Washington DC Film Fest 2007

The 21st edition of the Washington, DC International Film Festival (April 19-29, 2007) will feature some of the best, new and exciting films in international cinema today. Films will encompass a global range of cultures, music, and politics from over 30 countries.

Kahloucha VHS In Philly Film Festival

The follwoing is an article published in the Blogcritics magazine, where the author mentions the Tunisian documentary movie Kahloucha VHS and its recent participation in The Philly Film Festival of this year ( April 5-18, 2007).

The Reaping: The Movie

So, yesterday I saw the new horror/thriller movie, The Reaping by director Stephen Hopkins. All in all I found the movie above the average and a bit boring in the beginning.Besides for those who are not familiar with biblical stories, it would be difficult for them to follow the plot.

Synopsis:

"Katherine Morrissey (Hilary Swank), a former Christian missionary, lost her faith after the tragic deaths of her family. Now she applies her expertise to debunking religious phenomena. When a series of biblical plagues overrun a small town, Katherine arrives to prove that a supernatural force is not behind the occurrences, but soon finds that science cannot explain what is happening. Instead, she must regain her faith to combat the evil that waits in a Louisiana swamp."

Planet Of The Arabs

Sometime in December 2005, I wrote a post titled "Hollywood and Washington Sprung From the Same DNA", I was at that time referring to a book written by american professor and author Jack G. Shaheen titled "Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies A People". I contributed my post to Maghreblog.net, when I was a contributer to this blog. Unfortunately the post was lost for ever when the website crashed and was closed :( I regret not having saved a copy of my post but I came across this trailer of a documentary inspired by Shaheen's book and which deals with the image of Arabs according to Hollywood.

Here is the link to the video clip in question (Recently, I encountered technical problems while posting video clips from dailymotion, google video and youtube, so my apologies)

Premonition: The Movie

Yesterday I watched Premonition, a movie by Mennan Yapo and starring Sandra Bullock as the leading role of Mrs. Linda Hanson. Premonition is a story about love, fate, marriage commitment and faith all set in a surrealistic yet thrilling and tragic atmosphere filled with suspens .Two thumbs up!

Here is an abstract:

"Linda Hanson has a beautiful house, a loving husband and two adorable daughters. Her life is perfect, until the day she receives the devastating news that her husband Jim has died in a car accident. When she wakes up the next morning to find him alive and well, she assumes it was all a dream, but is shaken by how vivid it felt. She soon realizes it wasn't a dream, and her world is turned upside down as the surreal circumstances lead her to discover that her perfect life may not have been all that it appeared. Desperate to save her family, Linda begins a furious race against time and fate to try and preserve everything that she and Jim have built together."

Watch the trailer here.

"The Departed" Best Motion Picture For 2007

The following is the list of the winners of the 79th Annual Academy Awards for 2007.

Bab'Aziz At The Pan African Film & Arts Festival In L.A.

Nacer Khmir's movie "Bab'Aziz" or "The Prince That Contemplated His Soul", is scheduled for today's program of the 15th Annual Pan African Film & Arts Festival (Feb. 8-19, 2007) in Los Angeles, CA. The movie will be screened as well on Feb. 17 and 19, 2007.

On another side note, Ms. Emna Zghal, a talented Tunisian artist, who lives in New York, is organizing a painting exhibit at the M.Y. Arts Prospect Gallery in New York City from January 11 to February 17, 2007. The title of this Exhibit, " The Tree of My Mind" is, in fact, the same as Emna Zghal's latest artist's book, The Tree Of My Mind.

Thank You Google!

79th Annual Academy Nominations

Here is the complete list of the 79th Annual Academy Nominations. (Via The Washington Post)

Volver

"Volver" is a wonderful song performed by Raimunda (Penélope Cruz) in Almodovar's latest movie "VOLVER". ( I am sure Cruz didn't really perform this song herself, ie, with herv own voice but she was just lip-synching another famous spanish singer, I guess, Estrella Morente). For the Almodovarphiles, "Volver" is a must!

PS: I didn't delete this same post, lest I will lose the comment attached to it.

