1. THE TURTLE’S RAGE wins in Rome and was shown in Taiwan
2. FIDAI wins in Algiers, now in Leipzig, Berlin, Vienna, New York and Doha
3. MY NAME IS NOT ALI in competition in Carthage
4. LEAVING BADHDAD at Alfilm and realeyz
5. THE NORTH ROAD in the Market of Thessaloniki
6. DVD of the Month – THE NORTH ROAD
-------------------------------

1. THE TURTLE’S RAGE wins in Rome and was shown in Taiwan

Pary el-Qalqili’s feature length documentary THE TURTLE’S RAGE won the award fort he best documentary of the city of Rome at Asiactia Film Mediale. Last week the film was presented at the competition of the International Documentary Film Festival in in Taiwan, end of November it will be presented in Romania.

Content
When I was 12 years old my father left us to return to Palestine. His dream to build a house and pursue the fight for freedom in Palestine failed. He was expelled by the Israelis. suddenly he was back in Berlin, ringing at our front door. My mother looked at him, did not say a word and let him in. Now he spends his days sitting in the cellar of our small row house. Withdrawn in his turtle shell. My mother lives upstairs. They are not fighting anymore. They try not to cross each other´s path. Not a sound is to be heard. Only the creaking steps of my mother on the stairs. The whirr of the television. And my nagging questions to my father.
The Turtle´s Rage tells the story of a mysterious man, whose life has been molded by flight, expulsion, life in exile and the failed return to Palestine. A torn biography which was affected tremendously by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The film is composed of a daughter’s search for answers from her father. Answers he cannot give.
A road movie crossing Egypt, Palestine and Jordan. Father and daughter: Fighting at the airport. Singing with the cab drivers. Lonely nights in hotels. Negotiations at abandoned gas stations. Drinking beer in the Naqab-desert. A story traversed by many nuances, which makes it nearly impossible to think in categories like „good and bad“,“victim and offender“ or „black and white“.
Germany 2012, 70 min, digital, German/Arabic
more
 ----------------------------

2. FIDAI wins in Algiers, now in Leipzig, Berlin, Vienna, New York and Doha

We are happy to announce that mec film co-production FIDAI by Damien Ounuri that is dealing with the aftermath of the Algerian revolution won the award fort he best documentary at the International Film Festival in Algiers. The film is currently part of the international competition program at DOK Leipzig and will open Alfilm, the Arab Film festival in Berlin, next week. It was shown at Viennale last week and is scheduled to open the third edition of the Mapping Subjectivity program at MoMA in New York tonight. Later this month it will be shown at the Doha Tribeca Film Festival in Qatar.
In spring 2013 mec film will release the film in German theatres.

Content
During the Algerian revolution, my great-uncle joined his sister in France and integrated a secret FLN armed group. Settling of scores, attempted murder, hiding, imprisonment and finally expulsion in 1962, his personal journey tells the story of countless ex-fighters for Algerian independence, and echoes the current effervescence of the Arab World. Today, at the age of seventy, El Hadi reveals this dark part of his life.
Damien Ounouri, Algeria/France/Qatar/Kuwait/China/Germany 2012, 83 min, Arabic/French Engl. ST
more
---------------------------

3. MY NAME IS NOT ALI in competition in Carthage

Viola Shafik’s MY NAME IS NOT ALI officially selected to the documentary competition of prestigious pan-African Film Festival Carthage that takes place in Tunis by mid-November. 

Content
His anti-racist film Ali – Fear Eats Soul (1973) gained German director Rainer Werner Fassbinder international acclaim. The protagonist, an Arab foreign worker, was played by Moroccan El Hedi Ben Salem M’barek Mohammed Mustafa, Fassbinder’s lover at that time. While the film itself courageously deals with the racism of post-war German society, its makers reproduced the insensibility and invention of the Other, fantasizing their own ‘Salem’. Collage-like, through interviews and archive material, My Name Is Not Ali uncovers the invention of El Hedi Ben Salem by the Fassbinder troupe, an image not revised by most of its members till today.
Viola Shafik, Egypt/Germany 2011, 93 min, HDCAM, German/Arabic/French with English ST
more
----------------------------

4. LEAVING BADHDAD at Alfilm and realeyz

Koutaiba al-Janabi’s LEAVING BAGHDAD will be presented at this years Alfilm, Berlin’s Arab Film Festival in the presence of the director. After the festival it will be available for VOD and streaming at realeyz.tv at selected territories.

Content
Baghdad in the early 2000s: Sadik, a personal cameraman to Saddam Hussein escapes Iraq. Hoping to join his estranged wife in London, he traverses several countries, is passed on from one smuggler to the next. The disappearance of his son, who did not share his father’s enthusiasm for the regime, and scenes Sadik had filmed for work, haunt him alike whilst he tries to find his way out of the omnipresent and tormenting shadows of the regime.
As footage shot by fictional Sadik, Koutaiba Al-Janabi weaves real footage from Saddam Hussein’s now accessible archive into his documentary style, slow paced fiction.
Koutaiba Al-Janabi, Iraq/UAE/UK 2010, 85 min, HDCAM, Arabic/Hungarian/English with English subtitles
more
-----------------------------

5. THE NORTH ROAD in the Market of Thessaloniki

Carlos Chahine’s short film THE NORTH ROAD, winner at Tribeca Film Festival 2009,  was invited to the market of International Film Festivals Thessaloniki, where it can be viewed by accredited festival guests. 

Content
Karim, mid fourties, lives in France since his early teenage years. For the first time in many years he returns to Lebanon to transfer his father remains, who died during the war, from Beirut to his home village.
Carlos Chahine, Lebanon/France, 2008, 25 min, 35mm, Arabic/French with English or French subtitles
more
-------------------------------

6. DVD of the Month – THE NORTH ROAD

Content
Karim, mid fourties, lives in France since his early teenage years. For the first time in many years he returns to Lebanon to transfer his father remains, who died during the war, from Beirut to his home village.

We ultimately chose the winner for its poetic, truthful and unsentimental portrait of an exile’s return home to deal with his father’s death 20 years earlier. The director, Carlos Chahine, portrays the absurdities and contradictions of how we deal with grief through humor, freshness and subtlety.
Jury Statement Tribeca International Film Festival

Carlos Chahine, Lebanon/France, 2008, 25 min, Arabic/French
Subtitles: English
PAL, region free

Subjects
Lebanon, Exil, Post-War, Memory, Grief, Humor

Awards
Best Shortfilm, Tribeca International Film Festival
Golden Muhr Award for the best Arab Short Film, Dubai International Film Festival
Cinecinécourt Award, Mediterranean Film Festival Montpelli
Special Mention, Award of the Young Audience, Rencontres cinématographiques de Dignes les Bains
Nominated for the “Jean Vigo” Prize 2009
Best Short Film, Saint Paul Les Trois Chateaux
Best Short Film, International Euro Arab Film Festival AMAL
Best Traditional Short Film, Open Cinema Sankt Petersburg

Institutional rights
According to the rights you whish to acquire and your territory the fee varies, please place your order at the mec film office

If you are based in North America and want to buy the film online as DVD on Demand or as Digital Download, please visit the page of our partner The Tribeca Film Institute

Stream 1,90€ (2.40$) at our partner realeyz.tv
Price: 10,00€
go to shop-site
---------------------------