Twelve films from across the mostly French-speaking world will be highlighted this weekend at the fourth edition of the free-to-attend FrancoFilm Festival.
The four-day festival will kick off tonight at Epix Cinemas in Dana Mall with a screening of the French documentary Le Chant des forêts (French: Whispers in the Woods) directed by Vincent Munier, documenting the flora and fauna in the Vosges mountains.
“The FrancoFilm Festival is back for its fourth edition,” the French Embassy noted in its social media announcement. “Join us from September 10 to 13 for four days celebrating cinema from across the French-speaking world.”
The festival is being presented in collaboration with 10 partner diplomatic missions – Belgium, Cameroon, Canada, Côte d’Ivoire, Lebanon, Morocco, Romania, Switzerland, Tunisia and Vietnam.
There will be subtitles in English and all the films will be screened at Epix Cinemas in Dana Mall, with free admission.
The grand opening of the festival and screening of Le Chant des forêts will take place tonight at 7pm.
Tomorrow, three films will be screened, starting with Belgian animated fairytale fantasy film Azur et Asmar, written and directed by Michel Ocelot.
According to the Internet Movie Database, the film synopsis reads: “Raised by the same woman, the dark-complexioned Asmar and the flaxen-haired Azur set out on a quest to a strange and magical land to liberate the enchanting Djinn-fairy.”
At 6pm tomorrow, Canadian film Une Colonie (A Colony), directed by Geneviève Dulude-De Celles, will be screened, telling the story of high-schooler Mylia who is trying to find her bearings amidst teenage pressures and family drama.
Lebanese film Souraya Mon Amour (Souraya, My Love) directed by Nicolas Khoury, will be screened at 8pm.
It tells the story of dancer and actress Souraya Baghdadi, who takes a trip down memory lane documenting life with her late husband and filmmaker Maroun Baghdadi, through archival whispers and introspection, uncovering the ‘haunting beauty of love that persists in the silence of absence’.
On Saturday, September 12, at 3pm, Cameroonian film La Grotte Sacrée (The Sacred Cave) directed by Daniel Minlo and Cyrille Masso will be screened.
The animated film is set in the heart of the equatorial forest in Africa, where a king is poisoned by one of his subjects.
At 5pm on Saturday, Moroccan film Le Lac Bleu (The Blue Lake) directed by Daoud Aoulad-Syad will tell the story of Youssef, a bright 12-year-old blind orphan living with his loving yet overprotective grandparents in a remote desert village in southern Morocco.
The second film to be screened on Saturday will be Swiss romantic comedy Pauline Grandeur Nature (Life-size Pauline) directed by Nadège de Benoit-Luthy at 7pm.
It tells the story of Pauline, a separated mother trying to raise her children and work as a landscape designer when her mother decides to move away to write poetry.
At 9pm on Saturday, Vietnamese film Cu Li Never Cries directed by Phạm Ngọc Lân will be screened. It tells the story of a woman clinging to her past while her niece prepares for her future.
On Sunday, three films will be screened, starting with Romanian tragic comedy Europolis directed by Cornel Gheorghiță at 4.30pm.
Europolis follows a mother and son who travel to France to claim a deceased relative’s inheritance, only to end up on a surreal cross-continental journey back home when his soul hitches a ride inside a bizarre coffin.
At 6.30pm, Ivorian film Anthôman (For Honour) directed by Jacques Trabi will be screened, telling the story of Gooré, a traditional tam-tam drummer who accidentally kills his friend Kalou, a highly celebrated dancer, and to prove his innocence, undergoes a traditional lie-detection ritual.
The final film will be Tunisian drama Regarde-moi (Look At Me), directed by Nejib Belkadhi, at 8.30pm, telling the story of a Tunisian immigrant who abandoned his wife and newborn child back home to start over in Marseille, France, where he works at a home-appliance store and has a new life with his French girlfriend, Monique, with whom he is expecting another child.
naman@gdnmedia.bh
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