Beiruting News

The 13th edition of Beirut International Film Festival (BIFF) will open on the 2nd of October at Planète Abraj- Furn El Shebbak, with the space-walk thriller "Gravity" by the Mexican Director Alfonso Cuarón, starring George Clooney and Sandra Bullock, noting that this film opened Venice in August. The festival will close with "The Immigrant" by the American director James Gray, starring French actress Marion Cotillard and the American Joaquin Phoenix; the movie tackles the issue of the suffering of Polish immigrants to the United States.

This year's edition will include a series of movies "rich in quantity and quality", declared Festival Director Colette Naufal in a press conference held today at Le Gray hotel - Beirut Downtown, announcing the event's program.  Naufal noted that "Gravity- is screened in the festival with the compliments of Warner-Lebanon - Joseph Chacra and Sons".

Naufal clarified that the 77 movies of this edition span across eight categories. It is also comprised of two competitions: the Middle Eastern Short Film and the Middle Eastern Documentary. The other six categories are "Panorama", "Lebanese Corner", "Human Rights Watch" - Human Rights' films, "Culinary Films" and "Kids' Corner", in addition to a Retrospective on Alexander Sokurov, the famous Russian director...

Naufal noted that "this year sees a number of high-level productions by young filmmakers from the Gulf and especially Egypt, in spite of the events taking place there."   

"As for Lebanese productions, a number of promising young creators have emerged, giving us great hopes in the future," she added.    

Naufal also remarked that the program of the Festival, in all its categories, comprises 21 movies by Lebanese directors, most of which are short movies by fresh graduate students.

She also promised that this year's edition will "give the Lebanese audience the chance to watch a rich array of beautiful movies that were highly popular in International and Arab Festivals; even though some date a couple of years, but we felt merited being included in the selection".



Panorama

The "Panorama" section of Beirut International Film Festival (BIFF) 2013 will project 28 films, among which :

In "All is lost", Robert Redford gets closer to death as he struggles alone in the midst of the ocean, in this first film by J.C. Chandor, that screened out of the competition at the Cannes Film Festival.

"Mud" by the American Jeff Nichols, tells the story of two young boys who encounter a fugitive to an Island in the Mississippi.

The program also includes "Trois Mondes" (Three Worlds) by Catherine Corsini, and "Jimmy P." which is an adaptation of the French psychiatrist George Devereux's "Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian", filmed in the United States with actors from different nationalities. Is also screened "Io e Te" (Me and You) which marks the come-back of the Italian Director Bernardo Bertolucci after long years of absence.

Also in the  "Panorama" section is "An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker" by the Bosnian Director Danis Tanović that was awarded the Grand Jury Prize at Berlin Film Festival last February, in addition to the award of best actor awarded to Nazif Mujic. The movie is a true-life drama about the struggle of a Roma family living in Bosnia, starring unprofessional actors.

The section also includes a Lebanese 5-minute short film by Marwan Kassis entitled "Fi Khabar Kana".

In "Es Ist Wie Es Ist"(That The Way It Is) the Lebanese director living in Germany, Myrna Maakaron, draws an intimate image about a woman from Berlin who kept her passion for life despite the several misfortunes and tragedies she went through. In "Ala Mad El Basar" (Line of Sight), the Jordanian Director Aseel Mansour sheds light on the life of a widow who bemoans her youth and the absence of her husband until she meets a person who was trying to steal her car.

The Iranian Director Mohsen Makhmalbaf presents a Southern Korean production with Southern Korean actors, in "Ongoing Smile" that revolves around the founder of the South Korean Busan festival, who took the decision of living as a young and energetic man until the end of his life. And his compatriot Jafar Panahi's new film "Pardé" (Closed Curtain) won the "Silver Bear" award for best script at the Berlin Film Festival. This film was shot secretly in Iran, and the passports of its stars were withdrawn from them when coming back to Iran after their participation in Berlin.  It is considered a continuation of his previous film "This is not a Movie" that was shot secretly too.

The Italian actress Valeria Golino tackles, in her first movie as a director "Miele" the subject of "Euthanasia". This movie won the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury - Special Mention in Cannes this year.

In "Attenberg", the Greek director Athina Rachel Tsangari sheds light on a young girl clung to her terminally-ill father, and what she learnt from life while accompanying him during his last days.   This film won the best actress  award at the Venice Film Festival in 2010.

As for "ALPEIS" by the Greek Director Yorgos Lanthimos, that won an award for best screenplay at the Venice International Film Festival 2011, as well as other awards, it tells the story of a group of people who render very special services where they impersonate the recently deceased in order to help their clients through the grieving process.

The Panorama section also includes a series of political movies, among which "Bekas" by first-time Kurdish director Karzan Kader. The movie tells the story of two orphans whose parents were killed by the regime of Saddam Hussein, and who strive to change their life, dreaming of the day when an American Superman will come to rescue them, but they become themselves two heroes who beat their tragic situation.

"Calm at Sea" by the German director Volker Schlöndorff , is a classically presented World War II that depicts the German occupation of France; In "Wakolda", the director Lucia Puenzo, daughter of the Argentinean director Luis Puenzo, tackles the issue of the fleeing of a big number of Nazis to Argentina and their hosting by Argentinean families.

The Armenian issue was the center point of a Lebanese movie by the Armenian Nigol Bazgian, entitled "I left y shoes in Istanbul", while "Milk, Carnation & a Godly Song" revolves around the famous Armenian poet, Daniel Varoujan.

