Promote cinematographic culture and establish a proximity strategy through the creation of exchanges on tolerance and cultural differences with the other.
The 2nd edition of the Cap Spartel Film Festival Ciné Nord-Sud opened on Sunday evening in Tangier, with the participation of a panel of Moroccan and foreign filmmakers and actors.
The opening ceremony of this Festival, which is being held from 3 to 7 April, was marked by a vibrant tribute paid to the great Moroccan director, Jillali Ferhati, and to the star of the 7th art Sana Mouziane, in recognition of their contribution to the enrichment of the Moroccan and Arab artistic scene.
On this occasion, two short films were screened, one Mauritanian "El Wadaa" and the other South African "Security", in addition to Jillali Ferhati's feature film "Chevaux de la fortune" (Horses of Fortune), through which the director signs one of the first films devoted to emigration.
"Chevaux de la fortune" tells the story of Mohamed who dreams of going to France to attend a horse race with bets. Around Mohamed, there is Ali, the blind lottery seller, Fatima, who wants to join her mother in Gibraltar, and Elisabeth, a French woman who lives in Tangier and has fallen in love with Mohamed.
After a first attempt at crossing which ends in failure, he is robbed of his meagre savings by thugs. Finally, a visa allowing him to go to France is granted to him, but on the port, at the moment of embarking, the fear of being spotted by the police invades him. Will he have the courage to live his dream?
Speaking on this occasion, the festival director, Azzedine El Ouafi, assured that this edition is intended to be an ideal space for the influence of cinematographic culture and is characterised by the opening to new countries of the Mediterranean rim, Europe and Africa, including Spain, Greece, Norway, Canada, Brazil and Switzerland, as well as certain Arab countries, including Iraq and Mauritania.
This festival also aims to popularise cinema as a pedagogical and educational tool within schools, and this through the screening of films related to cinema and the city, he specified.
For his part, the mayor of Nouadhibou, Mohamed Ould Maatallah, welcomed this initiative which is intended to be a platform dedicated to actors and filmmakers of the Mediterranean rim to exchange their experiences in the field of cinema and highlight the cultures of these countries reflected by the 7th art.
This cultural event, organised under the theme "Cinema and the city", will be marked by the awarding of prizes for the best opening and closing film.
Seven Moroccan and foreign short films were screened last Friday as a prelude to the official opening of the festival.
These are the films "Anna bello sguardo" by Vito Palmieri (Italy), "Une histoire canadienne" by Sameh Byhoum (Canada), "Curvy, une histoire en friche" by Catherine Ricoul (France), "Le vase" by Fayssal Hlimi, "Ne m'oublie pas Tanger" by Hamza Dakkoun and Issam Bouich, "Tanger" by Youssef Ouahabi and "Moi" by Mouad Boutegmelt (Morocco), which are competing for the best opening film.
The jury for the opening films, chaired by Farid Mtalai, is composed of poets Mohamed Ahmed Benniss and Widad Benmoussa, as well as director Ahmed Said Kadiri, while that for the closing films is formed by Suzy Gillett, Jacopo de Bertoldi, Sana Mouziane and Ahmed Sijilmassi.
This edition, which honours South African cinema, was also marked by posthumous tributes to emblematic figures who have left their mark on the Moroccan cultural and artistic scenes, namely Mohamed Choukri and Ahmed Bouanani.
On the menu of this Festival are also two training workshops, one of which focuses on "photography", led by photographer Mustapha Meskine, while the second focuses on "techniques for directing a short film", supervised by British director Suzzy Gillett and Italian director Jacopo di Bertoldi.
To this are added the organisation of an outing to discover the filming locations of the films screened during the festival, in coordination with students from the National School of Architecture of Tetouan (ENAT), the exhibition of photos of the winners of the Cap Spartel photography competition entitled "Tangier: faces of a city", and the awarding of prizes to the winners of the said competition.
This event is also punctuated by the organisation of three round tables on "Cinema and architecture: links and perspectives", in coordination with the Cervantes Centre, "Cinema and the city" and "The image of the city in cinema", held in partnership with the French Centre in Tangier, which will be led by filmmakers and architects and marked by the presentation of experiences in filming the city by Moroccan directors, namely Jillali Ferhati and Noureddine Lkhmari.
The Cap Spartel Film Festival Ciné Nord-Sud, organised by the Moroccan Observatory of Image and Media (OMIM), in partnership with cultural institutes, the French Institute, Abdelmalek Saadi University, the Cervantes Centre and the National School of Commerce and Management (ENCG), sets itself the objective of forging cultural and cinematographic relations between the South and North shores of the Mediterranean.
