It’s “Nardjes A. – A day in the life of an Algerian protester” by Karim Ainouz the winner of the 4th edition of MyART International Film Festival.
Ainouz’s film has been granted with the award dedicated to Sarah Maldoror, film director and activist who died this year. The award is granted by SIPROIMI, the System of protection for beneficieries of international protection and foreign unaccompanied minors.
One of Maldoror’s daughters, Annuchka De Andrade, live fom France, announced the jury’s motivation to the Brazilian film director.
Karim Ainouz, live from Berlin, was very happy and honoured for receiving an award dedicated to Sarah Maldoror, a film director who was able to portray the African society and its desire for redemption and emancipation from colonialist ways of thinking that have halted its indipendence and economic development for years.
Ainouz’s film will be released in Italian cinemas from 2021 by Maria Letizia Gatti’s Reading Bloom.
For its ability to show, with freshness and hope, the fight and the political responsibility of a young Algerian activist – energetic and powerful female character willing to change her Country; for the director’s ability to make us feel strongly empathetic to Nardjes, the main character, and the other protesters, taking us by their sides without filters, in the heart of the protest; and also for breaking the stereotypes about women’s condition in North African Countries: by Nardjes’ side, we actually find many other “fighting” women of different generations: these are the reasons why the jury, composed by Daniele Gaglianone, Serena Gramizzi e Valerio Cataldi decided to award the touching work by Ainouz.
“Exam” by Sonia K. Hadad (Iran) has been awarded the Shady Habash Award, granted by Fondazione Migrantes, for the best short film. “For describing, with growing tension, dry style and a wise use of cinematic time, the day of a teenager forced to live a life she does not desire”: this is what the jury – composed by young Calabrian film directors Alessandro Grande (competing at 38° Torino Film Festival with his first work REGINA), Aldo Iuliano (about to release his first feature film Space Monkeys) and Mario Vitale (author of L’Afide e la Formica, his first feature film) said.
The jury has also ment to give a special mention to the short film “I am afraid to forget your face” by Sameh Alaa,
Egypt, “For being able to condense in a short film the impossibility of living a love story, using a habit that is usually portrayed in films only to speak about cultural differences and prejudice”. Both short films are distributed in Italy by Zen Movie by Giulio Mastromauro, whose work “Inverno” has won the David di Donatello 2020 for the best short film.
This edition, which closed on 12th December on the official channels of the festival, had to be necessarily online, but it was well attanded (almost 1500 accesses mainly from Italy but also from other European Countries and the Mediterranean area).
Many were the documentaries and short films scr.eened, coming from different countries: Italy, of course, but also France, Spain, Iran, Pakistan, Brasil, Israel and Egypt
Many were the events organized by the directors of the festival promoted by Associazione Culturale Multietnica “La Kasbah” onlus.
The opening panel, titled “What will become of cinematography? Considerations about post-Covid scanarios” was particularly interesting, and attended by : Maddalena Mayneri | President of Cortinametraggio and spokeswoman of Casa dei Festival; Simone Gandolfo | AGICI delegate to local rleations; Mauro Morucci | Technical Director of Italian Film Festival in Berlin; Jessica Granato | Spokeswoman of Rete Cinema Calabria; Leon Pantarei | Spokesman of Approdi. Lavoratrici e lavoratori della cultura e dello spettacolo Calabria. Equally interesting were the panels about human rights, specially the one about the discrimination suffered by the LGBTIQ+ community, which was attended by Wajahat Abbas Kazmi | Director of the beautiful documentary Allah Loves Equality, Lucia Iuzzolini | Central Service Sai/Siproimi, Cristina Franchini | UNCHR, Mazen Massaoud | MIT (Mov. Identità Trans), Silvio Cilento| Spokesman of the Migration desk – Eos Arcigay Cs, Donatella Loprieno and Valentina Fedele | Interdepartmental Centre Women’s Studies UNICAL; and the one about the human rights conditions in Egypt, attended by Raccardo Noury, spokesman of Amnesty International Italia.
The promoting association expresses its particuar satisfaction for the success of this fourth edition and looks forward to the next one, wishing and hoping we will soon be able to enjoy film shows live and in cinemas.
