Cannes might be over, but film festival season is still on. And Arab cinema is continuing to make its global mark. This time at Venice International Film Festival.
Set to take place in September, three Arab films are premiering at the coveted film festival.
Among them is Mohamed Diab’s Amira. Inspired by a real phenomenon, shot in Jordan but set in Palestine, the film sheds light on the trafficking of seminal fluid from Israeli prison cells into occupied territories. It’s a coming-of-age drama that only serves as a reminder of some of the very harsh realities of the state-size settlement.
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Out of the very few female directors set to compete in the event, Mounia Akl’s directorial debut Costa Brava will see the Lebanese director and actress Nadine Labaki star alongside Palestinian Saleh Bakri. The film is centered around family drama, the lust for a pollution-free life and severe government restrictions.
Last but not least, Republic of Silence by Diana El-Jeiroudi is a non-fictional documentary of the director’s upbringing in Syria up to her exile in Berlin. The film is an emotionally loaded documentary that we are not used to seeing.
Part of a much larger list of 21 nominated movies enlisted within the official competition, we hope that one of them will manage to snatch the much-coveted prize and bring it back to the region.
Illustration: Costa Brava, Mounia Akl (2021)
