Exclusive: Production is underway on Desert Warrior, an action packed epic feature set in 7th Century Arabia. Anthony Mackie stars with Aiysha Hart, Sharlto Copley, Ghassan Massoud, Sami Bouajila, Lamis Ammar, Géza Röhrig, and Sir Ben Kingsley. The film is shooting in Neom and Tabuk in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The script is by Wyatt, Erica Beeney, David Self, and Gary Ross.
Mbc Studios, Jb Pictures and AGC Studios are teamed on the film, the first tentpole-sized picture to be shot at Neom.
It’s 7th century, when Arabia is made up of rival, feuding tribes, disunited and forever at each other’s throats. Emperor Kisra (Kingsley) has a fearsome reputation for being utterly ruthless. But when the Arabian Princess Hind (Hart) refuses to become the emperor’s concubine, the stage is set for an epic confrontation. It is a battle that, by its conclusion, will have changed the...
Mbc Studios, Jb Pictures and AGC Studios are teamed on the film, the first tentpole-sized picture to be shot at Neom.
It’s 7th century, when Arabia is made up of rival, feuding tribes, disunited and forever at each other’s throats. Emperor Kisra (Kingsley) has a fearsome reputation for being utterly ruthless. But when the Arabian Princess Hind (Hart) refuses to become the emperor’s concubine, the stage is set for an epic confrontation. It is a battle that, by its conclusion, will have changed the...
- 11/15/2021
- by Mike Fleming Jr
- Deadline Film + TV
Cross-city transport unties people from different faiths, backgrounds.
Film Movement has picked up North American rights to Amos Gitai’s Venice 2018 award winner A Tramway In Jerusalem, featuring an ensemble that includes Mathieu Amalric.
The Israeli filmmaker’s latest feature is a multi-cultural drama exploring the cultural divides that separate the inhabitants of one of the world’s most iconic cities, as different religions mingle on the Light Rail Red Line of Jerusalem’s tramway that connects the city from East to West, from the Palestinian neighborhoods of Shuafat and Beit Hanina to Mount Herzl, site of Israel’s national cemetery.
Film Movement has picked up North American rights to Amos Gitai’s Venice 2018 award winner A Tramway In Jerusalem, featuring an ensemble that includes Mathieu Amalric.
The Israeli filmmaker’s latest feature is a multi-cultural drama exploring the cultural divides that separate the inhabitants of one of the world’s most iconic cities, as different religions mingle on the Light Rail Red Line of Jerusalem’s tramway that connects the city from East to West, from the Palestinian neighborhoods of Shuafat and Beit Hanina to Mount Herzl, site of Israel’s national cemetery.
- 5/31/2019
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
Written and directed by Elite Zexner, “Sand Storm” is a revealing look at wedding festivities as they get underway in a Bedouin village in Southern Israel.
The Sundance World Cinema Dramatic Grand Jury Prize Winner follows Jalila (Ruba Blal), a woman who finds herself in the uncomfortable position of hosting her husband Suliman’s (Hitham Omari ) marriage to a second, much younger wife. During the celebration, Jalila finds out that her eldest daughter Layla (Lamis Ammar ) is involved with a boy from her university – a strictly forbidden liaison that would shame the family. Trying to separate them, Jalila tries to contain Layla’s situation by clamping down on her, though Layla has different plans for her life.
“About eight years ago, I escorted an 18-year-old to her arranged marriage ceremony to a man she had never met and she told me had a boyfriend in college,” Zexer told IndieWire back...
The Sundance World Cinema Dramatic Grand Jury Prize Winner follows Jalila (Ruba Blal), a woman who finds herself in the uncomfortable position of hosting her husband Suliman’s (Hitham Omari ) marriage to a second, much younger wife. During the celebration, Jalila finds out that her eldest daughter Layla (Lamis Ammar ) is involved with a boy from her university – a strictly forbidden liaison that would shame the family. Trying to separate them, Jalila tries to contain Layla’s situation by clamping down on her, though Layla has different plans for her life.
“About eight years ago, I escorted an 18-year-old to her arranged marriage ceremony to a man she had never met and she told me had a boyfriend in college,” Zexer told IndieWire back...
- 12/9/2016
- by Liz Calvario
- Indiewire
Sand Storm (Sufat Chol) Kino Lorber Reviewed by: Harvey Karten, Shockya Grade: B Director: Elite Zexer Written by: Elite Zexer Cast: Lamis Ammar, Ruba Blal, Hitham Omari, Khadija Al Akel Screened at: Critics’ link, NYC, 9/25/16 Opens: September 28, 2016 If you hate traffic jams, you might envy the Bedouin people who live in Israel’s Negev desert. But after you see Elite Zexer’s “Sand Storm,” you will realize that aside from never worrying about a parking space, your life will be otherwise not so good. In fact if you’re of the female persuasion, you’ll wonder why all the well-off women in the West continue pushing for their rights while the [ Read More ]
The post Sand Storm Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.
The post Sand Storm Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.
- 10/2/2016
- by Harvey Karten
- ShockYa
The Academy Awards may be the world’s most prestigious award given to a piece of cinema, but various countries across the globe hold their own version of these awards, with nominations coming just as hard fought. So to see a film garner 12 nominations ranging from Best Director to Best Script should put it near the top of anyone’s “must watch” list when it rolls into one’s respective town.
That’s the case for the debut film from writer/director Elite Zexer. Entitled Sand Storm, the film garnered much attention not only after earning the cavalcade of nominations in the Israeli Ophir Awards but also a run at this year’s Sundance and Toronto International Film Festivals. The film introduces us to two women stuck in the middle of a tiny Bedouin village’s backward social traditions and unbreakable patriarchy. The mother and daughter duo of Jalila (Ruba...
That’s the case for the debut film from writer/director Elite Zexer. Entitled Sand Storm, the film garnered much attention not only after earning the cavalcade of nominations in the Israeli Ophir Awards but also a run at this year’s Sundance and Toronto International Film Festivals. The film introduces us to two women stuck in the middle of a tiny Bedouin village’s backward social traditions and unbreakable patriarchy. The mother and daughter duo of Jalila (Ruba...
- 9/30/2016
- by Joshua Brunsting
- CriterionCast
“Sand Storm” director Elite Zexer and actress Lamis Ammar spoke with me about the Lives of Bedouin Women in Israel this year in Sundance.Sand Storm’s Lamis Ammar
Sundance World Cinema Dramatic Grand Jury Prize Winner, “Sand Storm” was written and directed by Elite Zexer. She and Lamis Ammar, the actress playing the oldest daughter in a family of girls who is an independent college educated woman, and I spoke at Sundance about the experience of making their first film together.
