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FESTIVALS Italy

MedFilm returns with more strong Mediterannean titles

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France and Morocco will be the guest of honour countries at the 15th edition of the MedFilm Festival, to be held in Rome from November 7-15, with a new selection of films from diverse cultures that have a common denominator in the Mediterranean.

The 132 films, most of them premieres, make up this year’s line-up. The festival will kick off at the Auditorium della Conciliazione with Le Grand Voyage by Moroccan filmmaker Ismael Ferroukhi. The moving road movie co-produced with France won the Lion of the Future award at the 61st Venice Film Festival.

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The Official Selection offers 11 titles, of which are debut features by directors who will certainly write the future of the history of Mediterannean cinema, including Lebanon’s Hany Tamba (Melodrama Habibi [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
), Turkish director Mahmut Fazil Coskun (Wrong Rosary) and Spain’s Roberto Caston (Ander [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
). The Italian film in competition is also a feature debut: Claudio Noce’s Good Morning, Aman [+see also:
film review
film profile
]
, starring Valerio Mastandrea, who was also one of the producers on the film.

The difficulties of integration for second generation immigrants is at the heart of two competition titles: Greek director Panov Karkanevatos’s Athanasia (Greece/US/Netherlands/Belgium) and Águas Mil by Portugal’s Ivo M. Ferreira.

There are also numerous strong female characters: in Hijab el Hob, Amours Voilés by Morocco’s Aziz Salmy, the dramatic thriller Dowaha by Tunisian director Raja Amari and Skirt Day [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
by France’s Jean-Paul Lilienfeld. The shortlist of films nominated for the Love and Psyche Award includes London River [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
by Rachid Bouchareb, the Franco-Algerian director behind Days of Glory [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jean Bréhat
interview: Rachid Bouchareb
film profile
]
, which at Cannes 2006 won its cast a collective Best Acting award.

Immediately following the festival in Rome, MedFilm will travel to Istanbul to hold the second edition of its Festival of Italian Cinema (December 4-10), of 30 films distributed by Italian companies that are part of Roma – Istanbul: Crossing the Bridge.

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(Translated from Italian)

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