‘You Don’t Die Two Times,’ ‘Amal,’ ‘The North Wind’ Win Top Prizes at Cairo Film Connection
Three documentary projects took top honors at this year’s Cairo Film Connection, with Ager Oueslati’s “You Don’t Die Two Times” winning the post-production prize as development laurels went to Khaled Al Swidan’s “Amal” and Eliane Raheb’s “The North Wind.”
Marking his first year at the head of the Cairo Film Festival’s development and postproduction showcase, CFC director Rodrigo Brum tells Variety that the three winning titles all share a sense of immediacy.
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“It was really clear why these films need to be made now,” says Brum. “They are all tackling very urgent issues, and our jury made a bold decision to award such socially engaged projects.”
French-Algerian-Tunisian journalist, photographer and nonfiction filmmaker Ager Oueslati produced her feature debut “You Don’t Die Two Times” with her brother, Raouf. The film follows a young Nigerian migrant as she recounts her own life’s journey – one fraught with danger and haunted by ghosts. The projects has previously received support from Doha and from the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture.
Lebanese filmmaker Eliane Raheb won the development prize for her doc, “The North Wind.” The film follows a 68-year-old urologist and activist as he navigates the challenges of protecting the environment while standing up to corruption and racial extremism. The project had previously received a development award from the El Gouna Film Festival.
Born in Syria and raised in Jordan, Khaled Al Swidan worked as DP on a number of lauded films, including director Rama Ayasra’s Thessaloniki prize-winning “Harvest Moon.” His documentary “Amal” follows a young, Syrian refugee living at the Zaatari camp in Jordan. Produced by Rahmeh Al Shmmas, the film explores questions of displacement and societal pressures.
A producer, instructor and long-time Cairo resident, Brum wanted to leave his imprint for his first year at the helm of the CFC.
“I did not not surrender to this very American conception that a pitch needs to be a perfect, outstanding performance,” he says. “I truly believe that when a filmmaker is deeply connected to the story that she or he is trying to tell, even the hesitation or the insecurity that they demonstrate on stage could be useful and meaningful in relationship to the project.”
He also wanted to highlight titles that cut against the grain.
“We often see filmmakers losing their drive in order to conform, either to reach for an aesthetic that they know is palatable to a certain film festival or to oblige a certain player in the market,” he says. “So prizes like this help us acknowledge projects that are trying to take a risk, and that are not trying to conform to a language that is somehow established or ratified.”
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