Continuing a great year for Arab cinema at major festivals — with films such as “Once Upon a Time in Gaza,” “The President’s Cake” and “The Little Sister” winning major awards in Cannes — the Venice Film Festival is packed to the brim with talent from the region. Titles include twice Oscar-nominated Kaouther Ben Hania in competition with “The Voice of Hind Rajab,” Maryam Touzani’s “Calle Malaga” and Shahad Ameen’s “Hijra” in Venice Spotlight, and Suzannah Mirghani’s “Cotton Queen” and Yanis Koussim’s “Roqia” in Critics’ Week.
Egyptian producer and distributor Mohamed Hefzy’s Film Clinic arrives on the Lido as the producer behind “Hijra” and “Cotton Queen,” and the distributor behind “Roqia.” Speaking with Variety, Hefzy recalls having to shoot “Cotton Queen” — the first-ever fiction feature film by a female Sudanese director — in Egypt due to Sudan’s ongoing civil war, in an increasingly frequent move as conflicts escalate in the region.
“We have to live with the instability,” Hefzy exhales. “It doesn’t seem like it’s going to go away any time soon. I hope I’m wrong, but assuming that things don’t happen quickly, filmmakers need to keep telling stories. It’s great that big festivals and programmers are picking up unique films from the Arab world. It’s not a coincidence. In times of conflict and instability, you get meaningful stories.”
Ameen, whose feature debut, “Scales,” also played Venice, says she is thrilled to be back on the Lido with “Hijra,” a film she says works as a showcase of her native Saudi Arabia. The drama, a road trip between grandmother and granddaughter, was shot across eight different Saudi cities in an ambitious production.
“I spent three years travelling with my producers, going from the south in Jeddah to the borders of Jordan as I was writing the script,” she recalls. “If I encountered an interesting location or person, I would make it part of the story. I wanted the film to be about the experience of traveling through the kingdom, so that the audience could come with us.”
One of the most anticipated Arab titles of the fall festival season, Annemarie Jacir’s historical epic “Palestine 36,” will take its first bow in Toronto. Asked about the heavy presence of female Arab filmmakers in the circuit this year, the director says it’s “always interesting to me that people are surprised by the large number of female directors there are in the Arab world.”
“It is well documented that the playing field in the film industry in the Arab world is way ahead of many other countries, and women have been at the forefront for a long time,” she adds, asking why the focus isn’t rather on how Venice has never once programmed a film by a Palestinian woman in its official selections.
Jacir also defies the perceived notion of an increase in Arab films in major Western festivals: “I think it’s the opposite. There is a decreased presence of Arab films, amplified now that there are more Arab filmmakers than ever before, making really great films. Unfortunately, the festivals see our entire region as one entity and feel they should only choose one film ‘from our region.’”
Still, Ameen remains hopeful, citing Saudi Arabia as an example of a country marrying a desire to tell untold stories with a healthy funding and talent development ecosystem.
“Six years ago, two films were coming out of Saudi in a year. Now, with the government’s support, we have so many more,” she says. “Arabs carry the stories of our grandparents; we are storytellers. I’m so happy our films are travelling abroad and letting the international community see who we truly are.”