Dedicated to the events of 2006 in Iraq, “Our River… Our Sky” – previously known as “Another Day in Baghdad” – shows people who suddenly don’t recognize their own country anymore. Trying to carry on with their normal routines, they are “acting life,” says director Maysoon Pachachi. As the conflict in Afghanistan rages on, the world premiere – in the Sarajevo Film Festival’s Dealing with the Past section – of her first fiction feature seems timely.
“I have been watching the news just like everybody else, trying to make sense of it. Somebody asked me the other day if I planned for my film to come out this way. Obviously, I didn’t know this was going to happen,” she says, describing 2006 as the year of “uncertainty and fear,” starting with an attack on a Shia shrine orchestrated by Al-Qaeda.
“It ignited the most extraordinary violence. People were looking in the mirror, thinking: ‘Is this us?...
“I have been watching the news just like everybody else, trying to make sense of it. Somebody asked me the other day if I planned for my film to come out this way. Obviously, I didn’t know this was going to happen,” she says, describing 2006 as the year of “uncertainty and fear,” starting with an attack on a Shia shrine orchestrated by Al-Qaeda.
“It ignited the most extraordinary violence. People were looking in the mirror, thinking: ‘Is this us?...
- 8/20/2021
- by Marta Balaga
- Variety Film + TV
Titles are split between Coming Soon and Industry Screenings.
Meeting Point - Vilnius, the industry strand of Vilnius International Film Festival, has expanded its selection for its 2021 online event, confirming 32 projects today.
The projects are selected across two strands: 24 are in the Coming Soon pitching selection, consisting of 12 fiction features and 12 documentaries; with a further four of each in the Industry Screenings.
Some 23 countries are represented among the titles, including Maysoon Pachachi’s fiction feature Our River… Our Sky, a co-production between the UK, France, Germany, Qatar, Kuwait and the UAE, in the main Coming Soon strand.
Further sections of...
Meeting Point - Vilnius, the industry strand of Vilnius International Film Festival, has expanded its selection for its 2021 online event, confirming 32 projects today.
The projects are selected across two strands: 24 are in the Coming Soon pitching selection, consisting of 12 fiction features and 12 documentaries; with a further four of each in the Industry Screenings.
Some 23 countries are represented among the titles, including Maysoon Pachachi’s fiction feature Our River… Our Sky, a co-production between the UK, France, Germany, Qatar, Kuwait and the UAE, in the main Coming Soon strand.
Further sections of...
- 3/24/2021
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
By Peter BelsitoFestival Winners Kuwait Film Festival
I was invited in March by my friend Talal Al-Muhanna, Manager, Industry Program, Kuwait Film Festival — 1st edition March 24–28, 2017 to be an industry panelist during the Fest’s workshops.
View from my hotel window
Above, the view from my hotel window, is one aspect of today’s Kuwait. Building is going on everywhere, the old is coming down and new arising up to great heights. When I asked what this is based on I was answered with one word — ‘oil’.
You get the feeling there’s a lot of money here. But this is definitely the Mid East. The Fest films and attendees were from Kuwait, Lebanon, Egypt, Europe — all over. I was treated very graciously and all were interesting, talkative and open.
This is a Muslim society. There are people dressed in traditional gowns, hijabs, etc. Many of the women I saw...
I was invited in March by my friend Talal Al-Muhanna, Manager, Industry Program, Kuwait Film Festival — 1st edition March 24–28, 2017 to be an industry panelist during the Fest’s workshops.
View from my hotel window
Above, the view from my hotel window, is one aspect of today’s Kuwait. Building is going on everywhere, the old is coming down and new arising up to great heights. When I asked what this is based on I was answered with one word — ‘oil’.
You get the feeling there’s a lot of money here. But this is definitely the Mid East. The Fest films and attendees were from Kuwait, Lebanon, Egypt, Europe — all over. I was treated very graciously and all were interesting, talkative and open.
This is a Muslim society. There are people dressed in traditional gowns, hijabs, etc. Many of the women I saw...
- 4/12/2017
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Titles include London Stories from Hana Makhmalbaf [pictured].Scroll down for full selection
Busan’s Asian Project Market (Apm) has announced this year’s line-up to include Hana Makhmalbaf’s London Stories and Yu Lik Wai’s A Mean To An End.
In its 18th year, the co-production market will showcase 30 projects from 15 countries including the UK, China, Vietnam and Iraq.
Up to last year, Apm selected a total of 442 projects of which 200 were completed and screened at film festivals around the world.
Organizers noted a rising trend of international co-productions tailored from the pre-production stage, not only between Asian countries but also European and Asian countries.
This year’s line-up also includes up-and-coming directors such as 2014 Cannes Un Certain Regard film Titli director Janu Behl with family comedy Agra, a India-France co-production, and 2014 Rotterdam invitee Siti director Eddie Cahyono with The Wasted Land, a story about an Indonesian peasant who is ready to do anything she can...
Busan’s Asian Project Market (Apm) has announced this year’s line-up to include Hana Makhmalbaf’s London Stories and Yu Lik Wai’s A Mean To An End.
In its 18th year, the co-production market will showcase 30 projects from 15 countries including the UK, China, Vietnam and Iraq.
Up to last year, Apm selected a total of 442 projects of which 200 were completed and screened at film festivals around the world.
Organizers noted a rising trend of international co-productions tailored from the pre-production stage, not only between Asian countries but also European and Asian countries.
This year’s line-up also includes up-and-coming directors such as 2014 Cannes Un Certain Regard film Titli director Janu Behl with family comedy Agra, a India-France co-production, and 2014 Rotterdam invitee Siti director Eddie Cahyono with The Wasted Land, a story about an Indonesian peasant who is ready to do anything she can...
- 8/3/2015
- by hjnoh2007@gmail.com (Jean Noh)
- ScreenDaily
Maysoon Pachachi’s Nothing Doing In Baghdad is set to start shooting in February after securing three European co-producers and funding from Visions Sud Est and the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture (Afac).
Talal Al-Muhanna’s Linked Productions (Kuwait) and Pachachi’s Oxymoron Films (UK) will be joined by Patrice Nezan’s Les Contes Modernes (France), Alexander Ris’ Neue Mediopolis (Germany) and Juan Pablo Libossar’s Fasad (Sweden).
In addition to the Afac and Visions Sud Est funding, the project scooped the first $100,000 Iwc Filmmaker Award at Dubai International Film Festival in 2012 and also previously received support from Europe’s Media Mundus and Abu Dhabi’s Sanad. The three co-producers are also applying for funds.
Set in Baghdad in the last week of 2006 – when Saddam Hussein was executed – the film follows the intersecting lives of several characters of different religions living in the same neighbourhood, including a female novelist suffering from writer’s block.
“This was a time...
Talal Al-Muhanna’s Linked Productions (Kuwait) and Pachachi’s Oxymoron Films (UK) will be joined by Patrice Nezan’s Les Contes Modernes (France), Alexander Ris’ Neue Mediopolis (Germany) and Juan Pablo Libossar’s Fasad (Sweden).
In addition to the Afac and Visions Sud Est funding, the project scooped the first $100,000 Iwc Filmmaker Award at Dubai International Film Festival in 2012 and also previously received support from Europe’s Media Mundus and Abu Dhabi’s Sanad. The three co-producers are also applying for funds.
Set in Baghdad in the last week of 2006 – when Saddam Hussein was executed – the film follows the intersecting lives of several characters of different religions living in the same neighbourhood, including a female novelist suffering from writer’s block.
“This was a time...
- 12/13/2014
- by lizshackleton@gmail.com (Liz Shackleton)
- ScreenDaily
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