Taking place in a Bedouin village in Israel, the film opens as Layla is driving a car with her father to their home in the desert. She reveals her grades are not as high as her father wants as he teaches her how to drive. They arrive home as wedding festivities are being prepared by Layla’s mother Jalila who must host her husband Suliman’s marriage to a second, much younger wife. During the celebration, Jalila discovers that her eldest daughter Layla has a boyfriend at her university — a strictly forbidden liaison that would shame the family.
Sundance World Cinema Dramatic Grand Jury Prize Winner, “Sand Storm” was written and directed by Elite Zexer. She and Lamis Ammar, the actress playing the oldest daughter in a family of girls who is an independent college educated woman, and I spoke at Sundance about the experience of making their first film together.
Taking place in a Bedouin village in Israel, the film opens as Layla is driving a car with her father to their home in the desert. She reveals her grades are not as high as her father wants as he teaches her how to drive. They arrive home as wedding festivities are being prepared by Layla’s mother Jalila who must host her husband Suliman’s marriage to a second, much younger wife. During the celebration, Jalila discovers that her eldest daughter Layla has a boyfriend at her university — a strictly forbidden liaison that would shame the family.
- 9/28/2016
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Jose here. Elite Zexer’s Sand Storm takes place in a Bedouin village where men have all the power, even if it’s evident it’s women who should be running things. Within this community we meet the young Layla (Lamis Ammar), a free spirited young woman who is secretly dating a local boy, aware that her parents might want to marry her to someone else. Even though the premise might seem familiar, what’s remarkable is how Zexer crafts a study about the structure of this village, making the film feel more like an anthropological study than a traditional drama. After successful showings at Sundance and Toronto, the film went on to win the top Ophir Award making it Israel’s official submission for the Oscars. I spoke to Zexer about the origins of the story, her curious background, and whether she thinks her film is a political work.
- 9/28/2016
- by Jose
- FilmExperience
"Did you ever look at your daughter?" Kino Lorber has debuted the official Us trailer for the indie drama Sand Storm, and Israeli film which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year. It's a drama set in Bedouin village in Southern Israel about a mother and daughter struggling to find their own way and break the rules of the society they live in. The film stars Ruba Blal-Asfour as Jalila, along with Lamis Ammar, Haitham Omari, and Khadija Al Akel. This won the Grand Jury Prize in the World Cinema Dramatic competition at Sundance this year. Our friend Tomris Laffly said the film knocked her socks off, adding that it's "a slow-burning and suspenseful emotional drama." This trailer hints at an outstanding film. Here's the first official trailer (+ poster) for Elite Zexer's Sand Storm, direct from YouTube: As Jalila (Ruba Blal), a 42-year-old Bedouin woman, finds...
- 8/24/2016
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
This year we are seeing many films from Mena, that is an acronym for the Middle East and North Africa. More commonly called “Arab” cinema, (though the term is inaccurate because several countries in the region are not actually “Arab”) the films of this region are winning many awards and garnering much interest worldwide.
More than 10 Arab films participated in the Berlinale’s Forum and Forum Expanded programs this year, in addition to the ones which participated in the Official Competition (“Inhebek Hedi”/ “Hedi” from Tunisia and “A Dragon Arrives!” by Mani Haghighi from Iran). This makes an especially remarkable year for Arab cinema’s presence in Berlin.
The Forum focus on Arab cinema, represented with films from Egypt, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria and Saudi Arabia highlights mostly young directors whose works explore both the past and present of their homelands.
The films included: “A Magical Substance Flows into Me” by artist Jumana Manna (Palestine), “Akher ayam el madina”/ “In the Last Days of the City” (Egypt) by Tamer El Said (international sales by Still Moving), documentary “Makhdoumin”/ “A Maid for Each” (Lebanon) by Maher Abi Samra (Isa: Docs & Film), “Barakah yoqabil Barakah”/ “Barakah Meets Barakah” (Saudi Arabia) by Mahmoud Sabbagh and Manazil (Isa: Mpm), “Bela abwab”/ “Houses without Doors” by Syrian-Armenian director Avo Kaprealian. Of course the 46th Berlinale Forum also screens films from European, Latin American and Asian directors.
The Tunisian film in Competition “Inhebek Hedi”/ “Hedi” by Mohamed Ben Attia, won the Best First Feature Award and its leading man, Majd Mastoura, received the prestigious Silver Bear for Best Actor for his role as Hedi. Attia’s debut feature film is a thoughtful love story about identity and independence in Tunisian society. It is being sold internationally by Luxbox.
Palestinian director Mahdi Fleifel won the Silver Bear Jury Prize for Short Film for “ A Man Returned”, a 30-minute portrayal of a young refugee struggling to make a life for himself in Lebanon’s Ain El-Helweh camp, being sold internationally by 3.14 Collectif. He previously made an award-winning documentary about his own experience as a refugee. The short film was also selected as the Berlin Short Film Nominee for the European Film Awards.
The Ecumenical Jury awarded the Forum Prize to Saudi filmmaker Mahmoud Sabbagh for his well-received romantic comedy “Barakah Yoqabil Barakah”/ “Barakah Meets Barakah”, a social commentary on the lives of young people in Saudi Arabia. It shared the prize with Danish production “Les Sauteurs”/ “Those Who Jump” – a film that also highlights the plight of Europe-bound refugees.
Egyptian filmmaker Tamer El-Said’s feature film “Akher Ayam El-Madina”/ “In the Last Days of the City” won the Caligari Film Prize. The film looks at a young filmmaker’s struggle to complete a film about Cairo. It was the only Egyptian film to participate in the 2016 Berlinale Forum.
Lebanese filmmaker Maher Abi Samra’s documentary “Makhdoumin”/ “A Maid for Each”, a look at the legal system that controls the lives of Lebanon’s foreign domestic workers, won the Peace Film Prize.
“Zinzana”/ “Rattle the Cage” director, Majid al Ansari, from the Arab Emirates, was honored with Variety’s Mid-East Filmmaker of the Year Award at the Berlinale. The film is the first genre movie of its kind produced in the UAE. It was financed and produced by Abu Dhabi’s ImageNation. It is repped for Us by Cinetic and international sales are by Im Global.
