Doha: Three films supported by the Doha Film Institute (DFI) took home major awards at the recently-concluded 79th Venice International Film Festival.
Nezouh (Syria, Lebanon, Qatar), a Qumra project, directed by Soudade Kaadan; Autobiography (Indonesia, Singapore, Philippines, Poland, Germany, France, Qatar) directed by Makbul Mubarak, and nurtured at Qumra; and Dirty Difficult Dangerous (France, Lebanon, Germany, Qatar), DFI’s 2019 Spring Grants recipient, directed by Wissam Charaf bagged prizes at the festival held from August 31 to September 10.
The film Nezouh nabbed the Orizzonti Extra Audience Award. Orizzonti Extra selection featured up to 10 global works that demonstrate original creativity. The Institute made this announcement on their official social media accounts.
Autobiography, also under the Orizzonti section, won the FIPRESCI Prize – Critics’ Week. The awarding body said the film's Makbul Mubarak “masterfully examines a painful historical period of transition in his nation.” Autobiography is a searing story of a teenager who is left alone after his father is imprisoned.
The film Dirty Difficult Dangerous took the Europa Cinemas Label Award, for best European film screening. Europa Cinemas Label, an organisation of art house cinema exhibitors from across Europe, will also provide promotional support for the movie in addition to the award throughout its theatrical release.
In a statement, the Europa Cinemas jury said the film is “a delight — a very original and surprisingly uplifting film.”
The jury chose the film unanimously. “It deals with many of the tragic issues that confront us all — war, refugees, trafficking — but Charaf comes up with a love story that even has strong fairy tale elements…. There is a lightness of touch here — a pleasing lack of lecturing and some darkly funny moments. The film will give audiences a real sense of hope born from courage, and we feel strongly that it will appeal well beyond art house audiences across Europe.”
In a speech during the awarding, Soudade Kaadan, the director of Nezouh, said: “Nezouh is my personal film about women becoming stronger during the war in Syria, and I’ve been lucky to have strong women stand by me in this journey, thanks to my mum, my sisters, Farhana, Angela and Alessandra for being part of my journey as [a] film director.”
“Nezouh means in Arabic the displacement of light, people, and water. I hope we can find as Syrians some light not only in our individual human stories, but also in our collective one.”
A total of 13 DFI-supported films — with projects from Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Singapore, Algeria, Morocco and Egypt — were selected to the prestigious 79th Venice Film Festival or La Biennale di Venezia. The festival is aimed at raising awareness and promoting international cinema in all its forms as art, entertainment, and as an industry.
