The city of Tarifa hosts the 18th edition of the African Film Festival of Tarifa-Tanger FCAT between May 28 and June 6, 2021. A cross-border festival in southern Europe on African cinemas and its diasporas with the presence of three Moroccan films and with the development of Espacio Escuela between the two countries
In the Afroscope section will be presented ” Some meaningless events ”, a feature film by Moroccan Mostafa Derkaoui, restored by the Cinémathèque de Catalogne 75 years after being censored in Morocco, where it generated a lot of enthusiasm in its time, so it is a film barely seen by the public, the organizers know in a statement.
After his exhibition at a festival in Paris in 1975 and his ban by the Moroccan government at the time, he hardly sees himself anymore, underlines the same source. But the researcher of Moroccan cinema, Léa Morin, finds a copy in Barcelona. The film, straddling documentary and fiction, is set in Casablanca and talks about the Moroccan on foot and everything that can happen to him in a film against authoritarian power relations.
For his part, the Moroccan Saïd Hamich Benlarbi will present ” Departure “ in the Africa section shortly. This director, who was also the producer of Sofia (by Meryem Benm’Barek-Aloïsi) will transport the public with his work in 2004. “For Adil, 11, summer takes place playing with his gang and while waiting for the participation of his idol, the middle-distance runner. Hicham El Guerrouj, at his last Olympic Games. But the arrival of his father and his brother, who came to spend a few days in France, will change his life forever ”details the organizers
For those who do not know Saïd Hamich Benlarbi, the artist was born in 1986 in Morocco. He is the executive producer of several feature films including Neither Heaven nor Earth by Clément Cogitore and Sofia by Meryem Benm’Barek. His film Return to Bollene received the FIFIB Contraband Prize in 2017, says the organizers.
Ilias El Faris, member of the Hyperopia jury for this 18th edition, directs Sukar, short film that the public will have the opportunity to see in the Africa section shortly. Born in Agadir in 1990, Ilias El Faris now lives in Paris. His first short film, Azayz, shot in super 8mm in Taghazout, was selected in several international festivals and won the international jury prize at Doclisboa 2016.
In 2017, Ilias shot Roujoula in Casablanca, selected in the international competition of the Clermont-Ferrand Festival and awarded, among others, the Grand Prix Court of the 40th edition of Cinemed. For the collection “The Animal”, commissioned by the CNAP (National Center for Plastic Arts) and the GREC (Group of Cinematographic Research and Tests), Ilias directs Ain Diab in March 2019 screened at the Côté Court festival. Shot the same year, in 16 mm on the beach of Casablanca, Sukar is his latest fiction. It is the story of two teenagers who discreetly live a passion.
Furthermore, Espacio Escuela of the FCAT will bring, one more year, schoolchildren from Spain and Morocco to other realities of Africa through cinema, explains the organizers. A Rwandan feature film, a Moroccan short film and a Franco-Swiss animated film make up the programming of Espacio Escuela. A project to learn about the varied cultural wealth of the continent through cinema and educational sessions.
The organizers of the festival thus recall that the Maghreb country and the Andalusian autonomous community are regions with a common history, with deep historical and cultural links that this festival renews by extending a bridge of cinema and culture in the Strait of Gibraltar. The guest country of the 18th edition of the Tarifa African Film Festival is Sudan, with the first retrospective in Spain devoted to its cinematography, the same source reports.
” Already at the last edition, in 2020, the documentary Talking about trees, by Sudanese Suhaib Gasmelbari was one of the winners both by the jury and by the public. In this wake and in order to support the strengthening of Sudanese cinematography, the FCAT will present films and cinematographic archives ranging from the 1960s to the present day ” concludes the organizers.
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