Projects “Mawlana”, based on Ibrahim Issa’s best-selling novel and shortlisted for the Arabic Booker Prize and director’s Mohamed Yassein’s “Wedding Song” based on Naguib Mahfouz’s novel, the Nobel Prize Winner for Literature were being promoted at the Arab Cinema Center at the Market. Reflecting a decadent Egypt from the 1970s, “Wedding Song” is one of the largest TV productions in the Arab World in 2016.
“Theeb”, a Jordanian Epic about Bedouins, is the Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film. It played in Venice. International sales agent Fortissimo has licensed it to Film Movement for U.S., ABC for Benelux, New Wave for U.K., As Fidalgo for Norway, Jiff for Australia, trigon-film for Switzerland. Mad Solutions is handling the Middle East. “Ave Maria” a 14-minute Palestine satirical short is the Academy Award nomination for Best Short Fiction and is being sold internationally by Ouat Media. “ The Idol” (Palestine) played Tiff 2015 and other top fests and has sold widely throughout the world through Canada-based international sales agent Seville. Not since Elia Suleiman won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival for “Divine Intervention” has a Palestinian film director made as much of an impact as “The Idol” director Hany Abu-Assad whose “Paradise Now” and “Omar” both went to the Academy Awards.
Kudos for much of the success of Arab cinema go to Mad Solutions, the Cairo, Abu Dhabi and New York based marketing and distribution company for its marketing and social media strategies as well as its release of “Theeb”, “Zinzana” and “Ave Maria”. It also helped create the Arab Cinema Center which was launched last year at the Berlinale and Efm.
In all, 20 Mena films played in the Festival and Market this year.
And what of that other small country in the region called Israel (and/ or Palestine) which is not included in the term Mena? While Israeli films that showed in Berlin received international praise, they will never show in any of the Arab countries and are sometimes boycotted by international film festivals who succumb to censorship tactics.
Most of the larger Israeli features go to Cannes, Venice and Toronto; “Afterthought” went to Cannes, “Mountain” to Venice, “Barash” to San Sebastian”, “Wedding Doll” to London and “A.K.A. Nadia” to Talinn Black Nights Film Festival. In Berlin many are screened as German Premieres.
What Israeli films have won acclaim lately? Is it possible that our hero, Katriel Schory, head of the Israel Film Fund, whose stand for true art has earned him Israeli government censure at home (A prophet is never honored in his own land) and fame abroad with new countries striving to create national cinema, is being eclipsed by the growth of “Arab” cinema?
“Sandstorm” directed by Elite Zexer (international sales by Beta) made its way to Panorama from its world premiere in Sundance where it won the Best Actress Award for Palestinian actress Lamis Ammar’s portrayal of a young Bedouin woman forced to choose between modern freedom or traditional societal strictures within an arranged marriage.
Panorama also screened “Junction 48” (international sales by The Match Factory) which received international praise and audience acclaim. The Israeli-Palestinian hip-hop movie by Israeli-American filmmaker, Udi Aloni, was supported by the Israel-based Rabinovich Foundation. The story is about Kareem who lives in a mixed Jewish-Arab crime-ridden ghetto outside Tel Aviv. He deals drugs and lives dangerously until he discovers hip-hop and decides to express his life as a Palestinian youth along with young singer Manar. Palestinian and Israeli musicians drive this music movie and for Aloni, just seeing the film made, and then shown at the Berlin Film Festival proves its success.
“Suddenly a group of people just choose to make a film and the film is extremely professional. It’s very important that this bi-national energy can create high quality stuff, the high quality is almost the symbol of the resistance. We should not even have to tell the story about the issue. The fact that we could create it is amazing,” Aloni told Euronews.
Thirty-seven-year-old Arab-Israeli rapper Tamer Nafar plays the lead role, and has known the 56-year-old Aloni for some time. “We have been on the same demonstrations, in the parties since 2000, so we live in each other’s world. He has been to my concerts many times, he directed a video clip, I was in his movies as a producer a few times. It’s not about an old generation and new generation, it’s just about creating the right generation,” he said. “He has that gift of being a good story teller and director but he gives us the stage, no, he doesn’t give us a stage, we are building a stage together… he has his own perspective but we are all on the same level,” said actress Samar Qupty. The struggle for equal rights for Palestinians or Arab Israelis inside Israel is at its crux.
Panorama Documents screened “Who’s Gonna Love Me Now?” directed by Tomer Haymann and Barak Heymann co-directed by Alexander Bodin Saphir and being sold by Austria’s Autlook. Forum showed “ Inertia” by Idan Haguel being sold by Oration Films’ Timothy O’Brian of the U.S., and “Between Fences” by Avi Mograbi, being sold by Docs & Film’s Daniela Elstner of France. Culinary Cinema showed “Café Nagler” by Mor Kaplansky and Yariv Barel is being sold internationally by Go2Films.
Teddy 30 (the retrospective of Teddy Award winners over the past 30 years) honored Dan Wolman’s 1979 film “Hide and Seek”/ “Machboim”. Berlinale Shorts screened Rotem Murat’s “Winds Junction” from Sapir College which also holds international rights; Generation 14 Plus screened “Mushkie” by Aleeza Chanowitz from the Jerusalem San Spiegel Film School, being sold by Cinephil. Seven other films were sold in the market by various sales agents.
One of the very special events I attended at the Berlinale this year was the Shabbat Dinner, held the first Friday in the Festival and hosted by Nicola Galliner, Founder and Force of the Berlin Jewish Film Festival. There was a table full of Jews: the new Director of the Jerusalem Film Festival, Noa Regev, PhD; Jay Rosenblatt, Program Director of San Francisco’sJewish Film Institute and its former Director, Peter Stein, now the Senior Programmer of Frameline, San Francisco’s Lgbtq Film Festival; Judy Ironside, the Founder and President of UK Jewish Film and of the sixth edition of the Geneva and Zurich Jewish Film Festivals, the new young director of the Boston Jewish Film Festival, Ariana Cohen-Halberstam who recently moved from the New York Jcc to Boston, the prolific Israeli director, filmmaker Dan Wolman whose new film will soon be out and whose 1979 film “Hide and Seek”/ “Machboim” was part of the Teddy 30th Anniversary Retrospective held by the Berlinale Panorama.
Talk was about films, about politics including gender politics, about our concerns, (we Jews are better worriers than warriors) and just plain gossip.
Now if my readers will excuse my interjecting myself into this article:
It is my opinion that the region of the world called the Middle East, and the three major monotheistic religions of the world whose origin is there had better learn to do more than merely co-exist peacefully if we are to see peaceful and fruitful consequences which will set the world back upon its proper axis.
