The upcoming edition of the Mediterrane Film Festival includes four programming strands overall: Main Competition – featuring films from across the Mediterranean, Out of Competition – featuring films from the rest of the world, Mare Nostrum, ‘Our Sea’, showcasing narrative and documentary films dedicated to sustainability and the environment, and Future Visions – a selection of immersive VR projects which will be announced at a later date. Alongside screenings, the festival will include an industry strand with a series of panels and masterclasses from notable industry figures.
The Main Competition Jury– which includes Jon S. Baird, Margery Simkin, Mario Philip Azzopardi, Nathan Crowley, Pedro Luque, and Richie Mehta, with further participants to be announced – will judge the Main Competition strand of twelve films and award prizes for: Best Feature Film, Acting Performance, Screenwriting, Production Design, Creative Technical Performance and the special Jury Award – with the winners being crowned at the festival’s Golden Bee Awards closing ceremony on 30th June. Additionally, the Out of Competition strand will have a People’s Choice Award, and the Mare Nostrum Feature award will be judged by a separate jury made up of festival directors and programmers.
Teresa Cavina, Artistic Director of Mediterrane Film Festival, said: “This year’s selection of films will demonstrate our commitment to fostering a programme that celebrates the best of cinema from the Mediterranean and beyond. We have some incredible directors and creatives in this line-up already, across both established and emerging talent, and the selection will offer something for all audiences – from expansive international dramas, captivating psychological horrors and emotional human stories from around the world.”
Speaking at a networking event to promote this year's second Mediterrane Film Festival, Malta’s Film Commissioner, Johann Grech, told an exclusive invited international audience of filmmakers, producers and press at the Festival du Cannes:
“I am delighted to be here at one of the world’s oldest film festivals to showcase the world’s newest: Mediterrane Film Festival hosted by Malta. At a time of unprecedented instability and division across the world, the Mediterrane Film Festival has a very special role to promote, as our festival tagline says loud and proud, ‘Unity Through Film’.
Now, more than ever, it is crucial to promote dialogue and understanding between Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. That’s why I am delighted that in competing for this year’s Golden Bee awards will be films from countries new to the Festival – Morocco, Turkey, Greece, Tunisia, Bosnia & Herzegovina and Jordan. They will compete alongside returning nations including Italy and Croatia.”
Tickets for screenings at the Mediterrane Film Festival will go on sale in late May.
The current film programme includes:
MAIN COMPETITION
BACKSTAGE
Dir. Afef Ben Mahmoud / Khalil Benkirane
Morocco; Tunisia; Belgium; France; Norway; Qatar; Saudi Arabia
Aida, member of a contemporary dance troupe touring Morocco, provokes during a representation in a small Middle Atlas town, her life and stage partner Hedi, who injures her onstage triggering a series of events through a long night across a forest, on the way to the next village’s doctor.
HAYAT
Dir. Zeki Demirkubuz
Turkey
Forced to get engaged by her father, Hicran runs away from home. Riza, who thinks that Hicran does not want him, does not care much about this situation, but it becomes increasingly difficult for him and he decides to confront Hicran.
KINDS OF KINDNESS
Dir. Yorgos Lanthimos
Greece
KINDS OF KINDNESS is a triptych fable, following a man without choice who tries to take control of his own life; a policeman who is alarmed that his wife who was missing-at-sea has returned and seems a different person; and a woman determined to find a specific someone with a special ability, who is destined to become a prodigious spiritual leader.
THE STRANGERS’ CASE
Dir. Brandt Andersen
Jordan
Aleppo, in the midst of the Syrian civil war. Amira, a paediatric surgeon, performs a life-saving operation during the darkest days of the conflict. Through an unexpected twist of fate, she and her daughter become central characters in a dangerous tale that intricately interweaves the lives of five families spanning four continents and redefines all of their existences.
TUESDAY
Dir. Daina O. Pusić
Croatia
A mother (Julia Louis-Dreyfus, in a profoundly moving performance) and her teenage daughter (Lola Petticrew) must confront Death when it arrives in the form of an astonishing talking bird. From debut filmmaker Daina O. Pusić, Tuesday is a heart-rending fairy tale about the echoes of loss and finding resilience in the unexpected.
SWEET DREAMS
Dir. Ena Sendijarević
Bosnia & Herzegovina
Tumultuous events triggered by the death of a Dutch sugar plantation owner who ends up leaving his Indian Ocean island estate to his young illegitimate son - the child of his Indonesian housemaid.
WHO DO I BELONG TO
Dir. Meryam Joobeur
Tunisia; France; Canada
Aicha lives in the isolated north of Tunisia with her husband and youngest son. The family lives in anguish after the departure of the eldest sons Mehdi and Amine to the violent embrace of war. When Mehdi unexpectedly returns home with a mysterious pregnant wife, a darkness emerges, threatening to consume the entire village. Aicha is caught between her maternal love and her search for the truth.
OUT OF COMPETITION
DEAR JASSI
Dir. Tarsem Singh Dhandwar
India
In 1996 Punjab, India, Canadian-born Indian girl Jassi falls in love with Mithu, a rickshaw driver who is beneath her social status. Their attraction is pure and unconditional, but is it strong enough to fight the dictates imposed by Jassi’s family and Punjabi society?
I SAW THE TV GLOW
Dir. Jane Schoenbrun
United States
Teenager Owen is just trying to make it through life in the suburbs when his classmate introduces him to a mysterious late-night TV show — a vision of a supernatural world beneath their own. In the pale glow of the television, Owen’s view of reality begins to crack.
THE DEVIL’S BATH
Dir. Veronika Franz
Austria, Germany
18th century Austria. Villages surrounded by deep forests. A woman is sentenced to death after killing a baby. Agnes is marrying her loved one and candidly prepares herself for a spouse life. Soon after, her head and heart start to feel heavy. Day after day, she is increasingly trapped in a murky and lonely path leading to evil thoughts. Maybe not just thoughts.
MARE NOSTRUM
LOS ULTIMOS
Dir. Sebastian Peña Escobar
Paraguay
The vast Gran Chaco natural region in Paraguay is under serious threat from large-scale deforestation and wildfires. Filmmaker Sebastian Peña Escobar travels with the German entomologist Ulf Drechsel and the Paraguayan ornithologist Jota Escobar to this vulnerable, flammable area, which looks like an apocalyptic landscape with red dirt roads and dry thorny trees.
ONE NEEDS A TOWN - ZAVATTINI, LUZZARA AND THE PO RIVER
Dir. Francesco Conversano / Nene Grignaffini
Italy
A reading about the poetry of Zavattini, the father of Italian Neorealism, the town of Luzzara photographed by Paul Strand 70 years ago and the biggest Italian river, The Po River, without water, fragile and wounded due to the global warming
SHAMBHALA
Dir. Min Bahadur Bham
Nepal; France; Norway; Hong Kong; Türkiye; Taiwan; United States; Qatar
In a Himalayan polyandrous village in Nepal, newly married and pregnant Pema tries to make the best of her new life. But soon, her first husband Tashi vanishes on the trade route to Lhasa. Accompanied by her monk de facto husband, Karma, she embarks on a journey into the unforgiving wilderness to find him, evolving into a quest of self-discovery and liberation.
