Vatche Boulghourjian was selected for Cannes’ Critics’ Week for this meandering mystery about a blind musician who discovers that his childhood was a lie
Tramontane can mean “northern wind”, but is also the name of the lead character; in Arabic it is Rabih. The blind Lebanese singer and musician Barakat Jabbour takes the lead role in this interesting and distinctive if undeveloped feature debut, a kind of road-movie mystery. It is written and directed by Vatche Boulghourjian, the Lebanese film-maker whose career developed through the Cinéfondation at Cannes, and who was selected for Critics’ Week with this film.
Jabbour plays Rabih, a young man who is – like the actor himself – blind and a talented musician. He is the adopted son of Samar (Julia Kassar) and by that token the nephew of Julia’s brother Hisham (Toufic Barakat), a shady businessman. When Rabih is invited to tour Europe with his group,...
Tramontane can mean “northern wind”, but is also the name of the lead character; in Arabic it is Rabih. The blind Lebanese singer and musician Barakat Jabbour takes the lead role in this interesting and distinctive if undeveloped feature debut, a kind of road-movie mystery. It is written and directed by Vatche Boulghourjian, the Lebanese film-maker whose career developed through the Cinéfondation at Cannes, and who was selected for Critics’ Week with this film.
Jabbour plays Rabih, a young man who is – like the actor himself – blind and a talented musician. He is the adopted son of Samar (Julia Kassar) and by that token the nephew of Julia’s brother Hisham (Toufic Barakat), a shady businessman. When Rabih is invited to tour Europe with his group,...
- 9/22/2017
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Title: The Insult Director: Ziad Doueri Cast: Adel Karam, Kamel El Basha, Camille Salameh, Diamand Bou Abboud, Rita Hayek, Talal Jurdi, Christine Choueiri, Julia Kassar, Rifaat Torbey and Carlos Chahine. How easy it is to portray political conflicts in a conciliatory way falling into the pit of excessively moral and benevolent behaviour. This is not […]
The post The Insult Movie Review (Venice Film Festival 2017) appeared first on Shockya.com.
The post The Insult Movie Review (Venice Film Festival 2017) appeared first on Shockya.com.
- 8/31/2017
- by Chiara Spagnoli Gabardi
- ShockYa
Winners of new initiative launched by Arab Cinema Center (Acc) to be announced during Cannes.Scroll Down For The Full Line-up
Mohamed Diab’s Egyptian Revolution drama Clash (pictured) which opened Cannes’ Un Certain Regard last year, Withered Green and Hedi lead the nominations in the inaugural edition of new Critics’ Awards aimed at Arab cinema.
Clash and Withered Green, which premiered at Locarno last summer and went on to win best director for Egyptian film-maker Mohammed Hammad at Dubai International Film Festival in December, picked up three nominations each.
Tunisian director Mohamed Ben Attia’s Hedi, the metaphorical tale of a young man who rebels against a predestined path set by his family, has been nominated in two categories, including best actor for star Majd Mastoura, who was feted for his performance at the Berlinale in 2016.
The winners will be announced during Cannes on Sunday May 21.
The initiative overseen by Cairo-based promotional body the Arab Cinema...
Mohamed Diab’s Egyptian Revolution drama Clash (pictured) which opened Cannes’ Un Certain Regard last year, Withered Green and Hedi lead the nominations in the inaugural edition of new Critics’ Awards aimed at Arab cinema.
Clash and Withered Green, which premiered at Locarno last summer and went on to win best director for Egyptian film-maker Mohammed Hammad at Dubai International Film Festival in December, picked up three nominations each.
Tunisian director Mohamed Ben Attia’s Hedi, the metaphorical tale of a young man who rebels against a predestined path set by his family, has been nominated in two categories, including best actor for star Majd Mastoura, who was feted for his performance at the Berlinale in 2016.
The winners will be announced during Cannes on Sunday May 21.
The initiative overseen by Cairo-based promotional body the Arab Cinema...
- 5/8/2017
- ScreenDaily
The Arab Cinema Center is launching the Critics Awards to promote and support Arab cinema internationally. The winners will be for Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actress and Best Actor.
The 26 member jury includes prominent Arab and foreign critics from 15 countries from around the world. Egyptian film critic Ahmed Shawky is serving as manager of the Critics Awards.
Film analyst Alaa Karkouti, CEO of Mad Solutions, the company in charge of organizing the Arab Cinema Center’s events and also the first Pan Arab independent distributor and PR company of Arabic content to and from the Arab world, said: “The Critics Awards marks a first-time initiative that encompasses film critics from all over the world dedicated to Arab films within the strategy of Arab Cinema Center to add initiatives and events to every large-scale international film festival around the world.”
He added: “This is the first new addition...
The 26 member jury includes prominent Arab and foreign critics from 15 countries from around the world. Egyptian film critic Ahmed Shawky is serving as manager of the Critics Awards.
Film analyst Alaa Karkouti, CEO of Mad Solutions, the company in charge of organizing the Arab Cinema Center’s events and also the first Pan Arab independent distributor and PR company of Arabic content to and from the Arab world, said: “The Critics Awards marks a first-time initiative that encompasses film critics from all over the world dedicated to Arab films within the strategy of Arab Cinema Center to add initiatives and events to every large-scale international film festival around the world.”