Art breaks down borders; it is subversive rather than observant of the exigencies of ever changing governments. It creates new perspectives and breaks down old ways of seeing. What I call “Cinema” is Art. Other movies may simply entertain and not aspire to more or they may propagate dogmas, but Art serves no master; it is not tethered; it is freedom of expression which should be honored with freedom to travel.
More than 10 Arab films participated in the Berlinale’s Forum and Forum Expanded programs this year, in addition to the ones which participated in the Official Competition (“Inhebek Hedi”/ “Hedi” from Tunisia and “A Dragon Arrives!” by Mani Haghighi from Iran). This makes an especially remarkable year for Arab cinema’s presence in Berlin.
The Forum focus on Arab cinema, represented with films from Egypt, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria and Saudi Arabia highlights mostly young directors whose works explore both the past and present of their homelands.
The films included: “A Magical Substance Flows into Me” by artist Jumana Manna (Palestine), “Akher ayam el madina”/ “In the Last Days of the City” (Egypt) by Tamer El Said (international sales by Still Moving), documentary “Makhdoumin”/ “A Maid for Each” (Lebanon) by Maher Abi Samra (Isa: Docs & Film), “Barakah yoqabil Barakah”/ “Barakah Meets Barakah” (Saudi Arabia) by Mahmoud Sabbagh and Manazil (Isa: Mpm), “Bela abwab”/ “Houses without Doors” by Syrian-Armenian director Avo Kaprealian. Of course the 46th Berlinale Forum also screens films from European, Latin American and Asian directors.
The Tunisian film in Competition “Inhebek Hedi”/ “Hedi” by Mohamed Ben Attia, won the Best First Feature Award and its leading man, Majd Mastoura, received the prestigious Silver Bear for Best Actor for his role as Hedi. Attia’s debut feature film is a thoughtful love story about identity and independence in Tunisian society. It is being sold internationally by Luxbox.
Palestinian director Mahdi Fleifel won the Silver Bear Jury Prize for Short Film for “ A Man Returned”, a 30-minute portrayal of a young refugee struggling to make a life for himself in Lebanon’s Ain El-Helweh camp, being sold internationally by 3.14 Collectif. He previously made an award-winning documentary about his own experience as a refugee. The short film was also selected as the Berlin Short Film Nominee for the European Film Awards.
The Ecumenical Jury awarded the Forum Prize to Saudi filmmaker Mahmoud Sabbagh for his well-received romantic comedy “Barakah Yoqabil Barakah”/ “Barakah Meets Barakah”, a social commentary on the lives of young people in Saudi Arabia. It shared the prize with Danish production “Les Sauteurs”/ “Those Who Jump” – a film that also highlights the plight of Europe-bound refugees.
Egyptian filmmaker Tamer El-Said’s feature film “Akher Ayam El-Madina”/ “In the Last Days of the City” won the Caligari Film Prize. The film looks at a young filmmaker’s struggle to complete a film about Cairo. It was the only Egyptian film to participate in the 2016 Berlinale Forum.
Lebanese filmmaker Maher Abi Samra’s documentary “Makhdoumin”/ “A Maid for Each”, a look at the legal system that controls the lives of Lebanon’s foreign domestic workers, won the Peace Film Prize.
“Zinzana”/ “Rattle the Cage” director, Majid al Ansari, from the Arab Emirates, was honored with Variety’s Mid-East Filmmaker of the Year Award at the Berlinale. The film is the first genre movie of its kind produced in the UAE. It was financed and produced by Abu Dhabi’s ImageNation. It is repped for Us by Cinetic and international sales are by Im Global.
Projects “Mawlana”, based on Ibrahim Issa’s best-selling novel and shortlisted for the Arabic Booker Prize and director’s Mohamed Yassein’s “Wedding Song” based on Naguib Mahfouz’s novel, the Nobel Prize Winner for Literature were being promoted at the Arab Cinema Center at the Market. Reflecting a decadent Egypt from the 1970s, “Wedding Song” is one of the largest TV productions in the Arab World in 2016.
“Theeb”, a Jordanian Epic about Bedouins, is the Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film. It played in Venice. International sales agent Fortissimo has licensed it to Film Movement for U.S., ABC for Benelux, New Wave for U.K., As Fidalgo for Norway, Jiff for Australia, trigon-film for Switzerland. Mad Solutions is handling the Middle East. “Ave Maria” a 14-minute Palestine satirical short is the Academy Award nomination for Best Short Fiction and is being sold internationally by Ouat Media. “ The Idol” (Palestine) played Tiff 2015 and other top fests and has sold widely throughout the world through Canada-based international sales agent Seville. Not since Elia Suleiman won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival for “Divine Intervention” has a Palestinian film director made as much of an impact as “The Idol” director Hany Abu-Assad whose “Paradise Now” and “Omar” both went to the Academy Awards.
Kudos for much of the success of Arab cinema go to Mad Solutions, the Cairo, Abu Dhabi and New York based marketing and distribution company for its marketing and social media strategies as well as its release of “Theeb”, “Zinzana” and “Ave Maria”. It also helped create the Arab Cinema Center which was launched last year at the Berlinale and Efm.
In all, 20 Mena films played in the Festival and Market this year.
And what of that other small country in the region called Israel (and/ or Palestine) which is not included in the term Mena? While Israeli films that showed in Berlin received international praise, they will never show in any of the Arab countries and are sometimes boycotted by international film festivals who succumb to censorship tactics.
Most of the larger Israeli features go to Cannes, Venice and Toronto; “Afterthought” went to Cannes, “Mountain” to Venice, “Barash” to San Sebastian”, “Wedding Doll” to London and “A.K.A. Nadia” to Talinn Black Nights Film Festival. In Berlin many are screened as German Premieres.
What Israeli films have won acclaim lately? Is it possible that our hero, Katriel Schory, head of the Israel Film Fund, whose stand for true art has earned him Israeli government censure at home (A prophet is never honored in his own land) and fame abroad with new countries striving to create national cinema, is being eclipsed by the growth of “Arab” cinema?
“Sandstorm” directed by Elite Zexer (international sales by Beta) made its way to Panorama from its world premiere in Sundance where it won the Best Actress Award for Palestinian actress Lamis Ammar’s portrayal of a young Bedouin woman forced to choose between modern freedom or traditional societal strictures within an arranged marriage.
