Palestinian feature film "Gaza Mon Amour" by twin brothers Tarzan and Arab Nasser will make its Arab world premiere in the International Competition of the 42nd Cairo International Film Festival (CIFF) (December 2-10). "Gaza Mon Amour" is remarkably one of the most important Arab films of 2020; it recently won the NETPAC award at the 45th Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF).
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"Gaza Mon Amour"[/caption]
"Gaza Mon Amour" received wide acclaim after its screening at the Venice International Film Festival in Italy and the Toronto International Film Festival in Canada. It is the only Arab film that got selected at both festivals this year. The international media, including The Hollywood Reporter, Cineuropa, Screen Daily, and others, described it using words like “gem”, and “great” and “exceptional work”. Besides, TIFF’s jury committee described the film as “a heartwarming, thoughtful-provoking and poetic tale of unspoken emotions portraying daily life.” The film got a five-minute standing ovation at its world premiere at the Venice International Film Festival.
The film takes place in Gaza, today where a sixty-year-old fisherman Issa is secretly in love with Siham, a woman who works as a dressmaker at the market. Finally determined to propose, Issa discovers an ancient statue of Apollo in his fishing net, which he decides to hide at home. When local authorities discover the existence of this mysterious treasure, troubles start for Issa…Will he succeed to declare his love to Siham?
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A snippet from the film[/caption]
Directed by the Nasser brothers, "Gaza Mon Amour" features an all-star cast, including Salim Daw, Hiam Abbass, Maisa Abdelhadi, Georges Iskandar, Hitham Al Omari, and Manal Awad. The film was officially selected at the 2019 Berlinale Co-Production Market.
The film is produced by the French company Les Films du Tambour (delegate producer), in a France-Germany-Portugal-Palestine-Qatar co-production with Riva Filmproduktion (Germany), ZDF/Das kleine Fernsehspiel in collaboration with ARTE (Germany), Ukbar Filmes (Portugal), Made in Palestine Project (Palestine), and Jordan Pioneers. MAD Solutions handles the film’s distribution in the Arab world.
The film received the support of Eurimages, Centre National du Cinéma et de l'Image Animée (CNCI), Filmförderungsanstalt, Filmförderung Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein, L'Aide aux Cinémas du Monde – Centre National du Cinéma et de l’Image Animée – Institut Français, and co-production grants for Franco-Portuguese Films from the Instituto do Cinema e do Audiovisual, RTP - Rádio e Televisão de Portugal, and the Doha Film Institute, in association with Versatile, Dulac Distribution, and Alamode Film.
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The Nasser brothers[/caption]
Twins Tarzan and Arab Nasser were born in Gaza, Palestine, in 1988. They studied Fine Arts at Al-Aqsa University and became passionate about cinema and paintings. They directed "Condom Lead" (15 min, 2013), which got selected in the Official Competition at the Cannes Film Festival 2013. Their first feature film, "Dégradé" (85 min, 2014), made its world premiere at Cannes’ Semaine de la Critique 2015, and also screened at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival. "Gaza Mon Amour" is their second feature-film.
You can watch a clip from the film on the following link:
https://www.facebook.com/MADSolutionsOfficial/videos/364268847955373
By Pasant Elzaitony & Sara Goda
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