Maimouna Doucouré, a French director of Senegalese origins who grew up in a social housing project in Paris and started her career with a screenwriting contest, isn’t one to buckle under any type of pressure or challenge.
She certainly didn’t dwell on the misguided backlash to her film “Cuties.” The controversy was provoked by Netflix’s promotional material for her Sundance prizewinning feature debut, which aimed to shed light the sexualization of children. In her sophomore outing, “Hawa,” Doucouré embarked on another challenging project, a modern-day fable boasting a cast entirely made up of non-professionals, including the celebrated Malian singer-songwriter Oumou Sangaré, astronaut Thomas Pesquet and popular singer Yseult.
As with “Cuties,” which earned Fathia Youssouf a Cesar award for best promising actress, the Amazon original film “Hawa” is headlined by Sania Halifa, a newcomer who delivers a robust performance. Halifa, a teenager with albinism, plays the title role,...
She certainly didn’t dwell on the misguided backlash to her film “Cuties.” The controversy was provoked by Netflix’s promotional material for her Sundance prizewinning feature debut, which aimed to shed light the sexualization of children. In her sophomore outing, “Hawa,” Doucouré embarked on another challenging project, a modern-day fable boasting a cast entirely made up of non-professionals, including the celebrated Malian singer-songwriter Oumou Sangaré, astronaut Thomas Pesquet and popular singer Yseult.
As with “Cuties,” which earned Fathia Youssouf a Cesar award for best promising actress, the Amazon original film “Hawa” is headlined by Sania Halifa, a newcomer who delivers a robust performance. Halifa, a teenager with albinism, plays the title role,...
- 12/9/2022
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
A bold celebration of taking up space in places you’re told you don’t belong, “Hawa” is a crowd-pleasing fable with a fluffy heart, fierce spirit and disarming sense of humor. These qualities also define the titular heroine of Maïmouna Doucouré’s lovely sophomore feature, co-written by Doucouré, Alain-Michel Blanc, Zangro and David Elkaim. Hawa is both sensitive and fearless while she roams the streets of Paris on a life-defining quest with her dependable scooter and unapologetic blonde afro, seeing the world through her idiosyncratic coke-bottle glasses as she earns the help and goodwill of a parade of strangers.
Don’t be alarmed by the crowded group of writers here — despite the many cooks in the kitchen, “Hawa,” under the baton of Doucouré, is as coherently envisioned and tightly structured as movies come. You might recall the gifted Doucouré’s name and recognize her style from her debut “Cuties,...
Don’t be alarmed by the crowded group of writers here — despite the many cooks in the kitchen, “Hawa,” under the baton of Doucouré, is as coherently envisioned and tightly structured as movies come. You might recall the gifted Doucouré’s name and recognize her style from her debut “Cuties,...
- 9/22/2022
- by Tomris Laffly
- Variety Film + TV
I really wanted to love this film. I’m fascinated by stories of the French Resistance during World War II, as I knew this was before I saw it, and by the time it was over, I was stunned by its audacity, for it tells a tale of immigrant Algerian Muslims in Paris who sheltered immigrant Algerian Jews in the cavernous Paris mosque and also provided them with false papers testifying to their Islamic faith. What’s more, this really happened, though it has been up until recently a mostly unknown history of the war. (See this New York Times article for more on the film’s background.) There’s potential for real power and a stinging lesson for today’s world here... and yet the execution is disappointingly prosaic. Perhaps the problem lies in how director and coscreenwriter (with Alain-Michel Blanc: The Concert) Ismaël Ferroukhi chose to fashion...