Panorama also screened “Junction 48” (international sales by The Match Factory) which received international praise and audience acclaim. The Israeli-Palestinian hip-hop movie by Israeli-American filmmaker, Udi Aloni, was supported by the Israel-based Rabinovich Foundation. The story is about Kareem who lives in a mixed Jewish-Arab crime-ridden ghetto outside Tel Aviv. He deals drugs and lives dangerously until he discovers hip-hop and decides to express his life as a Palestinian youth along with young singer Manar. Palestinian and Israeli musicians drive this music movie and for Aloni, just seeing the film made, and then shown at the Berlin Film Festival proves its success.
“Suddenly a group of people just choose to make a film and the film is extremely professional. It’s very important that this bi-national energy can create high quality stuff, the high quality is almost the symbol of the resistance. We should not even have to tell the story about the issue. The fact that we could create it is amazing,” Aloni told Euronews.
Thirty-seven-year-old Arab-Israeli rapper Tamer Nafar plays the lead role, and has known the 56-year-old Aloni for some time. “We have been on the same demonstrations, in the parties since 2000, so we live in each other’s world. He has been to my concerts many times, he directed a video clip, I was in his movies as a producer a few times. It’s not about an old generation and new generation, it’s just about creating the right generation,” he said. “He has that gift of being a good story teller and director but he gives us the stage, no, he doesn’t give us a stage, we are building a stage together… he has his own perspective but we are all on the same level,” said actress Samar Qupty. The struggle for equal rights for Palestinians or Arab Israelis inside Israel is at its crux.
Panorama Documents screened “Who’s Gonna Love Me Now?” directed by Tomer Haymann and Barak Heymann co-directed by Alexander Bodin Saphir and being sold by Austria’s Autlook. Forum showed “ Inertia” by Idan Haguel being sold by Oration Films’ Timothy O’Brian of the U.S., and “Between Fences” by Avi Mograbi, being sold by Docs & Film’s Daniela Elstner of France. Culinary Cinema showed “Café Nagler” by Mor Kaplansky and Yariv Barel is being sold internationally by Go2Films.
Teddy 30 (the retrospective of Teddy Award winners over the past 30 years) honored Dan Wolman’s 1979 film “Hide and Seek”/ “Machboim”. Berlinale Shorts screened Rotem Murat’s “Winds Junction” from Sapir College which also holds international rights; Generation 14 Plus screened “Mushkie” by Aleeza Chanowitz from the Jerusalem San Spiegel Film School, being sold by Cinephil. Seven other films were sold in the market by various sales agents.
One of the very special events I attended at the Berlinale this year was the Shabbat Dinner, held the first Friday in the Festival and hosted by Nicola Galliner, Founder and Force of the Berlin Jewish Film Festival. There was a table full of Jews: the new Director of the Jerusalem Film Festival, Noa Regev, PhD; Jay Rosenblatt, Program Director of San Francisco’sJewish Film Institute and its former Director, Peter Stein, now the Senior Programmer of Frameline, San Francisco’s Lgbtq Film Festival; Judy Ironside, the Founder and President of UK Jewish Film and of the sixth edition of the Geneva and Zurich Jewish Film Festivals, the new young director of the Boston Jewish Film Festival, Ariana Cohen-Halberstam who recently moved from the New York Jcc to Boston, the prolific Israeli director, filmmaker Dan Wolman whose new film will soon be out and whose 1979 film “Hide and Seek”/ “Machboim” was part of the Teddy 30th Anniversary Retrospective held by the Berlinale Panorama.
Talk was about films, about politics including gender politics, about our concerns, (we Jews are better worriers than warriors) and just plain gossip.
Now if my readers will excuse my interjecting myself into this article:
It is my opinion that the region of the world called the Middle East, and the three major monotheistic religions of the world whose origin is there had better learn to do more than merely co-exist peacefully if we are to see peaceful and fruitful consequences which will set the world back upon its proper axis.
Art breaks down borders; it is subversive rather than observant of the exigencies of ever changing governments. It creates new perspectives and breaks down old ways of seeing. What I call “Cinema” is Art. Other movies may simply entertain and not aspire to more or they may propagate dogmas, but Art serves no master; it is not tethered; it is freedom of expression which should be honored with freedom to travel.
- 3/6/2016
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Sundance World Cinema Dramatic Grand Jury Prize Winner, “Sand Storm” was written and directed by Elite Zexer. She and Lamis Ammar, the actress playing the oldest daughter in a family of girls who is an independent college educated woman, and I spoke at Sundance about the experience of making their first film together.
Taking place in a Bedouin village in Israel, the film opens as Layla is driving a car with her father to their home in the desert. She reveals her grades are not as high as her father wants as he teaches her how to drive. They arrive home as wedding festivities are being prepared by Layla’s mother Jalila who must host her husband Suliman’s marriage to a second, much younger wife. During the celebration, Jalila discovers that her eldest daughter Layla has a boyfriend at her university—a strictly forbidden liaison that would shame the family. As she tries to contain Layla’s situation by clamping down on her, her daughter, possessed of a boundless spirit, sees a different life for herself thereby causing chaos and strife within the family.
Sydney Levine: How did you come up with this story?
Elite Zexer: My mother is a photographer and shot Bedouin villages for several years and brought me along with her. We also became very good friends with some of the Bedouins, visiting each other at our homes. About eight years ago, I escorted an 18-year-old to her arranged marriage ceremony to a man she had never met and she told me had a boyfriend in college. She said, “For my daughter, it will be different.”
When I made a short about a different culture (Bedouin) I liked the process and the Bedouins asked me when I would make another film.
What film background do you have?
Elite Zexer: I have two degrees in film. I graduated from Tel Aviv University with a Bfa in film and an Mfa in film directing. I made a short “Take Note” which won the Best Fiction Film Award at the Tel Aviv International Student Film Festival, and “Tasnin” which went to over 120 film festivals around the world and won several international awards. I also directed the documentary “Fire Department Bnei Brak” before I directed “Sand Storm”, my first feature.
How did you put this film together?
Elite Zexer: Four years ago I wrote a script trying to write from the Bedouin point of view as much as possible, of course knowing my own pov would also be there. I applied to the two public film funds in Israel and to two private funds. It happened so quickly that only one year ago, in January 2015 I was already in pre-production. The rough cut was done by August. We went to First Look at Locarno and we won the prize. John Nein from Sundance was a juror there, and so we have now come to Sundance.
