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Hala Elkoussy
Director
Hala Elkoussy is a visual artist, who lives and works in Cairo and Amsterdam. She mainly uses photography, video and installation in her work, which focuses on her city of birth: Cairo. She has exhibited in biennials, museums and film festivals, including the Tate Modern, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Rotterdam Film Festival and Istanbul Biennial.
SYNOPSIS
Cactus Flower is the story of Aida, a struggling theatre actress, her neighbour Samiha, a destitute and reclusive bourgeoise of fading beauty, and Yassin, a tormented street-smart young man. All three are thrown together overnight after a flood leaves the two women homeless in Cairo, a city on the verge of collapse.
Transit Films
PRODUCER
Transit Films is a Cairo-based production company initiated by EAVE 2011 graduate producer Hossam Elouan. Transit Films aims to make Egyptian arthouse films, situated between visual art and cinema. Transit Films’ recent productions include: La Dolce Siria by Ammar Al Beik, selected for Forum Expanded at the 2015 Berlinale Film Festival, and Dry Hot Summers by Sherif El Bendary, winner of the Robert Bosch Foundation Prize in 2014.
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TUSHAR PRAKASH
Director
Born into a family of architects and psychologists, Tushar Prakash is the first Indian to graduate from the National Polish Film School in Lodz. Tushar has worked extensively on documentaries dealing with gruesome murders and sexual violence in India. His short films have played at the Cannes Short Film Corner, Montreal World Film Festival, and New Horizons Film Festival.
SYNOPSIS
In a modernist house on the outskirts of Delhi, a love-starved middle-aged woman, an overworked husband and a young alcoholic domestic helper search for liberation from their mundane lives and existential conflicts. Liberation highlights the angst of modern Indians surviving in a fractured society plagued by globalization, repression and violence.
SALAAM CINEMA / SANJAY SHAH
PRODUCER
Salaam Cinema is a Mumbai based film production company established to develop and produce auteur driven films for a global audience. The company was founded by Sanjay Shah, former supervising producer of India’s National Film Development Corporation and producer of critically acclaimed features Miss Lovely (Cannes, Un Certain Regard 2012) and Labour of Love (Venice Days 2014).
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Liu Shu
Director
Liu Shu graduated from the University of Shandong with an arts major. After taking up a position as a television journalist she began working in Film. Currently employed by an NGO, she presents independent and experimental films to a network of university and artistic cinemas. Lotus, the first film that she wrote, produced and directed herself, premiered at the Critics’ Week in Venice in 2012.
SYNOPSIS
When her mother is killed in a hit-and-run accident, Yu sets out to find the culprit. Her quest for justice and mourning process take her on a spiritual journey. When she finally finds the murderer, he turns out to be extremely religious. He tries to buy her silence without admitting responsibility. Yu must choose between forgiveness and justice.
Liang Ying, Chinese Shadows (Chine) / Liu Shu
PRODUCER
Chinese Shadows, founded in 2008, is a Hong Kong sales and production company representing the new generation of Asian filmmakers. It aims to give these filmmakers’ work global visibility, while helping them to reach out to their audiences. Recent productions include Red Amnesia by Wang Xiaoshuai (in competition at the 2014 Venice International Film Festival) and (Sex) Appeal by Wang Wei Ming (in competition at the 2014 Busan International Film Festival).
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Kaouther Ben Hania
Director
Kaouther Ben Hania studied film in Tunis and Paris (at La Fémis and La Sorbonne). She has directed several shorts including Wooden Hand (2013) which enjoyed wide success. Her documentary Imams Go to School premiered at IDFA in 2010 and screened at many prestigious festivals. Le Challat de Tunis, her first feature film, was part of the Festival de Cannes ACID selection in 2014.
SYNOPSIS
Tonight, Myriam, a beautiful young Tunisian student, only wants to dance. But something terrible breaks her wings. Two police officers rape her. Despite the trauma and pain, Myriam is adamant: she wants to file a complaint.
Habib Attia, Cinétéléfilms (Tunisia)
PRODUCER
Since 1983, Cinétéléfilms has been one of the leading production companies in Tunisia and the Arab world. Cinétéléfilms’ latest ventures include feature films such as Le Challat de Tunis by Kaouther Ben Hania in 2014 (ACID, Dubai, San Sebastian, Busan, best first film at Namur, etc.), Palestine Stereo by Rashid Masharawi in 2013 (Toronto, Dubai, etc.), It Was Better Tomorrow by Hinde Boujemaa in 2012 (Venice, winner of best Arabic director at Dubai, etc.) and No More Fear by Mourad Ben Cheikh in 2011 (Festival de Cannes, Busan, Dubai, etc.).
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Wesam A. S. Mousa
Director
Wesam Mousa is a documentary filmmaker, based in Gaza Strip, interested in social issues and human rights. He specialized in children-focused TV programmes and has trained as a director, scriptwriter and cinematographer. He founded the Young Cinema Initiative for Change training course, which promotes film culture among children and young people in Gaza Strip.
SYNOPSIS
The film focuses on the games children invented in Gaza during the Nakba and Israeli siege, and their transformation in the wake of the Hamas revolution. Their games reflect their desire to live normal lives and survive a hostile reality. They also reflect the political struggle within Palestinian society, as well as the struggle to overcome Israeli oppression.