- 5/25/2012
- by MaryAnn Johanson
- www.flickfilosopher.com
Cannes Film Festival won’t be lacking in Romanian films/filmmakers this year. La Source des femmes, the 5th film directed by Radu Mihăileanu, was selected to the official competition, while Mitulescu’s second feature Loverboy was included in Un Certain Regard category. You’ll be able to read more about Cătălin Mitulescu’s film in future article, but among the surprise inclusions in this year's Main Comp is indeed Mihăileanu's latest pic. La Source des femmes is produced by two French companies: EuropaCorp (Luc Besson’s production company) and Elzevir Films, with Belgium's Panache Prods. and Italy's Indigo on board as co-producers. The screenplay was written by the director himself with the help of Alain-Michel Blanc, who also teamed up with Mihăileanu for his previous film, Le Concert – which was a real success, winning two Cesar awards and four Gopo awards. Radu Mihăileanu is born on April 23rd 1958 and...
- 4/25/2011
- IONCINEMA.com
Updated through 4/20.
Gilles Jacob and Thierry Frémaux announced that, out of 1715 submissions, 49 features from 33 countries have been selected in total for this year's Cannes Film Festival — four of them made by women, a record. 19 titles are lined up for the Competition so far, leaving room for surprise announcements from here on to the Opening Ceremony on May 11.
Competition
Pedro Almodóvar's The Skin I Inhabit. As noted yesterday, here's what Variety's Justin Chang had heard as of this past weekend: "In late March, it seemed that Almodóvar, a Cannes veteran who won prizes for All About My Mother and Volver, might skip the event altogether this year. Since 2004's Bad Education, the helmer has presented every one of his films in competition at the May fest, usually following a spring local release. The Sept 2 Spanish release date for The Skin That I Inhabit (which Sony Classics will release Stateside in...
Gilles Jacob and Thierry Frémaux announced that, out of 1715 submissions, 49 features from 33 countries have been selected in total for this year's Cannes Film Festival — four of them made by women, a record. 19 titles are lined up for the Competition so far, leaving room for surprise announcements from here on to the Opening Ceremony on May 11.
Competition
Pedro Almodóvar's The Skin I Inhabit. As noted yesterday, here's what Variety's Justin Chang had heard as of this past weekend: "In late March, it seemed that Almodóvar, a Cannes veteran who won prizes for All About My Mother and Volver, might skip the event altogether this year. Since 2004's Bad Education, the helmer has presented every one of his films in competition at the May fest, usually following a spring local release. The Sept 2 Spanish release date for The Skin That I Inhabit (which Sony Classics will release Stateside in...
- 4/21/2011
- MUBI
As much as I enjoy The Birdcage, the Americanized version couldn't hold a candle to the original classic French farce La Cage Aux Folles, in which the setting of the gay club in St. Tropez lends so well to the atmosphere and mood. I was reminded of this while watching The Concert (Le concert), a dramedy set in Russia and Paris. Writer/director Radu Milhaileanu and his collaborator Alain-Michel Blanc originally envisioned creating The Concert in English with American actors to appeal to a mainstream audience. However, the filmmakers decided that English would render the movie more artificial, and decided to shoot in the original languages of Russian and French -- a choice I wholeheartedly support, especially after watching The Concert.
The Concert focuses on Andreï Filipov (Aleksey Guskov), the janitor at the Bolshoi. He enjoys listening to the famed Bolshoi Orchestra, but not because he's a low-class worker aspiring...
The Concert focuses on Andreï Filipov (Aleksey Guskov), the janitor at the Bolshoi. He enjoys listening to the famed Bolshoi Orchestra, but not because he's a low-class worker aspiring...
- 3/31/2011
- by Debbie Cerda
- Slackerwood
Tahar Rahim ("A Prophet") has signed on to headline the $10.3 million WWII drama "Free Men" for Pyramide Films reports Variety.
The story follows a young Algerian immigrant worker in Paris whose unexpected friendship with a Jewish man inspires him to join the French Resistance, despite repeated threats from the Gestapo.
Ismael Ferroukhi and Alain-Michel Blanc penned the script with the former directing. A ten week shoot starts Monday in Paris and will continue in Morocco.
The story follows a young Algerian immigrant worker in Paris whose unexpected friendship with a Jewish man inspires him to join the French Resistance, despite repeated threats from the Gestapo.
