This year’s grant recipients also reflect a rise in applicants from Algeria including Yanis Koussim’s featureAlgiers By Night and documentaries The Foreign Son, about a man returning to his homeland, and Matoub Lounes: The Story Of A Legend, about the famous Berber singer.
More than 40 film projects from over 10 countries received funding during DFI’s 2011 grants cycles, with most applying for production and post-production support. The DFI will also oversee a second round of funding in 2012.
Grant recipients for 2012 so far include:
Feature Narrative – Production:
A Concert – Nadim Tabet (Lebanon)
Amira and her friends plan a concert in Beirut to help fund their own apartment and independence. Life has other plans.
Aicha Bonheur – Hakim Belabbes (Morocco/UK/US)
In Casablanca, a teenage girl who loves to run is lured by the promise of professional coaching and equipment.
Algiers by Night – Yanis Koussim (Algeria)
The city comes alive at night, with roller-bladers, middle aged men, young women, insomniacs and party people and their stories.
Blessed Benefit – Mahmoud Al Massad (Jordan/Netherlands/Germany)
During Ramadan, a man sentenced for a minor financial misdemeanor finds peace and morality in the prison.
Feature Narrative – Post-Production:
Line of Sight – Aseel Mansour (Jordan/France)
A woman points a gun at a car thief and his accomplice. She needs to retrieve memories from her car, he needs an ear and some money.
Ideal Love – Dima El Horr (Lebanon)
Tamara, an attractive and sparkling biology professor, gets a taste of what could be love, and reconsiders migrating out of Lebanon.
The Day I Lost My Shadow – Soudade Kaadan (Syria)
Between water outages and power cuts, all Sana dreams about is a hot shower. She takes a day off from her two jobs to search for a gas cylinder.
One Week Ago, Today – Rania Attieh (Lebanon)
An ageing prostitute takes charge of a young man with amnesia who is returned to his senile old father.
Shelter – Kasem Kharsa (Egypt/Lebanon/UK/US/UAE)
Ghetto dweller Ahmed can’t remember his past but is haunted by a recurring nightmare where he is strangling a group of beautiful horses.
Short Narrative – Production:
Control Room – Mohammed Adeeb (Egypt)
In the state TV control room, the technical team is preparing for what is arguably the most important speech ever transmitted there: Mubarak’s address to the Tahrir Square demonstrators on January 25, 2011.
Playtime – Hamad Al-Tourah (Kuwait)
An eight-year-old boy wanders around Kuwait, trying to track down the mother who has left him home alone for a night out.
Mourning – Rama Mari (Palestine)
Yassin kills his father for brutalizing his mother – who is the martyr here, and who are the survivors?
The Box – Alaa Mosbah (Egypt)
Tariq, a teenager, wants to show his best friend that he is a man. But his mother gets in the way.
Feature Documentary – Development:
Salaam Plenty – Yasmine Kassari (Morocco/Belgium/Australia)
A portrait of Australia’s Afghan cameleers from the mid-1800s to 1930, based on testimony from their descendants, period photographs and press clippings.
The Foreign Son – Abdallah Badis (Algeria/France)
50-year-old Omar returns to his homeland and the tortuous path unfolding in front of him, led by a providential child.
Matoub Lounes: The Story of a Legend– Regine Abadia (Algeria/France)
In the Berber-speaking world, Kabyle singer Matoub Lounès is a legend for standing up to a tyrannical military government and radical Islamism.
Freedom Fields – Naziha Arebi (Libya)
Sohad, a passionate female football scout, works her way across the country to discover and empower the women of Libya through sport.
Feature Documentary – Post-Production:
Embers – Tamara Stepanyan (Lebanon/Armenia)
A grandmother and granddaughter explore nostalgia, history, ideologies, war and peace.
Cursed be the Phosphate – Sami Tlili (Tunisia)
In January 2008, a group of unemployed youth began a movement of civil dissent. Four years later, what remains of this human adventure is broken souls, open wounds, pride, and dignity.
Feature Documentary – Production:
Remnant of Photos – Khalil El-Muzayen (Palestine)
Gaza cinemas have gone silent, even though its people rushed into theatres to see the new releases. What has happened to film there today?
When Home… Becomes Hell – Dalila Ennadre (Morocco/France)
The Medina of Casablanca cries out for its inhabitants and their memory but above all, for a more human world.
Experimental Production/Post Production:
Encounters – Sarah Francis (Lebanon)
Feature: A glassed van roams the city, home to a camera that encourages people to share a personal moment with this moving confessional.
That Which is Coming – Sophia Al-Maria (Qatar)
Short: A meditation on the changing role of women in the Arabian Gulf, which casts woman as the elemental connector between life and death, the earth and the stars, past and future.
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