Blue Spot Media Production / Eyad Badwan (Palestine)
PRODUCER
Blue Spot Media Production is an independent media network and film production company. It seeks to provide new features, studio television programs and documentaries, through thoughtful productions about economical, social and cultural issues including human rights, democratic development, gender equality, environment and popular education.
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Miguel Angel Moulet
Director
Miguel Angel Moulet studied at the School of Film and Television of San Antonio de los Baños (EICTV), Cuba. His short film The Hosts won third prize at Cinéfondation in Cannes 2012, and the Coral award for best short film at the International Film Festival of New Latin American Cinema in 2012, among others. He is currently working on his first feature film We’re All Sailors.
SYNOPSIS
Krystof, his brother and the Captain live on a fishing ship, stranded in the port of El Callao. The company is bankrupt, the ship has not fished in eight weeks and the rest of the crew has returned to their countries. With no money and no real possibility of change in sight, Krystof tries to adapt to a new way of life on solid ground.
Carolina Denegri et Héctor Gálvez, El Navegante Films (Peru)
PRODUCER
El Navegante Films is a company that produces fiction and documentary films. It aims for the highest artistic quality, through a unique vision of social, human and cultural issues. The company was created in 2012.
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Eliane Raheb
Director
Eliane Raheb was born in Beirut. She has directed the short films The Last Screening and Meeting, as well as the documentaries So Near Yet So Far, Suicide and This Is Lebanon. In 2012, she directed the documentary Sleepless Nights, which premiered at San Sebastián Film Festival. It went on to screen at over 40 festivals, collecting five prizes and being named as the fifth-best documentary in 2013 by Sight and Sound magazine.
SYNOPSIS
Miguel, a Lebanese man in his fifties who immigrated to Spain, is going through a personal and emotional crisis. He is homosexual and masochist, and has never been in love. Travelling between Lebanon, Spain, France and Syria, Miguel faces up to who he really is as part of an emotionally healing journey.
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Martín Mauregui
Director
Martín Mauregui studied at the Universidad del Cine in Buenos Aires. In 2003, he co-directed El Amor (Primera parte) with Alejandro Fadel, Santiago Mitre and Juan Schnitman. Since 2004, he has written for the cinema, working with directors such as Pablo Trapero, Walter Salles and Damián Szifrón. In 2011 he founded the production company La Unión de los Ríos with Alejandro Fadel, Santiago Mitre, Agustina Llambi Campbell and Fernando Brom.
SYNOPSIS
It is 1922 in Patagonia. Two anarchists escape the army by fleeing towards the mountains. On the way, they meet with adventures: the Widow, the Indians, Marx’s suicidal daughters, psychedelic drugs, avenging whores, a poisoned whale… in the meantime, these two nameless men try to get to know each other.
Agustina Llambi Campbell and Fernando Brom (La Unión de los Ríos)
PRODUCER
La Unión de los Ríos was founded in 2011 by Agustina Llambi Campbell, Fernando Brom, Alejandro Fadel, Martín Mauregui and Santiago Mitre. It made its debut with Mitre’s The Student. In 2012, Alejandro Fadel’ Los Salvages was screened at Critics’ Week (Festival de Cannes). In 2013, the company released Los Posibles by Mitre and Juan Onofri Barbato. In 2015, it will release El Cielo del centauro by Hugo Santiago and La Patota by Santiago Mitre. It will also develop Alejandro Fadel’ second feature Desobediencia civil and Martín Mauregui’s directorial debut 1922.
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Haminiaina Ratovoarivony
Director
Haminiaina Ratovoarivony studied sociology in Antananarivo and completed a Master’s degree in documentary in Strasbourg. His first documentary, Madame le Pasteur (2005), was co-produced by France Télévisions. His feature film, Malagasy Mankany (2012), is the first of a trilogy which includes African Cinema. It received several prizes at international film festivals.
SYNOPSIS
An American humanitarian worker crosses Madagascar to make a donation, equipped with an ice pick and a GPS. The Minister, who has a lot to lose in this affair, requests Lova and her two beaux to act as guides. Nevertheless, the island and its many pitfalls defeat the foreigner, who thought he was on safe ground.
Endemika Films / Eva & Nantenaina LOVA (Madagascar)
PRODUCER
Endemika Films is a Madagascan film company run by Eva and Nantenaina Lova since 2008. The company has produced several short documentaries and fiction films, as well as a feature-length documentary – Ady Gasy, The Malagasy Way by Nantenaina Lova – which was selected for major festivals such as Hot Docs and IDFA. Endemika Films is currently developing several projects with international co-producers – projects by directors that have an affectionate, critical and sometimes humorous vision of their island.
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Rusudan Chkonia
Director
Rusudan Chkonia (Tbilisi, Georgia, 1978) graduated as a film director in 2001. In 2012, she produced, wrote and directed her first feature film Keep Smiling, which won numerous prizes and premiered at Venice Film Festival (Venice Days). She is currently developing her second feature film Venice.
SYNOPSIS
A construction company has been unable to finish the “Venice” residential complex for seven years. Each attempt to complete construction ends in failure. The strange tragic-comic gatherings of the residents resemble the construction of the Tower of Babel: no one can reach an agreement except in the face of a common enemy.