It all felt like it was blessed from the sky. Everything fell into place all the time. It was always just right. Even when we ran out of time and had only 5 minutes to shoot the last scene, that turned out to be the best and strongest scene in the film.
We thought, “It just has to work!” and it did!
And how about you, Lamis?
Lamis Ammar: This was my first feature. I studied theater in Haifa and I like cinema. This is the most interesting and challenging role I have played. I met the woman and seeing the finished film on the screen confirmed in a real and truthful way what my heart told me when I met her.
What do you think about the film?
I just saw it yesterday for the first time and I must see it again to understand all the details.
I knew before about the Bedouin in the south, but I am a Palestinian from Haifa so while there are some similarities, there are also many differences. It was a big process just to learn the accent even though we share a language.
Every time I see the Bedouin and learn more about them, I feel I want to be a part of them and to help in any way I can. This strong young teenage university student is different from the others in her community. Her father treats her as a liberated Bedouin but, for a female, the situation is very complicated.
As the writer of this interview, I want to point out certain background issues which, though they seem to have no direct connection to the story, are key to how the politics and policies of the Israeli government have created a marginal society for the Bedouins in spite of all the past support the Bedouins have given to the state of Israel. It is easy to say “just look at the culture” as if it bore no relation to the larger societal and political realities.
In my experience speaking with people from Israel/ Palestine I find the Bedouin and Palestinian stories to be international. Even as far away as Cuba, Cubans refer to people from the east of their island as “Palestinians” because of their outsider status in Havana.
The fact that Layla is a student in the university is very unusual in the Palestinian Bedouin society. It’s not acceptable -- not because the men don’t allow it, but because the Bedouin themselves refuse to be part of the Israeli society. They often do not know Hebrew, the official language of Israel. This reminds me of U.S. Native Americans whose languages have never been recognized officially by our government. Many Navajo (I don’t know about other tribes) do not speak English and their marginalization is astounding to anyone who visits the “reservations”; it is truly visiting another nation as far removed from the U.S.A. as the Bedouin are from the U.S.A.
To attend an Israeli University, everyone must speak and study in Hebrew. The Israeli occupation of the Bedouin ancestral lands influences everyone’s social knowledge and lifestyle. The Bedouin used to live freely in their own land until they were forced to leave for other places or to the city. Some Bedouin stay put, but the act of staying makes them more conservative than previously.
Some of their villages are unrecognized by the Israeli authorities and are under permanent threat of being demolished in order to create new Israeli settlements. Bedouin teenagers have been shot by the Israel police forces and there have been no trials for the police action. This is a story that we in the U.S. have been hearing daily about our own citizens who happen to be African-American. We also hear about it in France with their North African-French youth. We call it police brutality but although the Palestinian Bedouins demonstrate daily, but no one hears them.
This film takes one by surprise. The mother’s controlled passion and impatience seethe through her. You can see it in the set of her mouth and in the way she moves. Her daughters share her passion for life and one feels the pain of their predicament. Their incredible strength sustains them and a glimmering light of hope shines through the storm.
The situation described above is the underlying and unspoken theme of the movie. It seeps through everything, one's clothing and household and in the very grittiness of one's teeth, like sand in a sand storm.
Director/Writer Elite Zexer
Cast member Lamis Ammar, Ruba Blal-Asfour, Haitham Omari, Khadija Alakel, Jalal Masarwa
Producers Haim Mecklberg, Estee Yacov-Mecklberg
Director of Photography Shai Peleg
Editor Ronit Porat
Total Running Time: 87 Minutes
International Sales: Beta Cinema...
Taking place in a Bedouin village in Israel, the film opens as Layla is driving a car with her father to their home in the desert. She reveals her grades are not as high as her father wants as he teaches her how to drive. They arrive home as wedding festivities are being prepared by Layla’s mother Jalila who must host her husband Suliman’s marriage to a second, much younger wife. During the celebration, Jalila discovers that her eldest daughter Layla has a boyfriend at her university—a strictly forbidden liaison that would shame the family. As she tries to contain Layla’s situation by clamping down on her, her daughter, possessed of a boundless spirit, sees a different life for herself thereby causing chaos and strife within the family.
Sydney Levine: How did you come up with this story?
Elite Zexer: My mother is a photographer and shot Bedouin villages for several years and brought me along with her. We also became very good friends with some of the Bedouins, visiting each other at our homes. About eight years ago, I escorted an 18-year-old to her arranged marriage ceremony to a man she had never met and she told me had a boyfriend in college. She said, “For my daughter, it will be different.”
When I made a short about a different culture (Bedouin) I liked the process and the Bedouins asked me when I would make another film.
What film background do you have?
Elite Zexer: I have two degrees in film. I graduated from Tel Aviv University with a Bfa in film and an Mfa in film directing. I made a short “Take Note” which won the Best Fiction Film Award at the Tel Aviv International Student Film Festival, and “Tasnin” which went to over 120 film festivals around the world and won several international awards. I also directed the documentary “Fire Department Bnei Brak” before I directed “Sand Storm”, my first feature.
How did you put this film together?
Elite Zexer: Four years ago I wrote a script trying to write from the Bedouin point of view as much as possible, of course knowing my own pov would also be there. I applied to the two public film funds in Israel and to two private funds. It happened so quickly that only one year ago, in January 2015 I was already in pre-production. The rough cut was done by August. We went to First Look at Locarno and we won the prize. John Nein from Sundance was a juror there, and so we have now come to Sundance.
It all felt like it was blessed from the sky. Everything fell into place all the time. It was always just right. Even when we ran out of time and had only 5 minutes to shoot the last scene, that turned out to be the best and strongest scene in the film.
We thought, “It just has to work!” and it did!
And how about you, Lamis?
Lamis Ammar: This was my first feature. I studied theater in Haifa and I like cinema. This is the most interesting and challenging role I have played. I met the woman and seeing the finished film on the screen confirmed in a real and truthful way what my heart told me when I met her.
What do you think about the film?
I just saw it yesterday for the first time and I must see it again to understand all the details.
I knew before about the Bedouin in the south, but I am a Palestinian from Haifa so while there are some similarities, there are also many differences. It was a big process just to learn the accent even though we share a language.
Every time I see the Bedouin and learn more about them, I feel I want to be a part of them and to help in any way I can. This strong young teenage university student is different from the others in her community. Her father treats her as a liberated Bedouin but, for a female, the situation is very complicated.
