Dubai goes to Cannes places accent on female Arab directors

Scandinavian filmmakers grab global attention in fest

LOS ANGELES, May 22, (Agencies): Five films by the new generation of directors from the Arab world — four of them women — were to be unveiled on Monday (May 22) at Dubai goes to Cannes, the Cannes Film Market’s pix-in-post industry showcase. They are supported by the Dubai film market which is the only bona fide movie mart in the Middle East.

Moroccan director Leila Kilani was to present her sophomore feature “Joint Possession,” set on the hills around Tangier where rapacious real estate developers are tearing up the landscape and a family must decide whether to sell a large plot of land on which their old manor house lies. Kilani’s debut feature, “On the Edge,” about four girls from Tangiers who peel shrimps by day and turn tricks at night, screened in 2012 at the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight.

Lebanese-American director Susan Youssef was to present her sophomore work “Marjoun and the Flying Headscarf,” a coming-ofage drama about a rebellious teenage Arabic girl living in Little Rock, Arkansas who learns to ride a motorcycle and takes off for the open road. Youssef’s first feature, well-received Gaza-set love story “Habibi” went to Venice and Toronto in 2012.

Egyptian director Ahmed Fawzi’s was to present his first fiction feature “Poisonous Roses,” about a twisted sister/brother dynamic that develops between a toilet cleaner and her younger brother in an Egyptian slum. Fawzi’s docu “Living Skin” screened at many international fests including Toronto’s Hot Docs.

Algerian-born director Yasmine Chouikh was to present her feature debut “Until The End Of Time,” a love story set in a cemetery where a seventy-year-old gravedigger and sixty-something woman who wants to organise her own funeral prior to her death, develop strong feelings for each other.

Palestinian director Annemarie Jacir will present “Wajib,” a drama with comedic elements about an estranged father and son, played respectively by prominent Palestinian-Israeli actors Mohammad Bakri and Saleh Bakri, working together for the first time. The film takes play in a day during which they drive around Nazareth and the twists and turns in their uneasy relationship unfolds. Jacir’s “When I Saw You” was Palestine’s 2013 Oscar entry.

“We are going to screen 9 minutes of the film,” said Jacir. “For me it’s going to be about showing it to distributors and festival programmers, since I have a sales agent, Pyramide Films, on board.” Dubai has been a big supporter of “Wajib” through its Dubai Film Connection co-production platform, where “Wajib” (pictured) won the top award.

“Joint Possession,” (Leila Kilani, Morocco, France, United Arab Emirates).

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That Swedish director Ruben Ostlund’s anticipated art-world satire “The Square” is in competition this year is just latest indication that the Scandinavian industry is upping its international game, venturing beyond “Scandi noirs” and becoming a hotbed of innovation at the forefront of the pack in Europe.

“The Square,” Ostlund’s English-language follow up to “Force Majeure,” which scooped Cannes’ Un Certain Regard Jury Prize in 2014, is the first Swedish film in the Cannes competition in 17 years. It stars Danish actor Claes Bang (“The Bridge”) and Elisabeth Moss, in a mighty mix of Nordic and US talents that sees the already hot auteur “elevating himself into a new sphere,” according to Swedish Film Institute chief exec Anna Serner. The same can be said for the entire film and TV industry in the Nordics, which comprises five countries: Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, Finland and Norway.

There is a slew of buzzy English-language pics from the Nordics in the pipeline that combine Scandi and English-language talent, such as Lisa Langseth’s “Euphoria,” starring Alicia Vikander — who is also producing — and Eva Green; Janus Metz Pedersen’s “Borg/McEnroe,” which pairs Sverrir Gudnason with Shia LaBeouf as the two iconic ’70’s tennis rivals; and Per Fly’s political thriller “Backstabbing for Beginners,” toplining Ben Kingsley and Josh Hutcherson, just to name a few.

In addition, Dogma 95 co-founder Lars von Trier is now shooting a decidedly non-dogmatic effects-laden serial killer thriller, “The House That Jack Built,” starring Matt Dillon, Uma Thurman and South Korean star Yu Ji-tae (“Oldboy”).