16/11/2005

Guest of honour at the 32nd Independent Film Festival in Brussels in the beginning of November, Director General of the Moroccan Film Centre and President of the Marrakech Film Festival, Nour-Eddine Saïl is a main act personality that has helped enormously in affirming Moroccan cinema. At a round table between Moroccan and Belgian professionals, he has expressed his reservations towards the UNESCO’s Convention on Cultural Diversity: "Our nation has adopted the UNESCO Convention on Cultural Diversity next to Europe. I would like to say that it is not necessary that it all ends up in a confrontation between the interests of the USA and the EU , this is the case nowadays .The countries of the South very rarely arrive to make their cinema emerge, and they risk ending up as the victims of mockery. The aid given by Europe to the Southern countries is, for instance, to show European works in the South, without the Southern films receiving the same attention in Europe! Here we usually say that the cinema of the South looks at Europe, which looks at American cinema, which looks at its own navel. What I suggest is a true cultural pluralism! I don’t believe too much in formal international co-productions anymore, they are a clash of financial interests as well. What really is desirable is the “ will” of people’s friendship, working together for the love towards the same work. Furthermore, it is the audiences’ opinion what makes a film a masterpiece. At the beginning, who can tell that a film will become a true work of art?".