As the writer of this interview, I want to point out certain background issues which, though they seem to have no direct connection to the story, are key to how the politics and policies of the Israeli government have created a marginal society for the Bedouins in spite of all the past support the Bedouins have given to the state of Israel. It is easy to say “just look at the culture” as if it bore no relation to the larger societal and political realities.
In my experience speaking with people from Israel/ Palestine I find the Bedouin and Palestinian stories to be international. Even as far away as Cuba, Cubans refer to people from the east of their island as “Palestinians” because of their outsider status in Havana.
The fact that Layla is a student in the university is very unusual in the Palestinian Bedouin society. It’s not acceptable -- not because the men don’t allow it, but because the Bedouin themselves refuse to be part of the Israeli society. They often do not know Hebrew, the official language of Israel. This reminds me of U.S. Native Americans whose languages have never been recognized officially by our government. Many Navajo (I don’t know about other tribes) do not speak English and their marginalization is astounding to anyone who visits the “reservations”; it is truly visiting another nation as far removed from the U.S.A. as the Bedouin are from the U.S.A.
To attend an Israeli University, everyone must speak and study in Hebrew. The Israeli occupation of the Bedouin ancestral lands influences everyone’s social knowledge and lifestyle. The Bedouin used to live freely in their own land until they were forced to leave for other places or to the city. Some Bedouin stay put, but the act of staying makes them more conservative than previously.
Some of their villages are unrecognized by the Israeli authorities and are under permanent threat of being demolished in order to create new Israeli settlements. Bedouin teenagers have been shot by the Israel police forces and there have been no trials for the police action. This is a story that we in the U.S. have been hearing daily about our own citizens who happen to be African-American. We also hear about it in France with their North African-French youth. We call it police brutality but although the Palestinian Bedouins demonstrate daily, but no one hears them.
This film takes one by surprise. The mother’s controlled passion and impatience seethe through her. You can see it in the set of her mouth and in the way she moves. Her daughters share her passion for life and one feels the pain of their predicament. Their incredible strength sustains them and a glimmering light of hope shines through the storm.
The situation described above is the underlying and unspoken theme of the movie. It seeps through everything, one's clothing and household and in the very grittiness of one's teeth, like sand in a sand storm.
Director/Writer Elite Zexer
Cast member Lamis Ammar, Ruba Blal-Asfour, Haitham Omari, Khadija Alakel, Jalal Masarwa
Producers Haim Mecklberg, Estee Yacov-Mecklberg
Director of Photography Shai Peleg
Editor Ronit Porat
Total Running Time: 87 Minutes
International Sales: Beta Cinema...
- 2/2/2016
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Shot amid the desolate beauty of Israel’s Negev Desert, Elite Zexer’s Sand Storm is emerging as one of the most-admired films at this year’s Sundance. It charts the shifting power dynamics between men and women, and between parents and children. And although the film is set among the Bedouin — and carries the whiff of authenticity with respect to their rituals and attitudes, thanks to Zexer’s having spent years among them — its story feels universal in its broad strokes. When we first meet our 18-year-old protagonist Layla (Lamis Ammar), she’s being taught to drive by her doting father, Suliman (Haitham Omari), even as he also chastises her for not doing better in school. Suliman is the kind of guy who can pride himself on his progressiveness — as evidenced by Layla’s own very modern attitudes — while still being subservient to tradition. We learn that it’s...
- 1/27/2016
- by Bilge Ebiri
- Vulture
Read More: The 2016 Indiewire Sundance Bible: All the Reviews, Interviews and News Posted During The Festival "Do you ever do anything because you want to?" That question, asked by the college-aged Bedouin woman Layla (Lamis Ammar) in Israeli director's Elite Zexer's quietly observant debut, speaks to the movie's underlying drama. The stripped-down drama, set almost entirely within the constraints of the traditionalist village where Layla grew up, pits her individualism against the rituals that keep her there. A resolutely small work focused on Layla's attempts to avoid a pre-arranged marriage, "Sand Storm" offers a unique window into an arena of limited possibilities. At the core of the movie is a unique conflict. Layla's father, Suliman (Hitham Omari), drifts in and out of her home, exchanging pleasantries and maintaining a relationship with Layla's mother, Jalila (Ruba Blal), even as he prepares to wed his second wife. At that celebration, Jalila discovers.
- 1/26/2016
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
The Member of the Wedding: Zexer’s Debut Churns Empathy from Obscene Custom
We’ve seen an increasing tide of feminist perspective narratives detailing the despicable social sleights faced by women in various (usually Middle Eastern) cultures, many of these focusing on a particularly awkward situation where tradition allows men to take a second wife while his first is still alive and well. Such is the starting point for Sand Storm, the impressive debut from Israeli filmmaker Elite Zexer. But audiences thinking they’re already familiar with how these pained scenarios tend to unfold will be pleasantly surprised when they realize Zexer has something a bit more complex and unpredictable in store. What begins as a tale concerning a powerless woman begrudgingly accepting her fate becomes a moving portrait of a mother commending better possibilities for the future of her daughter, creating a glimmer of hope in an endless denial of agency.
We’ve seen an increasing tide of feminist perspective narratives detailing the despicable social sleights faced by women in various (usually Middle Eastern) cultures, many of these focusing on a particularly awkward situation where tradition allows men to take a second wife while his first is still alive and well. Such is the starting point for Sand Storm, the impressive debut from Israeli filmmaker Elite Zexer. But audiences thinking they’re already familiar with how these pained scenarios tend to unfold will be pleasantly surprised when they realize Zexer has something a bit more complex and unpredictable in store. What begins as a tale concerning a powerless woman begrudgingly accepting her fate becomes a moving portrait of a mother commending better possibilities for the future of her daughter, creating a glimmer of hope in an endless denial of agency.
- 1/26/2016
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Scattered across the Negev desert of southern Israel are dozens of small Bedouin settlements. Unrecognized by the state, these towns lack electrical, water, or sanitation services. It’s against this milieu that young Layla (Lamis Ammar) frequently stands, her sense of adolescent uncertainty acutely literalized by the endless rocky expanses and rickety contraptions made of discards. She sees a more invigorating life, one not shackled to tradition, in her secret boyfriend, Anwar (Jalal Masrwa). However, Layla’s mother, Jalila (Ruba Blal), uncovers this relationship and moves to tamp down on every smidgen of rebelliousness.
Despite that descriptor, Sand Storm does not follow the standard tropes of the “restless youth in a repressive culture” story. This movie explores both mother and daughter’s perspective fully, and it doesn’t box either into the role of unbending matriarch or plucky protagonist. Jalila tries to head off Layla’s romance not just out...