He added: “This is the first new addition...
- 4/16/2017
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
The 13th edition of Diff has revealed its winners with The Dark Wind scooping top prize.
Kurdish director Hussein Hassan’s drama The Dark Wind, about a Yazidi community attacked by Isis fighters, has won best fiction feature in the central Muhr Feature competition devoted to Arab cinema at the 13th edition of the Dubai International Film Festival (Diff).
The feature revolves around a young Yazidi couple - Reko and Pero - who are separated on the eve of their wedding when Isis fighters attack their village.
The prize for best non-fiction feature went to Lebanese film-maker Maher Abi Samra’s A Maid For Each, capturing the inner workings of a Beirut employment agency supplying Asian and African domestic staff.
Lebanese film-maker Eliane Raheb’s Those Who Remain, about an elderly farmer determined to remain on his remote mountain farm, defying age and the political tensions around him, won the jury prize.
It was the...
Kurdish director Hussein Hassan’s drama The Dark Wind, about a Yazidi community attacked by Isis fighters, has won best fiction feature in the central Muhr Feature competition devoted to Arab cinema at the 13th edition of the Dubai International Film Festival (Diff).
The feature revolves around a young Yazidi couple - Reko and Pero - who are separated on the eve of their wedding when Isis fighters attack their village.
The prize for best non-fiction feature went to Lebanese film-maker Maher Abi Samra’s A Maid For Each, capturing the inner workings of a Beirut employment agency supplying Asian and African domestic staff.
Lebanese film-maker Eliane Raheb’s Those Who Remain, about an elderly farmer determined to remain on his remote mountain farm, defying age and the political tensions around him, won the jury prize.
It was the...
- 12/15/2016
- ScreenDaily
Screened
Locarno International Film Festival In Competition
The poignant premise of the ironically titled A Perfect Day is that it is the day when a court will be asked to declare officially dead a man who was kidnapped and has been missing for 15 years. It is a day the man's wife Claudia (Julia Kassar) and son Malek (Ziad Saad) both welcome for the release the declaration offers and dread because of the loss it confirms.
The man was one of 17,000 people who disappeared during the Lebanese war with no trace of their whereabouts leaving their families with the harrowing dilemma of waiting or moving on.
Co-writer/director Khalid Joreige's uncle was one of them and his film, in partnership with Joana Hadjithomas, depicts the agony of such a choice with great compassion. The picture should generate substantial art house interest.
Malek is a builder who suffers from sleep apnea and falls asleep anywhere if he's not on the move. With the decision at last made to petition the court regarding his father's death, Malek finds he is unable to spend time with his mother, preferring to chase a lost love, the beautiful but temperamental Zeina (Alexandra Kahwagi).
Claudia is emotionally paralyzed by what they need to do and she spends the day phoning her son, packing away her husband's clothes and freezing every time she hears a car in case it's his.
Kassar and Saad play their haunted scenes with considerable skill and Kahwagi is indelible as the girlfriend who finds that breaking up with Malek is not so easy.
The film is a little too enigmatic to be thoroughly absorbing, however, and there are scenes where nothing much appears to be happening. If Joreige and Hadjithomas had been more transparent with their filmmaking they might have more fully conveyed the effect of such a terrible quandary.
Mille et Une Productions, Abbout Productions, Twenty Twenty Vision
No MPAA rating
Running time 88 mins.
Locarno International Film Festival In Competition
The poignant premise of the ironically titled A Perfect Day is that it is the day when a court will be asked to declare officially dead a man who was kidnapped and has been missing for 15 years. It is a day the man's wife Claudia (Julia Kassar) and son Malek (Ziad Saad) both welcome for the release the declaration offers and dread because of the loss it confirms.
The man was one of 17,000 people who disappeared during the Lebanese war with no trace of their whereabouts leaving their families with the harrowing dilemma of waiting or moving on.
Co-writer/director Khalid Joreige's uncle was one of them and his film, in partnership with Joana Hadjithomas, depicts the agony of such a choice with great compassion. The picture should generate substantial art house interest.
Malek is a builder who suffers from sleep apnea and falls asleep anywhere if he's not on the move. With the decision at last made to petition the court regarding his father's death, Malek finds he is unable to spend time with his mother, preferring to chase a lost love, the beautiful but temperamental Zeina (Alexandra Kahwagi).
Claudia is emotionally paralyzed by what they need to do and she spends the day phoning her son, packing away her husband's clothes and freezing every time she hears a car in case it's his.
Kassar and Saad play their haunted scenes with considerable skill and Kahwagi is indelible as the girlfriend who finds that breaking up with Malek is not so easy.
The film is a little too enigmatic to be thoroughly absorbing, however, and there are scenes where nothing much appears to be happening. If Joreige and Hadjithomas had been more transparent with their filmmaking they might have more fully conveyed the effect of such a terrible quandary.
Mille et Une Productions, Abbout Productions, Twenty Twenty Vision
No MPAA rating
Running time 88 mins.
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