"Fruitvale Station" by the American director Ryan Coogler, that won the best awards in Sundance Film Festival for Independent Films and one of Cannes' Festival awards, is based on the true story of Oscar Grant who was shot dead by the police on Christmas day in 2009.

A Hong-Kong production, "Bends" by the Chinese director Flora Lau was screened in the context of Cannes' Un Certain Regard section.

The Panorama showings also comprise "The Selfish Giant" which is an adaptation by the British director Clio Barnard of the famous story of Oscar Wild. As for the story of Snow White, it was adapted by the Spanish director Pablo Berger in the framework of a bullfighting in "Blancanieves", the black-and-white silent film that won many Goya awards, out of 18 awards it was nominated for.

The environmental issue is present in "Revolution" by the Canadian director Rob Stewart, as well as in "Trashed" by Candida Brady, that follows Jeremy Irons through once beautiful destinations all over the world that are now converted to landfills. Among the stations of the movie is .... The landfill of the Lebanese Sidon (Saida) city!



Documentary Competition

In the Middle Eastern Documentary competition, seven movies are competing. The Aleph award will be also granted to the best movie in this category, the best director and the special award of the jury.

These movies are "Mina al Atma" ("Out of Darkness") by Sonia Habib, "Dakhalt Marra el Jneineh" ( "Once I Entered the Garden") by the Lebanese Jean Hatem, "Sutra" by the French Stephane Allegret, Catherine Dirand and the French-Lebanese Maria Boulos, "Bedouin Woman" by the Kurdish Hashim Al-Ifari, "Broken Border" by the Kurdish director Keywan Karimi, "Feeding 500" by the Emirati Rafid Al Harthi, and "Crop" by the German Johanna Domke and the Egyptian Marouan Omara.



Short Films' Competition

The Middle Eastern Short Films' competition projects 16 movies, four of which by Lebanese directors, four by Egyptian directors, and three by Iraqi ones, in addition to two Saudi movies, one Emirati, one Tunisian and one Turkish. Awards will be given to the first, second and third best movies in this category, in addition to the special jury award.

The movies listed in this category are: "Kaliloun Mina El Shay" ( "A little bit of Tea") by the Lebanese Ali Shiran, "Etenité d'Amour" by the Lebanese Mike Malajalian, "Wahabtouka al Moutaa" ("I Offered You Pleasure") by the Lebanese Farah Shaer, "Memex" by the Lebanese Gaelle Sassine, , "Sanctity" by the Saudi Ahed Kamel, "Scrap" by the Saudi Bader El Hommoud, "Tlat Shamaat" ("3 Candles") by the Egyptian Ahmed Fouad, "Sidhom" by the Egyptian Mina Nabil, "Sihr El Farasha" ("Butterfly Charm") by the Egyptian Romany Saad, "Baghdad Messi" by the Iraqi director Sahim Omar Kalifa, "Bobby" by the Tunisian Mehdi El Barsaoui, "Deira" ("Circle") by the Egyptian Kamal El Mallakh, "Khayal" (Silhouette) by the Iraqi- Kurdish Kamiran Betasi, "Samaka Barriya" ("Wild Fish") by the Iraqi Oday Manea, "AL Rihla" ("The Journey") by the Emirati Hana Makki, and "Patika" by the French-Turkish director Onur Yagiz.



Lebanese Corner

The Lebanese Corner has been dedicated to short films that are not taking part in the competition. It includes 10 movies by young Lebanese directors. "A Tempo: 3'D Act" by Maria Abdel Karim, ", "Conflict 1949-1979" by Joseph Khallouf, "Departures" by Wissam Tanios, "Zbelet el Hay" ( "Discarded memories")  by Cynthia Bou Zeid, "J'ai dix ans" by Hadi Moussalli, "Bantalon" (The Pants) produced by & starring Josiane Boulos and directed by the French Clément Vieu, "Memorial" by Clara Kosseifi, , "Mish Mhem" by Marwa Karouny, "Al Nas Yakhtafoun Toula El Waket" (People disappear all the time) by Cyril Nehme, ", "Oustourat Saleh Sharif" (The Myth of Saleh Sharif) by Zahi Farah.

Aleksander Sokurov Retrospective

This section is  dedicated to the Russian Director Alexander Sokurov's "Tetralogy". It includes, "Faust" that won the Golden Lion award in the Venice International Film Festival 2011, which is an adaptation of the famous Goethe theatre play that holds the same name, "Moloch" (Best scenario at Cannes Film Festival 1999), "Taurus" and "The Sun".

Naufal noted that Sokurov is considered one of the cinema's "maestros", yet his movies  have not been released in Lebanon".



Human Rights Watch

The program of the Festival comprises for the second year in a row a section for Human Rights under the title of "Human Rights Watch", organized in collaboration with the Human Rights Watch Film Festival.... This section will feature five movies, the most important of which being "Khamas Kamerat Muhattama" (5 broken cameras) by the Palestinian Emad Burnat, with the participation of the Israeli peace activist Guy Davidi. This movie, which was nominated for the Oscar as best documentary, documents, through the personal experience of Burnat, the battle of the citizens of his village Bil'iin, north west of Ramallah, against the wall built by Israel on their lands.   

"Camp 14- Total Control Zone" by the German director Marc Wiese, about a young man who escapes from a prison camp in North Korea where he was born and raised, being the son of political prisoners. He knew nothing in this camp but punishment.

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