L'INSTITUTE DU MONDE ARABE's film festival, which ended last week, attracted large audiences to its screenings of 12 full length and 19 short features, 14 long and 12 short documentaries, reports Saad Hendawi. The opening and closing films were both French-Egyptian co-productions : Iskindria-New York (Alexandria-New York) by Youssef Chahine, who attended the screening, and Bab Al- Shams (Al-Shams Gate) by Youssri Nasrallah. The latter lasts 279 minutes and was screened with one short intermission. No one left the screening hall, though, until the end credits, which were greeted by a storm of clapping. The screenings were supplemented by a series of discussions between filmmakers, critics and audiences, some heated, some remarkably tame. The three prize-winning full-length features had all been screened in May at Cannes. Maarik Hobb (Battles of Love), by Lebanese director Danielle Erbid won the Grand Prix; Atash (Thirst), directed by Palestinian Tawfiq Abu Wael, received the Maroun Baghdadi Award, the special jury prize, while Fawq Al-Dar Al-Baydaa Al-Malaika la Tuhaliq (Angels Don't Fly Over Casablanca ), by Moroccan director Mohamed Ali, won the debut feature prize. The Egyptian film Sahar Al-Layali (Wakeful Nights), directed by Hani Khalifa, reaped the best actor and actress award while Palestinian Anne-Marie Gasser's short feature Kanana Ishroun Mustahil (As if We Were 20 Impossibles), topped its category. Best short documentary went to Algerian Malek Ibn Ismail's Ightirabat (Alienation), which focusses on a mental asylum and, by extension, wider Algerian society while the special jury award went to Ijtiyah (Sweeping) by the Palestinian Nizar Hassan, a measured attempt to stir the Israeli conscience. A special award went to Jean-Pierre Lido's Al-Jazaer wa Ashbahi (Algeria and My Ghosts), a film that combines personal research with journalism in investigating Algerian identity. Al-Tufan (The Flood), by Syrian Omar Amiralay, was praised for its criticism of the ideological corruption rife in one-party states while Tunisian Hisham Ibn Amar's Rais Al-Bihar (Sea Captain), a lyrical account of the lives of fishermen, received a special jury prize. In addition Egyptian Mahmoud Sulieman's Yaishoun Baynana (They live among us) and Lebanese-German Mirna Maakaroun's Berlin-Beirut, which draws visual parallels between two cities that were both once divided into East and West, both received prizes. The festival also honoured veteran Egyptian actress Madiha Yussri, screening some of her best known films. Mohamed Khan's Klephty, shot on digital video, was also screened, and the festival showcased a retrospective of Iraqi cinema under the title "A Look at the History of Iraqi Cinema"..
