Amid the accustomed razzle-dazzle, the fifth edition of the Abu Dhabi Film Festival kicked off Thursday evening, commencing the official start of a regional festival season surly to be shaped by the Arab Spring.
Devoid of politics, the sole controversial incident of the evening came prior to the start of the show when Egyptian film star Khaled Abol Naga condemned the Egyptian military for violently cracking down on a protest last Sunday, leaving more than 20 Coptic Christians dead.
“The bloodshed hasn’t stopped. The old regime has been replaced by an army rule responsible for the murder of our Coptic brothers and the Muslims defending them,” an apprehensive Abol Naga stated, as he flashed the cross sign in front of press cameras.
The festival opened with Philippe Falardeau’s acclaimed school drama “Monsieur Lazhar,” Canada’s official entry in next year’s best foreign-language film Oscar race. Based on a play by Evelyne de la Chenelieree, Falardeau spreads out the one-character drama to produce a contemporary fable about immigration, social integration, grief and redemption.
Mohamed Fellag is the eponymous character, an asylum-seeking Algerian immigrant who was forced to flee his home-country after his entire family was slain. He gets hired as substitute teacher by a Montreal school to replace the instructor of a popular elementary-stage class who committed suicide. Her body is discovered by two students (played by Émilien Neron and Sophie Nélisse) inside the classroom, which leaves them shell-shocked. Secrets are unveiled as wounds start to heal.
From “Goodbye, Mr. Chips” and “To Sir, with Love” to “Elephant” and “Être et avoir,” the class drama has grown into a staple yet highly elastic genre, standing as a mirror for the various social and cultural changes of each age. “Monsieur Lazhar” is another stellar addition to the group, framing the teacher-student relationship in the present globalized world.
The course of the drama may seem somewhat familiar (Gus Van Sant’s “Finding Forrester” comes to mind) but Falardeau never veers into easy sentimentality, handling the tragedy at the core of the story with subtly and delicacy. The powerful emotional wallop Falardeau steadily packs is complemented by soothing moments of humor that augments Lazhar’s humanism.
Yet as sincere and heartfelt Falardeau’s film is, the shadow of Laurent Cantet’s more ambitious and less sentimental “Entre les murs” looms large. The unpredictability, originality and loose nature of Cantet’s Palm d’Or winning film set it free from the requirements of the genre. “Monsieur Lazhar” does not take that extra mile, falling short of greatness, hampered by the relatively inflexible framework it fails to break away from.
This year’s edition boasts an impressive, diverse program that put last year’s in the shade, showcasing works by veteran European and American auteurs along with some of the most buzzed-about new talents in the region. Eight world premieres and six international premieres are lined up for this year’s edition.
Leading the international charge is David Cronenberg’s Freud/Jung period piece “A Dangerous Mind,” starring Viggo Mortensen, Michael Fassbender and Keira Knightley. George Clooney directs himself in his third directorial effort “The Ides of March,” a political drama co-starring Ryan Gosling, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Paul Giamatti and Evan Rachel Wood. Steven Soderbergh makes a comeback to mainstream cinema with the star-studded disaster flick “Contagion” starring Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law, Marion Cotillard and Kate Winslet.
Acclaimed Scottish filmmaker Lynne Ramsay (“Ratcatcher,” “Morven Cellar”) presents her Cannes sensation “We Need to Talk About Kevin,” an adaptation of Lionel Shriver’s best-selling novel starring Tilda Swinton and John C. Reilly. The indefatigable British helmer Michael Winterbottom follows his summer comedy “The Trip” with “Trishna,” an India-set adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s “Tess of the d’Urbervilles” starring “Slumdog Millionaire” actress Freida Pinto and “Four Lions’” Riz Ahmed.
Award-winning Iranian director Asghar Farhadi (“About Elly”) continues to probe Persian society in the suspenseful drama “A Seperation,” winner of this year’s Golden Lion at the Berlin Film Festival. Following their successful collaboration in “The Messenger,” Israeli filmmaker Oren Moverman reteams with Woody Harrelson for his second feature “Rampart,” a crime drama co-starring Robin Wright, Steve Buscemi and Sigourney Weaver.
Great Japanese realist Hirokazu Kore-eda (“Nobody Knows,” “Still Walking”) crafts a whimsical childhood tale in “I Wish,” while Russian impressionist Andrey Zvyagintsev (Golden Lion winner of “The Return”) shifts gear with a domestic drama, “Elena.” Italian provocateur and former Palm d’Or winner Nanni Moretti takes a less controversial route from his blaringly critical farces in the Michel Piccoli-starrer “Habemus Papam” (We Have a Pope), a comedy about a newly-elected Pope having second thoughts about accepting the job.
American indie darling Todd Solondz (“Happiness,” “Life during Wartime”) makes his Arab fest debut with another bleak comedy entitled “Dark Horse” starring Jordan Gelber, Selma Blair and Mia Farrow. Iranian-born French comic-book writer (“Persepolis”) adapts her best-selling 2004 graphic novel “Chicken with Plums,” a love story starring Mathieu Amalric, Isabella Rossellini and Golshifteh Farahani.
