06/11/2025 - The Brussels Mediterranean Film Festival will run from 27 November-3 December with a tantalising anniversary line-up

From 27 November-3 December, Cinemamed – Brussels Mediterranean Film Festival will celebrate its 25th edition, once again spotlighting the richness and diversity of Mediterranean cinema in the heart of the European capital.

The festival will open with the world premiere of L'Enfant Bélier, the new flick by Marta Bergman, who first turned heads with her documentary work, then with her debut feature, Alone at my Wedding [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Marta Bergman
film profile], which screened in ACID in 2018. She returns with this searing new film, inspired by the tragic Mawda case from May 2018, and takes the time that cinema allows to probe its possible dynamics. Sara and Adam have arrived in Belgium with their two-year-old daughter, hoping to reach England. After being crammed together and hidden in the back of a vehicle, fear starts to outweigh hope. Redouane has been a police officer for 20 years and spends every night chasing smugglers. That evening, as the patrol tries to stop the van suspected of transporting migrants, everything changes… The festival will close with the Belgian premiere of Maryam Touzani’s new film, Calle Málaga [+see also:
film review
interview: Maryam Touzani
film profile] (France/Morocco/Spain/Germany/Belgium), the Audience Award winner in the Venezia Spotlight section of the Venice Film Festival and Morocco’s submission for the Oscars.

The Official Competition will gather eight films, reflecting just as many facets of Mediterranean cinema. They include the Italian movie Duse [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Pietro Marcello
film profile] by Pietro Marcello, unveiled in competition at Venice, and the Lebanese title A Sad and Beautiful World [+see also:
film review
interview: Cyril Aris
film profile] by Cyril Aris, which scooped the Audience Award on the Lido, in the Giornate degli Autori. Two titles first discovered at Cannes are also on the slate: the new outing by Catalan filmmaker Carla Simón, Romería [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Carla Simón
film profile], which had the honour of being in the Official Competition in May, as well as the second feature by Erige Sehiri (who was behind the highly accomplished Under the Fig Trees [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Erige Sehiri
film profile]), Promised Sky [+see also:
film review
interview: Erige Sehiri
film profile], unveiled in Un Certain Regard. Turkey's Confidante [+see also:
film review
interview: Cağla Zencirci & Guillaume …
film profile] by Çağla Zencirci and Guillaume Giovanetti, which premiered at the Berlinale, will also be on the programme, alongside Derrière les palmiers (France/Morocco) by Meryem Benm’Barek (who made a splash a few years ago with Sofia [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Meryem Benm'Barek
film profile]), the audacious Hen [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: György Pálfi
film profile] (Greece/Germany/Hungary), about the adventures of the desperate titular animal, directed by György Pálfi, and finally the Egyptian film My Father’s Scent by Mohamed Siam, co-produced by Norway, France, Sweden, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

For several years now, the festival has hosted a second competition, ReVolution, dedicated to fiction and documentary films that shed light on the challenges facing Mediterranean youth. This year’s line-up features the Greek flick Bearcave [+see also:
film review
interview: Stergios Dinopoulos, Krysia…
film profile] by Stergios Dinopoulos and Krysianna Papadakis (Europa Cinemas Label in Venice’s Giornate degli Autori), the Italian film Agon [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Giulio Bertelli
film profile] by Giulio Bertelli, the Macedonian movie DJ Ahmet [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Georgi M Unkovski
film profile] by Georgi M Unkovski, the Spanish feature Forastera [+see also:
film review
film profile] by Lucia Aleñar Iglesias, the French-Tunisian film Where the Wind Comes From [+see also:
film review
interview: Amel Guellaty
film profile] by Amel Guellaty, and the Italian-Moroccan-US co-production Bouchra [+see also:
film review
film profile] by Orian Barki and Meriem Bennani, as well as the documentaries Rashid, the Boy from Sinjar (Belgium/France) by Jasna Krajinovic and Valentina and the MUOSters [+see also:
film review
film profile] by Francesca Scalisi (Italy/Switzerland).

As usual, Cineuropa will present an award to one of the films in competition.

(Translated from French)