Volver: Trailer & Abstract

"VOLVER is a meeting of “Mildred Pierce” and “Arsenic and Old Lace”, combined with the surrealistic naturalism of my fourth film, “¿Qué he hecho yo para merecer esto!!” (“What have I done to Deserve This?”), that is, Madrid and its lively working-class neighbourhoods, where the immigrants from the various Spanish provinces share dreams, lives and fortune with a multitude of ethnic groups and other races. At the heart of this social framework, three generations of women survive wind, fire and even death, thanks to goodness, audacity and a limitless vitality. They are Raimunda (Pénelope Cruz), who is married to an unemployed labourer and has a teenage daughter (Yohana Cobo); Sole (Lola Dueñas), her sister, who makes a living as a hairdresser; and the mother of both (Carmen Maura), who died in a fire along with her husband. This character appears first to her sister (Chus Lampreave) and then to Sole, although the people with whom she has some unresolved matters are Raimunda and her neighbour in the village, Agustina (Blanca Portillo). VOLVER is not a surrealistic comedy although it may seem so at times. The living and the dead coexist without any discord, causing situations that are either hilarious or filled with a deep, genuine emotion. It’s a film about the culture of death in my native La Mancha. The people there practice it with an admirable naturalness. The way in which the dead continue to be present in their lives, the richness and humanity of their rites mean that the dead never die."

VOLVER

VOLVER, is a wonderful song performed by Raimunda (Penélope Cruz) in Almodovar's latest feature "Volver". For all the Almodovarphiles, "Volver" is a must! Enjoy!

Golden Globe Awards: List Of Winners

Here is the list of winners of the 64th annual Golden Globe Awards.

Hannibal, The Movie

Our dear friend at Dappled Things links to a neat article via Rogueclassicism, on the upcoming movie of producer and actor Vin Diesel about the life of Hannibal Barca. Rumors indicate that "Hannibal the Conqueror", will be in the original punic language.

Variety Magazine Talks About "Khochkhach"

In the film review section for its January 1, 2007 edition, Variety magazine talks about Salma Baccar's recent feature "Khochkhach" (Flower of Oblivion).

Babel

Yesterday, I saw "Babel" a new movie directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu. All in all, I found the beginning of the movie a bit boring but as the plot unfolds you almost identify yourself with the the actors and the story and you submerge in the three entertiwned stories that take place on three different continents (Africa, America, Asia) wishing if the movie will last for ever!.

Synopsis

Armed with a Winchester rifle, two Morrocan boys set out to look after their family's herd of goats. In the silent echoes of the desert, they decide to test the rifle… but the bullet goes farther than they thought it would.

In an instant, the lives of four separate groups of strangers on three different continents collide. Caught up in the rising tide of an accident that escalates beyond anyone's control are a vacationing American couple (Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett) a rebellious deaf Japanese teenager and her father, and a Mexican nanny who, without permission, takes two American children across the border. None of these strangers will ever meet; in spite of the sudden, unlikely connection between them, they will all remain isolated due to their own inability to communicate meaningfully with anyone around them.

One observation is related to the story of the American couple's ordeal in a distant small village in the Moroccan desert. As the movie presented the small moroccan village, Tazarine, I was shocked by the level of poverty and squalor there, but nevertheless the director highlighted aspects of hospitality, solidarity and compassion among its inhabitants which the American couple benefitted from contrary to the "individualistic and egotistic" reaction they received from their fellow americans travelling with them on the same bus.

Another observation is that of the reaction of the Moroccan authorities, mainly police, following the shooting of an american tourist.Generally speaking, I understand that this is a very sensitive situation for countries like Morocco when it comes to acts of terrorism on their soil and their deep concern especially if the victim is a foreigner (who happens to be an American citizen here) and the repercussions of such acts on the image of the country itself, but I nevertheless found their treatment of local suspects (men and women) outrageous, exagerated, violent and inhuman. Furthermore, I could not understand how the police arrived quickly to the crime scene and started investigating the incident whereas it took a long time for the US Embassy in Morocco to dispatch a helicopter to rescue the victim and take her to the hospital.

One last observation is how the director presented some of the Moroccan actors and non-actors in this small village and some of the problems they were suffering from and which remain, I guess, subject to further discussion (poverty, lack of education, sexual frustration, drugs...)

Mel Gibson's APOCALYPTO

Just saw Mel Gibson's recent movie "APOCALYPTO": I shall say "Two Thumbs Up !", and as Peter Travers at Rolling Stone described it " Pure Adrenaline. Tremendously Exciting!".

PS: Rudy Youngblood, playing the lead role of "Jaguar Paw" in Apocalypto, was excellent.Check his website here.