Ismael Ferroukhi and Alain-Michel Blanc penned the script with the former directing. A ten week shoot starts Monday in Paris and will continue in Morocco.
- 7/27/2010
- by Garth Franklin
- Dark Horizons
A documentary film project that I've been keeping tabs on since I first heard about it last February, is not surprisingly, causing quite the stir. Rezo Films' The Game of Death, a docu experiment that filmed knowing, and unknowing participants in a mock game show that mimicked Stanley Milgram's famed experiment -- but this time in the context of reality television. - A documentary film project that I've been keeping tabs on since I first heard about it last February, is not surprisingly, causing quite the stir. Rezo Films' The Game of Death, a docu experiment that filmed knowing, and unknowing participants in a mock game show that mimicked Stanley Milgram's famed experiment -- but this time in the context of reality television. Paul Scheuring's upcoming thriller The Experiment is a variation of this experiment. The Game of Death aired on French television yesterday...
- 3/19/2010
- IONCINEMA.com
Paris – French Academy members got serious on Friday with two politically charged dramas heading the major categories for the 35th annual Cesar Awards that will see Jacques Audiard's "A Prophet" go head to head with Philippe Lioret's "Welcome." The nominees were announced Friday at a press conference in Paris.
While no one can foresee the winners, "A Prophet" looks bound to triumph with Jacques Audiard's prison drama nominated for 13 awards including best film, best director and a best actor and most promising male newcomer nod for the film's breakout star Tahar Rahim.
Academy voters also gave a hearty reception to Phillipe Lioret's "Welcome" with 10 nods and Xavier Giannoli's "In the Beginning" with 11 nominations.
Radu Mihaileanu's "The Concert" was also music to voters' ears with the tragicomedy about a washed-up former conductor of the Bolshoi orchestra who travels to Paris to make his career comeback scoring six nominations.
While no one can foresee the winners, "A Prophet" looks bound to triumph with Jacques Audiard's prison drama nominated for 13 awards including best film, best director and a best actor and most promising male newcomer nod for the film's breakout star Tahar Rahim.
Academy voters also gave a hearty reception to Phillipe Lioret's "Welcome" with 10 nods and Xavier Giannoli's "In the Beginning" with 11 nominations.
Radu Mihaileanu's "The Concert" was also music to voters' ears with the tragicomedy about a washed-up former conductor of the Bolshoi orchestra who travels to Paris to make his career comeback scoring six nominations.
- 1/22/2010
- by By Rebecca Leffler
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Similar to the Golden Globes because it is a foreign group of film journalists who conduct the voting (though I'm sure they have no mandate to prefer films loaded in stars), this year's the 15th Lumiere Awards has a pair of films in the top tier that recently that duked it out for the Louis Delluc award. Philippe Lioret's Welcome (which just got picked up by Film Movement this week) and Jacques Audiard's A Prophet (a Spc release next February) received five and four noms respectively. - Similar to the Golden Globes because it is a foreign group of film journalists who conduct the voting (though I'm sure they have no mandate to prefer films loaded in stars), this year's the 15th Lumière Awards has a pair of films in the top tier that recently that duked it out for the Louis Delluc award. Philippe Lioret...
- 12/18/2009
- IONCINEMA.com
- They might be in a tight spot right now, but at the end of the rainbow The Weinstein Co. have Rob Marshall's Nine, John Hillcoat's The Road (Dimension) and Andrew Jarecki's All Good Things. Sight unseen, I imagine they're all Oscar bait potential and have the ingredients to be profitable, but there is one title that might see the financially troubled unit regain some of that glitter from the old Miramax days (where they grabbed a film with subtitles and made American audiences fall for them. E.g: Pelle the Conqueror, Cinema Paradiso, Mediterraneo, Koyla.) Radu Mihaileanu's The Concert was a packaged and sold Wild Bunch item that the Weinsteins pre-emptively picked up at last year's Cannes, and now currently in post-production, the film is probably setting its sights on a double preem at Venice and Tiff in the fall. By the sound of the plot,
- 6/22/2009
- IONCINEMA.com
Writers on the films Amazing Grace, Freedom Writers and Venus along with scribes on a trio of medical-themed TV series -- NBC's Scrubs and ER and Fox's House -- are among the finalists for the 33rd annual Humanitas Prize.
