Festivals & Cycles
Ciné-Club Héllénique
Synopsis
Financial upheaval forces a deaf teenage girl, Valmira 16, to leave her progressive Athens school and return to her father's struggling island, where she is confronted with the danger of prejudice and intolerance, most shockingly - her own. When an unexpected turn of events changes the odds for all, Valmira is compelled to "listen" to the truth.
Cast
Efthalia Papacosta, Dimitris Kitsos, Yorgos Pyrpasopoulos, Yoana Bukovska Davidova, Nikos Koukas, Vangelio Andreadaki
The director
Maria Douza studied Byzantine Literature in Athens and Film Direction at the National Film and Television School of England. While in the UK, she wrote and directed a number of short and medium length films, the awarded The Bridge and The Island among them. In 2013, she wrote and directed her first feature, The Tree and the Swing, with Myrto Alikaki and Mirjana Karanovic, which represented Greece in many Film Festivals and enjoyed both domestic and international distribution. The Tree and the Swing was the first Greek film bought by Netflix.
Her second feature film, Listen, has participated in many festivals around the world and won Best Feature Award at the Dhaka IFF, Orpheus Best Feature Award and Best Performance Award for actress Efthalia Papacosta in the 17th LAGFF (Los Angeles Greek Film Festival). Maria is currently working on her next feature, End Point.
Stop Filming Us But Listen
Thursday, December 7th at Ciné Utopia.
Version EN STEN – 71min.
Stop Filming Us But Listen explores the history of colonial representations in the Congo and follows the journey of Congolese filmmaker and journalist Bernadette Vivuya and her fellow local artists as they strive to challenge Western narratives around the city.
In Goma (DRC), Vivuya seeks funding for her decolonial film. At the same time, a Dutch director wants to make a film about the conflicting perspectives of Goma but is quickly confronted with the local community's refusal to be filmed. This sparks a conversation around power and trust, colonialism and representation.
A re-edited version of Joris Postema's Stop Filming Us, Vivuya and Twahirwa's film takes a closer look at the imbalance of power inherited from colonialism and its consequences on the representation of the DRC, cinematic and otherwise. The idea to produce this new version arose from discussions within Postema's film about whether a Western director is capable of capturing an image and narrative of the DRC shared by its citizens.
Comité pour une Paix Juste au Proche-Orient
Hany Abu-Assad's new film is based on true events. Reem, a young married mother, goes to Huda's hairdressing salon in Bethlehem, Palestine. After putting Reem in a compromising situation, Huda blackmails her and forces her to give information to the Israeli secret service, thus betraying her people. During the night, Huda is arrested by Hasan, a member of the resistance, endangering the lives of Reem and her family. The film denounces both the Israeli occupation and the often oppressive Palestinian patriarchy.
Šepet Metulja
TEEN ROMANTIC DRAMA ABOUT DREAMS, OVERCOMING OBSTACLES, AND PERSEVERANCE.
Jan, a 17-year-old mechatronics enthusiast and teenage autistic. He joins a class that competes for a scholarship in an international company, developing software for a modern ventilation system with artificial intelligence drive. In the class, there is also an attractive musician and the only girl, Tara, who also desires victory. The class is led by the uncompromising teacher Frank, who disapproves of the special needs of students and pushes boundaries with different practical teaching methods. Despite all the obstacles from the teacher and classmates, Jan proves that he can succeed. With the help of the ambitious guidance counselor Zarja, he gradually progresses in school and also gets closer to the company's director, who takes him under his wing.
