brother hits on a moneymaking scheme to break out of the family’s humdrum existence which brings him to contact with the city’s gilded youth, but things do not go to plan.
Oscar-winning Italian director Paolo Sorrentino was president of the jury this year, joined by British actress Vanessa Kirby German actor Diane Kruger Australian director Justin Kurzel, Lebanese director and actor Nadine Labaki,...
The feature, which was among 14 first and second films competing in the festival’s main competition, world premiered in the San Sebastian’s New Directors section earlier this year.
Set in contemporary Tehran, the timely work revolves around two brothers living with their invalid father, and still reeling from their mother’s death.
The older brother hits on a moneymaking scheme to break out of the family’s humdrum existence which brings him to contact with the city’s gilded youth, but things do not go to plan.
Oscar-winning Italian director Paolo Sorrentino was president of the jury this year, joined by British actress Vanessa Kirby German actor Diane Kruger Australian director Justin Kurzel, Lebanese director and actor Nadine Labaki,...
- 11/19/2022
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
Few other figures are so associated in an executive role with the Marrakech Film Festival from its very birth to robust strength two decades later than Faïçal Laraïchi.
Under his stewardship in various roles, the Festival has grown from an event which dazzled with its ability to attract the big names of New Hollywood and way beyond to one which also captures the fast-rising tide of high-caliber new filmmaking talent across the African continent and Arab world. Their joint presence – inspirational big names, inspired newer filmmakers, as Laraïchi says – now lies at the heart of the Marrakech Festival, born out by its high-quality first and second film main competition, Moroccan Panorama, vibrant Atlas Workshops and other sections.
Variety caught up with Laraïchi on the eve of this year’s 19th Festival.
How have your goals entwined with the festival’s larger sweep?
I’ve been administrator for the festival since its creation,...
Under his stewardship in various roles, the Festival has grown from an event which dazzled with its ability to attract the big names of New Hollywood and way beyond to one which also captures the fast-rising tide of high-caliber new filmmaking talent across the African continent and Arab world. Their joint presence – inspirational big names, inspired newer filmmakers, as Laraïchi says – now lies at the heart of the Marrakech Festival, born out by its high-quality first and second film main competition, Moroccan Panorama, vibrant Atlas Workshops and other sections.
Variety caught up with Laraïchi on the eve of this year’s 19th Festival.
How have your goals entwined with the festival’s larger sweep?
I’ve been administrator for the festival since its creation,...
- 11/16/2022
- by Ben Croll
- Variety Film + TV
Algeria’s first animation feature “Khamsa – The Well of Oblivion” by Khaled Chiheb (Aka Vynom), the tale of an amnesiac boy navigating in a strange land, will have its Middle East premiere at Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Film Festival as part of the fest’s newly introduced New Vision section.
Produced by Algeria’s D-Click Production, the story opens a window on Algerian culture. It follows an amnesiac boy called Adi who wakes up and finds himself down a dark well. After stumbling upon a gigantic underground temple and finding two strange creatures, he tries to regain his memory. To do this he is forced to cross the Door of Oblivion.
Other standouts from the region in this section dedicated to fresh eye-opening pics, most of which are docs, comprise Moroccan director Adnane Baraka’s long-gestating doc “Fragments from Heaven,” about two men – one is a nomad, the other...
Produced by Algeria’s D-Click Production, the story opens a window on Algerian culture. It follows an amnesiac boy called Adi who wakes up and finds himself down a dark well. After stumbling upon a gigantic underground temple and finding two strange creatures, he tries to regain his memory. To do this he is forced to cross the Door of Oblivion.
Other standouts from the region in this section dedicated to fresh eye-opening pics, most of which are docs, comprise Moroccan director Adnane Baraka’s long-gestating doc “Fragments from Heaven,” about two men – one is a nomad, the other...
- 11/16/2022
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
The new section aims to programme films “addressing unique topics with a lens that will challenge and delight.”
Mark Jenkin’s Cannes Directors’ Fortnight title Enys Men and Jacquelyn Mills’ Berlinale Forum documentary Geographies Of Solitude are among eight features programmed in Red Sea: New Vision, a new programme strand in Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea International Film Festival (Rsiff).
The section has no geographical boundaries, and is aiming to “celebrate films that stand out, addressing unique topics with a lens that will challenge and delight” according to the festival.
Scroll down for the New Vision titles
The selection includes...
Mark Jenkin’s Cannes Directors’ Fortnight title Enys Men and Jacquelyn Mills’ Berlinale Forum documentary Geographies Of Solitude are among eight features programmed in Red Sea: New Vision, a new programme strand in Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea International Film Festival (Rsiff).
The section has no geographical boundaries, and is aiming to “celebrate films that stand out, addressing unique topics with a lens that will challenge and delight” according to the festival.
Scroll down for the New Vision titles
The selection includes...
- 11/16/2022
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
After a two-year, pandemic-forced pause, the Marrakech Film Festival returns with a roar, hosting a comeback edition chock-full of stars and that will showcase an international competition of first and second films.
Running from Nov. 11 – 19, the festival’s 19th edition will also cap an already stellar year for the Moroccan film industry, as the cultural event hosts home-turf premieres for a slate of local productions that have enchanted the festival circuit.
“This has been a very strong year for Moroccan cinema,” says Marrakech artistic director Rémi Bonhomme, pointing to projects like Maryam Touzani’s “The Blue Caftan,” (pictured), Fyzal Boulifa’s “The Damned Don’t Cry,” Yasmine Benkiran’s “Queens” and Adnane Baraka’s “Fragments of Heaven.”