The prize, which rewards film and TV writers whose work "honestly explores the complexities of the human experience and sheds light on the positive values of life," is handed out in eight categories, each of which carries a monetary prize of varying amounts. Twenty-eight writers were named finalists this year.
In the feature-film category, which bestows a $25,000 prize, the finalists are Steven Knight for Samuel Goldwyn Films/Roadside Attractions' Amazing Grace; Richard LaGravenese, who wrote the screenplay for Paramount Pictures' Freedom Writers; and Hanif Kureishi for Miramax Films' Venus.
Finalists in the Sundance feature-film category, which offers a $10,000 prize, are Newton I. Aduaka & Alain-Michel Blanc (writers) and Newton I. Aduaka (story) for Ezra, Adrienne Shelly for Fox Searchlight Pictures' Waitress and Salvatore Stabile for Where God Left His Shoes.
The TV finalists in the 30-minute category, which carries a $10,000 prize, are Scrubs writer Bill Callahan, who will compete with Jennifer Crittenden, who wrote the Oh God, Yes episode of CBS' The New Adventures of Old Christine, and Rob Lotterstein, who wrote the Kenny Doesn't Live Here Anymore episode of Fox's The War at Home.
Cited in the 60-minute TV category, which bestows a $15,000 prize, were "ER" writers R.
The prize, which rewards film and TV writers whose work "honestly explores the complexities of the human experience and sheds light on the positive values of life," is handed out in eight categories, each of which carries a monetary prize of varying amounts. Twenty-eight writers were named finalists this year.
In the feature-film category, which bestows a $25,000 prize, the finalists are Steven Knight for Samuel Goldwyn Films/Roadside Attractions' Amazing Grace; Richard LaGravenese, who wrote the screenplay for Paramount Pictures' Freedom Writers; and Hanif Kureishi for Miramax Films' Venus.
Finalists in the Sundance feature-film category, which offers a $10,000 prize, are Newton I. Aduaka & Alain-Michel Blanc (writers) and Newton I. Aduaka (story) for Ezra, Adrienne Shelly for Fox Searchlight Pictures' Waitress and Salvatore Stabile for Where God Left His Shoes.
The TV finalists in the 30-minute category, which carries a $10,000 prize, are Scrubs writer Bill Callahan, who will compete with Jennifer Crittenden, who wrote the Oh God, Yes episode of CBS' The New Adventures of Old Christine, and Rob Lotterstein, who wrote the Kenny Doesn't Live Here Anymore episode of Fox's The War at Home.
Cited in the 60-minute TV category, which bestows a $15,000 prize, were "ER" writers R.
- Quick Links Complete Film Listing: Premieres: Dramatic Comp: Docu Comp: World Docu Comp: Spectrum: Park City at Midnight: New Frontier: Short Film Programs January 18 to 28, 2007 Counting Down: updateCountdownClock('January 18, 2007'); Blame It On Fidel (France), directed and written by Julie Gavras, which takes the point of view of a 9-year-old girl whose parents become political radicals in early '70s Paris. Drained (Brazil), directed by Heitor Dhalia and written by Marcal Aquino and Dhalia, about the life change of a devious pawnbroker.Driving With My Wife's Lover (South Korea), directed by Kim Tai-sik and written by Kim Joen-han and Kim, which describes the long taxi journey of a man and the cab driver he's learned is having an affair with his wife.Eagle Vs. Shark (New Zealand), directed and written by Taika Waititi, a portrait of two social misfits who try to find love. A Miramax release in its world premiere.
- 1/18/2007
- IONCINEMA.com
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