What A Wonderful World
by Faouzi Bensaidi
Casa
The Rabbi's 12 Children
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CinemaEast Film 2007 Festival Highlights:
The Best of Moroccan Cinema
All films will be screened at the Independent Film Center on the specified dates unless otherwise noted.
323 Sixth Avenue @ West 3rd Street
New York, NY 10014
212 924 7771
www.ifccenter.com
What a Wonderful World by Faouzi Bensaidi. Morocco/France, 2006, 90 min, 35mm, NY Premiere
Set in Casablanca, What a Wonderful World plays on the anonymity and connections of life in the metropolis. This suspenseful, comedic and romantic thriller opens in the dimly lit, aquamarine tunnels of a public bathroom, as hired killer Kamel takes out his next anonymous victim. Then the camera moves outside to the bright atmosphere of a dusty back alley, where traffic cop Kenza rents her cell phone by the minute to anonymous callers and her best friend—and Kamel’s lover—Souad. The rich vision and intentional contrasts of the opening set the tone for a meticulously crafted movie in which lives intersect in both calculated and unexpected ways.
Fri, Nov 9, 7:00 P.M. Q&A with director Faouzi Bensaïdi and lead actress Nezha Rehil
Mon, Nov 12, 2 P.M.
Co-sponsored by the American Moroccan Institute
Casa by Ali Benkirane. Morocco, 2006, 18 min, Digibeta, NY Premiere
Determined to find work in Casablanca, young Said leaves his remote village with his mandolin and a photo of his mother. The road to the city takes him from the wide-open skies to Casablanca, teeming with life and energy. Will Casa swallow him up, or will he fight his way through?
Sun, Nov 11, 2:00 P.M.
Wed, Nov 14, 2:00 P.M.
The Rabbi’s 12 Children by Yael Bitton. Switzerland, 2007, 95 min, BetaSP, U.S. Premiere
Deeply personal and provocative, yet refreshingly undidactic, this documentary chronicles the Bittons, a Moroccan Jewish family that immigrated to Israel in the late 1950s, following the current of Zionism and facing a future of Arab rule after Moroccan independence. The family is in fact the filmmaker’s own, and rather than couch her project in distant politics, she enters her interviews with her father (who lives in Switzerland) and his 11 siblings (who are spread across the United States and Israel) openly, as part of a quest to understand the sense of dislocation she felt in her house while growing up. What emerges from this family portrait is a rarely seen representation of the complexities and diversity of the Jewish diaspora, not in opposition to others but rather observed from within.
Tue, Nov 13, 4:30 P.M.
IFC Center is wheelchair accessible
Ticket prices:
ArteEast and IFC Center members: $8
General public: $11
Senior citizens & children under 12: $7.50
For advance ticket sales, visit the IFC Center box office or www.ifccenter.com
For more information, visit www.arteeast.org or call ArteEast at 212 547 6958
CinemaEast Film Festival 2007
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