“It’s quite historic that four Moroccan films were selected in Cannes, Venice, and Locarno this year. We see more and more Arab and African films play in international festivals and getting access to international distribution,...
Running from Nov. 11 – 19, the festival’s 19th edition will also cap an already stellar year for the Moroccan film industry, as the cultural event hosts home-turf premieres for a slate of local productions that have enchanted the festival circuit.
“This has been a very strong year for Moroccan cinema,” says Marrakech artistic director Rémi Bonhomme, pointing to projects like Maryam Touzani’s “The Blue Caftan,” (pictured), Fyzal Boulifa’s “The Damned Don’t Cry,” Yasmine Benkiran’s “Queens” and Adnane Baraka’s “Fragments of Heaven.”
“It’s quite historic that four Moroccan films were selected in Cannes, Venice, and Locarno this year. We see more and more Arab and African films play in international festivals and getting access to international distribution,...
- 11/11/2022
- by Ben Croll
- Variety Film + TV
Titles include Sofia Brockenshire’s ‘The Dependents’.
Eight feature documentaries will have world premieres in the international feature competition of Dok Leipzig, which runs from October 17-23 in Germany.
World debuts in the 13-strong international competition include Sofia Brockenshire’s The Dependents, an Argentina-Canada co-production about the life of an official in the Canadian Immigration Service.
Scroll down for the full competition selection
Brockenshire previously co-directed One Sister, a fiction film that debuted in Biennale College – Cinema at Venice Film Festival in 2016.
The international competition section will also launch Joseph Mangat’s Divine Factory, a Filipino-us-Taiwanese co-production that looks at the economic,...
Eight feature documentaries will have world premieres in the international feature competition of Dok Leipzig, which runs from October 17-23 in Germany.
World debuts in the 13-strong international competition include Sofia Brockenshire’s The Dependents, an Argentina-Canada co-production about the life of an official in the Canadian Immigration Service.
Scroll down for the full competition selection
Brockenshire previously co-directed One Sister, a fiction film that debuted in Biennale College – Cinema at Venice Film Festival in 2016.
The international competition section will also launch Joseph Mangat’s Divine Factory, a Filipino-us-Taiwanese co-production that looks at the economic,...
- 9/29/2022
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
Fragments from Heaven Review — Fragments from Heaven (2022) Film Review from the 75th Annual Locarno Film Festival, a documentary written and directed by Adnane Baraka. I’m confident in proclaiming Locarno to be the go-to festival when it comes to avant-garde documentaries. Granted, that’s only based on two years’ worth of attendance but [...]
Continue reading: Film Review: Fragments From Heaven: A Sparse Yet Contemplative Doc About Our Place in Space [Locarno 2022]...
Continue reading: Film Review: Fragments From Heaven: A Sparse Yet Contemplative Doc About Our Place in Space [Locarno 2022]...
- 8/25/2022
- by Jacob Mouradian
- Film-Book
Medusa Deluxe (Thomas Hardiman).The lineup for the 75th-anniversary edition of the festival has been announced, including new films by Helena Wittmann, João Pedro Rodrígues, Aleksandr Sokurov and others, alongside retrospectives, tributes, and much more.Piazza GRANDEAlles über Martin Suter. Ausser die Wahrheit. (Everything About Martin Suter. Everything but the Truth.) (André Schäfer)Annie Colère (Blandine Lenoir)Bullet Train (David Leitch)Compartiment tueurs (The Sleeping Car Murder) (Costa-Gavras)Delta (Michele Vannucci)Home of the Brave (Laurie Anderson)Imitation of Life (Douglas Sirk)Last Dance (Delphine Lehericey)Medusa Deluxe (Thomas Hardiman)My Neighbor Adolf (Leon Prudovsky)Paradise Highway (Anna Gutto)Piano Piano (Nicola Prosatore)Printed Rainbow (Gitanjali Rao)Semret (Caterina Mona)Une femme de notre temps (Jean Paul Civeyrac)Vous n'aurez pas ma haine (You Will Not Have My Hate) (Kilian Riedhof)Where the Crawdads Sing (Olivia Newman)Human Flowers of Flesh (Helena Wittmann).Concorso INTERNAZIONALEAriyippu (Declaration) (Mahesh Narayanan)Balıqlara xütbə...
- 7/13/2022
- MUBI
Ten world premieres among 17 international competition titles.
The Locarno Film Festival (August 3-13) has revealed the line-up for its 75th edition, which includes the world premiere of Russian filmmaker Aleksandr Sokurov’s Fairytale.
The international competition will comprise 17 films, including 10 world premieres, which will vie for the coveted Golden Leopard awards.
Scroll down for full line-up
These titles include Fairytale, a Belgium-Russia co-production written and directed by Sokurov, whose films have played in Competition at Cannes five times with features including Russian Ark in 2002. His debut The Lonely Voice Of a Man received the Bronze Leopard in Locarno in 1987.
The...
The Locarno Film Festival (August 3-13) has revealed the line-up for its 75th edition, which includes the world premiere of Russian filmmaker Aleksandr Sokurov’s Fairytale.
The international competition will comprise 17 films, including 10 world premieres, which will vie for the coveted Golden Leopard awards.
Scroll down for full line-up
These titles include Fairytale, a Belgium-Russia co-production written and directed by Sokurov, whose films have played in Competition at Cannes five times with features including Russian Ark in 2002. His debut The Lonely Voice Of a Man received the Bronze Leopard in Locarno in 1987.
The...
- 7/6/2022
- by Michael Rosser
- ScreenDaily
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