Despite that descriptor, Sand Storm does not follow the standard tropes of the “restless youth in a repressive culture” story. This movie explores both mother and daughter’s perspective fully, and it doesn’t box either into the role of unbending matriarch or plucky protagonist. Jalila tries to head off Layla’s romance not just out...
- 1/22/2016
- by Daniel Schindel
- The Film Stage
As if new films from the Coens and Jeff Nichols weren’t enough, the 2016 Berlin Film Festival has further expanded their line-up, adding some of our most-anticipated films of the year. Mia Hansen-Løve, following up her incredible, sadly overlooked drama Eden, will premiere the Isabelle Huppert-led Things to Come, while Thomas Vinterberg, Lav Diaz, André Téchiné, and many more will stop by with their new features. Check out the new additions below, followed by some previously announced films, notably John Michael McDonagh‘s War on Everyone.
Competition
Cartas da guerra (Letters from War)
Portugal
By Ivo M. Ferreira (Na Escama do Dragão)
With Miguel Nunes, Margarida Vila-Nova
World premiere
Ejhdeha Vared Mishavad! (A Dragon Arrives!)
Iran
By Mani Haghighi (Modest Reception, Men at Work)
With Amir Jadidi, Homayoun Ghanizadeh, Ehsan Goudarzi, Kiana Tajammol
International premiere
Fuocoammare (Fire at Sea) – documentary
Italy / France
By Gianfranco Rosi (Sacro Gra, El Sicario...
Competition
Cartas da guerra (Letters from War)
Portugal
By Ivo M. Ferreira (Na Escama do Dragão)
With Miguel Nunes, Margarida Vila-Nova
World premiere
Ejhdeha Vared Mishavad! (A Dragon Arrives!)
Iran
By Mani Haghighi (Modest Reception, Men at Work)
With Amir Jadidi, Homayoun Ghanizadeh, Ehsan Goudarzi, Kiana Tajammol
International premiere
Fuocoammare (Fire at Sea) – documentary
Italy / France
By Gianfranco Rosi (Sacro Gra, El Sicario...
- 1/11/2016
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
The Sundance Film institute has released the line-up of film for the 2016 Sundance Film Festival. Going to Sundance is one of my favorite events of the year. I love going because you never know what kind of movies you're going to see. Sometimes they are great films that amaze and entertain, other times they completely suck ass, but that's all part of the fun of going to the festival. It's an awesome experience for any hardcore movie geek, and if you ever get a chance to go, you need to.
The event takes place in Park City, Utah next year from January 21st to the 31st. It looks like there's a great line-up of movies at next year's event. My favorite portion of the event is the Midnight section because it deals more with geeky genre type movies, but I also enjoy the various sections of other line-ups.
Some of...
The event takes place in Park City, Utah next year from January 21st to the 31st. It looks like there's a great line-up of movies at next year's event. My favorite portion of the event is the Midnight section because it deals more with geeky genre type movies, but I also enjoy the various sections of other line-ups.
Some of...
- 12/6/2015
- by Joey Paur
- GeekTyrant
In last year’s section which included Ariel Kleiman’s Partisan and Anne Sewitsky’s Homesick, it was John Maclean’s debut Slow West claimed the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize, Alanté Kavaïté’s The Summer of Sangailé landed the Directing Award: World Cinema Dramatic, Umrika was the audience’s won the Audience Award: World Cinema Dramatic. In this year’s dozen offerings we have names we normally associate with Cannes in The Misfortunates‘ Felix van Groeningen (Belgica), The Other Side of Sleep‘s Rebecca Daly (Mammal – see pic above) and A Stray Girlfriend‘s Ana Katz (Mi Amiga del Parque). Here are the selections.
Belgica / Belgium, France, Netherlands (Director: Felix van Groeningen, Screenwriters: Felix van Groeningen, Arne Sierens) — In the midst of Belgium’s nightlife scene, two brothers start a bar and get swept up in its success.Cast: Stef Aerts, Tom Vermeir, Charlotte Vandermeersch, Hélène De Vos. World Premiere.
Belgica / Belgium, France, Netherlands (Director: Felix van Groeningen, Screenwriters: Felix van Groeningen, Arne Sierens) — In the midst of Belgium’s nightlife scene, two brothers start a bar and get swept up in its success.Cast: Stef Aerts, Tom Vermeir, Charlotte Vandermeersch, Hélène De Vos. World Premiere.
- 12/2/2015
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
Titles include Tallulah starring Ellen Page and Allison Janney, and Chad Hartigan’s Morris From America (pictured); Next strand also announced.Scroll down for full list
Sundance Institute has announced the 65 films selected for the Us Competition, World Competition and out-of-competition Next categories set to screen at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival (Jan 21-31) in Park City.
Us Dramatic Competition selections include Sian Heder’s Tallulah with Ellen Page and Allison Janney; Antonio Campos’ Christine; Clea DuVall’s feature directorial debut The Intervention; and Richard Tanne’s Southside With You, about Barack Obama’s first date with the First Lady.
Among the Us Documentary Competition selections are: Holy Hell by undisclosed; Jeff Feuerzeig’s Author: The Jt LeRoy Story; and Sara Jordenö’s Kiki.
The World Cinema Dramatic Competition entries include: Belgica (Belgium-France-Netherlands), Felix van Groeningen’s follow-up to The Broken Circle Breakdown; Manolo Cruz and Carlos del Castillo’s Between Sea And Land (Colombia); and Nicolette Krebitz’s Wild...
Sundance Institute has announced the 65 films selected for the Us Competition, World Competition and out-of-competition Next categories set to screen at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival (Jan 21-31) in Park City.
Us Dramatic Competition selections include Sian Heder’s Tallulah with Ellen Page and Allison Janney; Antonio Campos’ Christine; Clea DuVall’s feature directorial debut The Intervention; and Richard Tanne’s Southside With You, about Barack Obama’s first date with the First Lady.
Among the Us Documentary Competition selections are: Holy Hell by undisclosed; Jeff Feuerzeig’s Author: The Jt LeRoy Story; and Sara Jordenö’s Kiki.
The World Cinema Dramatic Competition entries include: Belgica (Belgium-France-Netherlands), Felix van Groeningen’s follow-up to The Broken Circle Breakdown; Manolo Cruz and Carlos del Castillo’s Between Sea And Land (Colombia); and Nicolette Krebitz’s Wild...
- 12/2/2015
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
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