Glenn Close officially commences the best actress Oscar race in “Albert Nobbs,” a real-life a story about a woman who lived as a man for 20 years, directed by Los Angeles-based Mexican director Rodrigo García (“Nine Lives,” “Mother and Child”) and co-starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Mia Wasikowska and Aaron Johnson.
French actress-director Maïwenn Le Besco explores the world of juvenile delinquents in the gritty “Polisse,” winner of the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Fest. Hong-jin Na cements his reputation as South Korea’s most exciting action director in crime thriller “The Yellow Sea,” the follow-up to the 2008 blockbuster “The Chaser.”
Abu Dhabi has built a name for its carefully-chosen and smartly-curated documentary selection, and this year’s rooster does not disappoint. Topping the 2011 line-up are two 3-D films by two of the German New Wave visionaries: Wim Winders with his enthralling tribute to great German dance choreographer Pina Bausch “Pina” and Werner Herzog’s latest anthropological study “Cave of Forgotten Dreams.”
Fresh off his Best Documentary Feature Oscar winner “Man on Wire,” British director James Marsh sets his sights on another unusual subject matter in “Project Nim,” a tragic and thought-provoking chronicle of a communication experiment involving a chimpanzee.
In “Bobby Fischer against the World,” Liz Garbus traces the stratospheric rise of the great American chess player and his tragic downfall while in “Buck,” Cindy Meehl provides an intimate portrait of the mysterious horse trainer Buck Brannama, the real horse whisperer.
Dutch filmmaker Leonard Retel Helmrich concludes his Indonesian trilogy with “Position among the Stars,” a record of the rapid changes social and economical changes the Muslim nation is undergoing seen through the eyes of a poor Christian family. Swedish documentarian Göran Hugo Olsson unearths hidden footage about the notorious 70s Black Power movement shot by a group of Swedish journalists in “The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975.” Marshall Curry and Sam Cullman shed a light on the divisive militant environmentalist group Earth Liberation Front in “If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front.”
The fest also hosts a special screening of Martin Scorsese’s latest rock documentary “George Harisson: Living in the Material World,” a four-hour biopic of the quiet Beatle.
Although scant in number compared to the North American and European films, the Arabic selection, nevertheless, is packed with some of the hottest titles of the year. Chief among the group is Tunisian director Ridha Beh’s long-awaited “Always Brando,” a meditation on life, death and cinema.
Morocco dominates this year’s Arabic selection with a whooping three entries in the Narrative Feature Competition and two in the New Horizons section. Faouzi Bensaïdi, award-winning director of “A Thousand Months” and “WWW – What a Wonderful World,” returns after a five-year hiatus with his third feature “Death for Sale,” a coming-of-age story set in the port city of Tétouan.
Bafta nominated director Ismaël Ferroukhi follows his hugely successful debut feature “Le grand voyage” with “Free Men,” a war drama about the budding friendship between an Algerian immigrant and a French man starring Tahar Rahim (“Un prophète”) and Lubna Azabal (“Paradise Now”).
Celebrated documentary filmmaker Leila Kilani brings her first feature film “Sur la planche,” an unsettling portrait of two girls from Casablanca trying to make ends meet.
Three new films represent Egypt in the various sections of the fest. In the New Horizon category for first and second features, Amr Salama (“Zay El-Naharda”) presents his sophomore film “Asma’a,” a drama starring Hind Sabry and Maged El-Kidwany about a single HIV-positive mother struggling to raise her daughter while attempting overcome the stigmas the stigmas associated with her disease.
In the Showcase section, 10 filmmakers, including veterans Yousry Nasrallah and young directors Sherif El-Bendary and Ahmad Abdalla, tackle different angles of the January 25 Revolution in the anthology “18 Days” starring a who’s-who of Egyptian cinema such as Yousra, Mona Zaki, Ahmed Helmy, Asser Yassin and Amr Waked among many others.
Another multi-perspective record of the recent popular uprising showing in the fest is “Tahrir 2011: The Good, the Bad & the Politician,” a non-fiction film directed by Amr Salama, Ayten Amin and Tamer Ezzat featured in the Documentary Feature Competition.
The festival is celebrating the 100th anniversary of Egyptian Nobel Prize winning novelist Naguib Mahfouz with a host of films written by and based on the works of the Cairo Trilogy writer. The exposition includes Salah Abu Seif’s “The Beginning and the End,” Tawfik Saleh’s “Fools’ Alley,” Jorge Fons’ “Midaq Alley” and Kamal El Sheikh’s “The Thief and the Dogs” among others.
The Abu Dhabi Film Festival closes on October 22. For more information, visit www.abudhabifilmfestival.ae. Follow Daily News Egypt for extensive coverage of the fest.
ADFF Executive Director Peter Scarlet (C) and the president of Our World Jury Amal Al-Ghaferi (L) wave as they stand next to Project Director Issa Saif Rashed al-Mazrouei on the red carpet. (AFP Photo/Joseph Capellan)
Egyptian film star Mahmoud Abdel Aziz and wife Poussy Shalaby. (AFP Photo/Joseph Capellan)
