Still from Mediterranean Fever
Doha Film Institute-granted films “Mediterranean Fever” and “Plan 75” bagged big awards at the recently concluded Cannes Film Festival.
Mediterranean Fever won the Best Screenplay Award at the Un Certain Regard section, while Plan 75 bagged the Camera d’or Special Mention.
Un Certain Regard (Certain Regard) is a competition focused on arthouse films that runs parallel to the main competition, the Palme d’Or (Golden Palm). And Camera d’or (Golden Camera) is given to the best first film from the Official Selection, La Semaine de la Critique and the Directors’ Fortnight.
Directed by Maha Haj, Mediterranean Fever is a story about Waleed, a Palestinian man, who lives comfortably in his sea-view home in Haifa with his wife and children. A former Hi-Tech engineer and aspiring writer, he knows the ins and outs of being a stay-at-home dad, but cannot seem to figure out what it takes to be happy.
One day, Waleed is introduced to his new neighbour, who soon becomes the most critical person in his life. Jalal, a kind but pretentious small-time crook with a big heart, quickly develops a close relationship with Waleed who has a strange plan; his desperate hope to have Jalal kill him, while making it look like a natural death.
Jalal is furious by his new friend’s insane request and ends all contacts with him. On the other hand, Jalal continues to receive threats from the underworld to whom he owes money. Haj first feature film titled Personal Affairs was also selected on the same category in 2015.
Plan 75 film by Chie Hayakawa, meanwhile, tackles Japan’s ageing population. The government programme Plan 75 encourages senior citizens to be voluntarily euthanised in order to remedy a super-aged society. An elderly woman whose means of survival are vanishing, a pragmatic Plan 75 salesman, and a young Filipino labourer face choices of life and death.
In 2014, Hayakawa’s film Niagara was selected under Cinéfondation, also at Cannes. This is Hayakawa’s second film which has been selected at the prestigious film festival.
Recently, also DFI-granted movie Cotton Queen by Sudanese filmmaker Suzannah Mirghani bagged the ArteKino Award at Cannes Film Festival’s L’Atelier.
The ArteKino International Prize is a development aid for feature film projects awarded at numerous international festivals.
Overall, there are ten films supported by the Doha Film Institute that were selected at the 75th annual Cannes Film Festival. Of the number, five are under Un Certain Regard, four are part of the Directors’ Fortnight and one film under the Association for the Distribution of Independent Cinema section.
