Mystery Film Screening - Against All Odds | Cinema World
The emblematic stories of CinemaWorld’s film curation often shed light on the troubled realities of individuals in different communities around the world. These stories offer a glimpse into a world of humanitarian crises, political conflicts and social injustice that plague our fellow humans.
In response to such plights, CinemaWorld is spotlighting the enduring human spirit that persists in the face of adversity through three spectacular films: A Son, A House In Jerusalem and Erased .
Bik Eneich: Un Fils
Country: France/Tunisia/Lebanon/Qatar
Language: Arabic/French
Released: 2019
Genre: Drama
Runtime: 95 min
Directed by: Mehdi M. Barsaoui
Starring: Sami Bouajila, Najla Ben Abdallah, Youssef Khemiri
A family’s holiday in Tunisia ends in disaster, when their 10-year-old son Aziz is shot during a terrorist ambush. At the hospital where Aziz is in desperate need of a liver transplant, the family discovers a long-buried secret.
About The Film
A Son stands as part of the post-revolution zeitgeist after the 2011 Jasmine Revolution in Tunisia, which witnessed the resurgence of Tunisian filmmaking that pulsates with bursts of freedoms of opinion, thought and expression.
An intimate tale of a broken family that finds their way back together, Mehdi M. Barsaoui’s debut feature simultaneously facilitates as a sociopolitical commentary that blurs family with nation. About his decision to situate the story in 2011, Mehdi explains, “ [it] was a pivotal year for Tunisia and the Arab world… [a]n entire region changing. This parallels the family, who, as a result of the secret revealed in the film, also goes through changes. I found this parallel an interesting one to harness. And that also shows the effect of policy on a family that we thought was normal” (Film International).
The film’s director was also interested in exploring the psyche of his characters within the social conditions they live in, particularly in relation to gender expectations. Fares, the loving and troubled father, is portrayed as a modern, westernised Tunisian man whose masculine ego surfaces under the pressure of his son’s looming death, and Meriem’s dark secret further disrupts the assumed gender norms of Tunisian society.
He summarises, “[They] are a bit like Tunisia – wounded, humiliated – but who end up bouncing back.
Festivals & Awards:
Best Film Nominee, Venice Film Festival, 2019
Special Jury Award, Best Arab Film and United Nations Award, Cairo International Film Festival 2019
Sami Bouajila, Best Actor, César Awards, France, 2021
Sami Bouajila, Best Actor, Lumiere Awards, France, 2021
Sami Bouajila, Best Actor, Venice International Film Festival, 2019
Country: Palestine/UK/Netherlands/Qatar
Language: English
Released: 2023
Genre: Drama
Runtime: 103 min
Directed by: Muayad Alayan
Written by: Rami Alayan & Muayad Alayan
Starring: Johnny Harris, Miley Locke, Sheherazade Farrell
A 10-year-old Jewish-British girl, Rebecca, and her father move from the UK to Jerusalem, looking for a fresh beginning after the death of her mother. In their new home, situated in a neighbourhood known as the Valley of the Ghosts, a series of strange events take place and Rebecca sets out to uncover the mysteries of their home.
About The Film:
Crafted by brothers Muayad Alayan (director) and Rami Alayan (co-writer), A House in Jerusalem tells a deeply personal yet historically rooted story through the eyes of the young, curious Rebecca.
Through the supernatural, Alayan’s film unravels intimate stories about generations of trauma and grief of Palestinian refugees who had their lives and families uprooted by the introduction of the Israeli state in 1948. While history weaves itself throughout the film, Alayan emphasises that it does not serve as sociopolitical critique, rather it honours the enduring memories of these displaced individuals.
About the inspiration behind the film Alayan comments, “My brother and I have set out to make this personal film inspired by the memory of our mother, father, and grandmother, and by their resilience and survival… Growing up, both our parents and our grandmother were really obsessed with their past and the life they had... We grew up feeling that a piece of them was really stuck in time in those houses, that era, that neighbourhood. My father used to drive us to school and tell us stories about his neighbours and the shops that used to be there. He saw a totally different reality to the neighbourhood we saw. He would give you directions and you would not be able to use them, because the things weren’t really there.” (ScreenDaily)
In the absence of a past stripped away lives the ghost of cherished memories in the shadows of once familiar spaces and beloved objects – like the old, worn doll Rebecca finds in her new home.
Prior to the premiere of A House In Jerusalem at the 2023 International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR), the creative duo's earlier critically acclaimed feature The Reports on Sarah and Saleem also premiered at the festival in 2018.
Festivals & Awards:
World premiere - International Film Festival Rotterdam (Limelight), 2023
Best Youth Feature Film Nominee - Asia Pacific Screen Awards 2023
Muayad Alayan, Best Director and Best International Film - Bosphorus Film Festival 2023
Izbrisana
Ana gives birth at the local hospital and everything goes well. There is only a small problem with the paperwork – her file is not on the computer. A temporary loss of data seems to be caused by a software glitch.
However, within a few days, Ana finds herself entangled in a web of bureaucracy of Kafkaesque proportions: not having her records implies that she has no social security, no permanent address and no baby. She is forced to abandon her newborn child alone at the hospital and is stripped of all rights to visit her. All of a sudden Ana is a foreigner, even though she has lived in Slovenia all of her life. Legally, she doesn’t exist, which makes her child an orphan who will be put up for adoption.
Country: Slovenia/Croatia/Serbia
Language: Slovenian/Serbian
Released: 2018
Genre: Drama
Runtime: 90 min
Directed by: Miha Mazzini & Dusan Joksimovic
Starring: Judita Frankovic, Sebastijan Cavazza, Jernej Kogovšek, Doroteja Nadrah, Izudin Bajrovic
About The Film:
Inspired by the real-life stories of those who experienced erasure from all public records following the breakup of Yugoslavia.
Erased is Slovenian director Miha Mazzini’s first feature film, based on his own novel which has the same name. Ana’s story in the film is inspired by the hundreds and thousands of real-life stories of people who were ‘erased’ from all public records by the newly-established Slovenian government after its declaration of independence from Yugoslavia on 26th February 1992.
Wiping out the names of nearly 26,000 people (approximately 1.3% of the entire population) from its register of permanent residents, Slovenia’s independence cost the rights of its own people overnight. Those who had lived in Slovenia for the majority of their lives found themselves cast as illegal immigrants in their homeland – many who were completely unaware of the new status forced upon them.
This erasure of Slovenian citizens is an event that seems to be similarly erased from history, with few questioning or discussing its aftermath publicly. Mazzini noted that during his research for his novel, many victims chose not to tell their stories.
“It’s the elephant in the room. Everybody knows, but everybody stays silent,” the film’s director states in his interview with GoCritic!.
The lack of reports and narratives about this significant yet buried event in Slovenia’s history served as Mazzini’s inspiration to create a work of fiction that could articulate the injustice faced by those who were erased and abandoned by the place they called home.
Festivals & Awards:
World Premiere at Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, 2018
Miha Mazzini & Dusan Joksimovic, Best Feature Film Nominee, Trieste Film Festival, 2019
As the first of our film screenings since the pandemic, Against All Odds spotlights films that go beyond geographical and cultural boundaries, and seeks to create an inclusive community for film lovers in Singapore.
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