Cairo Film Festival to Screen Internationally Acclaimed Films

A screenshot from Gaza Mon Amour
A screenshot from Gaza Mon Amour
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Cairo Film Festival to Screen Internationally Acclaimed Films

A screenshot from Gaza Mon Amour
A screenshot from Gaza Mon Amour

The Cairo International Film Festival (CIFF) has announced the films that will feature in its 42nd edition, scheduled to run from December 2 to10.

In a press release obtained by Asharq Al-Awasat, the festival’s president Mohamed Hefzy said that this year’s edition would screen the premiers of some of the biggest films alongside award-winning and critically acclaimed movies from other major festivals.

Nomadland, an American drama awarded the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival and The Toronto International Film Festival Grolsch People’s Choice Award, will feature as part of the festival’s formal screenings and will not be part of the competition for any awards.

Directed by Cloe Zhao, the film stars Oscar-award winning actress Frances McDormand and is set during the great recession; it tells the story of a woman in her sixties who decides to take a journey through the American West and live as a modern-day nomad.

The Disciple will also be screened without being part of the competition for awards. It won this year’s International Film Critics Awards (FIPRESCI Prize) in Venice. Directed by Chaitanya Tamhane and produced by Oscar-award winning director Alfonso Cuaron, the film tells the tale of a young Indian man who dedicates his life to singing classical Indian music and the challenges he faces along the way.

Two other films that will be screened in the formal section are the German-French film Undine, directed by Christian Pitzold, which won the FIPRESCI Prize, while the lead actress Paula Beer Silver Bear for Best Actress in Berlin, and Mogul Mowgli, a British-American production that follows the journey of a British rapper of Pakistani origins who falls ill as he is preparing for his first world tour.

Two years after his previous film, Jumpan, was screened during the festival’s 40th edition in 2018, Ivan I. Tverdovsky will participate with his latest film, The Conference, which is part of the international competition.

Gaza Mon Amour, among this year’s most prominent Arabic films, is also going to be screened. A Palestinian French, German and Portuguese production directed by two twins, Arab and Tarzan Nasser, the film premiered as part of the Venice International Film Festival’s Horizons section before it winning the Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema Award (NEPTAC) at the Toronto Festival.

Set in Gaza, it follows a lonely older man who is secretly in love with a dressmaker, and as he tries to find a way to confess his love for her, he discovers an ancient statue that changes his life forever.
CIFF had previously announced that it will honor the Egyptian screenwriter Wahid Hamed with the Golden Pyramid Award for Lifetime Achievement during the opening ceremony and that its Cairo Days of Film Industry will support for 15 fictional and documentary projects from 12 Arab countries.



Evacuations as Tail of Storm Boris Floods Northeast Italy

Floods in Italy due to Storm Boris pummeled the same area affected in May 2023 that killed 17 people. Andreas SOLARO / AFP
Floods in Italy due to Storm Boris pummeled the same area affected in May 2023 that killed 17 people. Andreas SOLARO / AFP
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Evacuations as Tail of Storm Boris Floods Northeast Italy

Floods in Italy due to Storm Boris pummeled the same area affected in May 2023 that killed 17 people. Andreas SOLARO / AFP
Floods in Italy due to Storm Boris pummeled the same area affected in May 2023 that killed 17 people. Andreas SOLARO / AFP

Italian authorities have evacuated some 1,000 people from homes as the tail end of Storm Boris pummeled a northeastern region that was devastated by deadly flooding last year, regional authorities said on Thursday.
The strong winds and rains which have swept across central and eastern Europe, killing 24 people, lashed the Emilia-Romagna and Marche regions on Wednesday, leaving some towns under water, said AFP.
Schools closed and trains were canceled Thursday as the rains lashed the same area hit by two floods in May 2023, which killed 17 people and caused billions of euros in damage.
Locals in Faenza told Local Team journalists they blamed authorities for fresh damage to their homes.
"There's one and a half meters of water in my house, again, after I'd just finished refurbishing it," one unnamed resident told them.
Over 1,000 people had been evacuated, regional Emilia-Romagna authorities told AFP Thursday.
"We are in a full emergency," Ravenna mayor Michele De Pascale told Radio 24, saying the situation was "very similar to what we had last May (2023)".
"The population is on high alert," said Emilia-Romagna's acting president, Irene Priolo, told Radio Rai 1, adding that last year 45,000 people were evacuated but that the damage this time was not expected to be as extensive.
Priolo defended her administration saying "so many construction works have been carried out" since the flooding last year.
Storm Boris has brought widespread flooding and torrential rain, with victims in Austria, the Czech Republic, Poland and Romania.
Experts say climate change caused by greenhouse gas emissions generated by human activities is increasing the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events such as torrential rains and floods.