Move over, Richard Donner.
In “Behind the Mountains,” premiering in Venice’s Horizons section, Mohamed Ben Attia makes sure “you’ll believe a man can fly” once again. Although it might not be as graceful.
“I didn’t want him to be like a superhero or fly like Superman. He is floating, struggling with gravity,” he says about his protagonist Rafik, who gives up his entire life – and even ends up in jail – chasing an impossible dream. But there is one place where dreams come to life and he wants his son to experience it too.
The Tunisian director, also behind “Hedi” and “Dear Son,” was hesitant to play with supernatural elements at first.
“I don’t have any technical background. I am not technical at all! But I’ve become obsessed with this man, who extracts himself from his community in such a radical way. I kept seeing an...
In “Behind the Mountains,” premiering in Venice’s Horizons section, Mohamed Ben Attia makes sure “you’ll believe a man can fly” once again. Although it might not be as graceful.
“I didn’t want him to be like a superhero or fly like Superman. He is floating, struggling with gravity,” he says about his protagonist Rafik, who gives up his entire life – and even ends up in jail – chasing an impossible dream. But there is one place where dreams come to life and he wants his son to experience it too.
The Tunisian director, also behind “Hedi” and “Dear Son,” was hesitant to play with supernatural elements at first.
“I don’t have any technical background. I am not technical at all! But I’ve become obsessed with this man, who extracts himself from his community in such a radical way. I kept seeing an...
- 9/4/2023
- by Marta Balaga
- Variety Film + TV
Tunisian auteur Mohamed Ben Attia’s new work “Behind the Mountains,” which will soon launch from the Venice Film Festival’s Horizons section, sees the director add a supernatural element to the social dramas for which he is known.
Attia’s third feature reunites the director with Majd Mastoura, star of his breakout drama “Hedi” — about a repressed young man ignited by a free-spirited woman — which won best debut and actor honors at the 2016 Berlin Film Festival.
In “Mountains,” Mastoura plays a man named Rafeek who, after spending four years in jail, takes his only son to the Atlas Alps in the Northwest of Tunisia to prove to him that he can fly.
“The idea goes back to my high school years” said Ben Attia of the film. “It was just a picture I had in my mind; the picture of a man who is running until, little by little,...
Attia’s third feature reunites the director with Majd Mastoura, star of his breakout drama “Hedi” — about a repressed young man ignited by a free-spirited woman — which won best debut and actor honors at the 2016 Berlin Film Festival.
In “Mountains,” Mastoura plays a man named Rafeek who, after spending four years in jail, takes his only son to the Atlas Alps in the Northwest of Tunisia to prove to him that he can fly.
“The idea goes back to my high school years” said Ben Attia of the film. “It was just a picture I had in my mind; the picture of a man who is running until, little by little,...
- 8/24/2023
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
In today’s Global Bulletin, Eurovision impresses in its post-covid return; the Walt Disney Company appoints Winradit (Win) Kolasastraseni as its new Gm for much of Southeast Asia; the Producers Guild of India launches a vaccination drive for industry members; Bangladesh’s International Academy of Film and Media kicks off its first online script lab; Cartoon Network Mena gets kids involved in the fight against climate change; the Taipei Film Festival is postponed after an uptick in Covid-19 activity; and Tchéky Karyo will be honored at the Monte-Carlo Television Festival.
Reality
2021’s Eurovision Song Contest was watched by more than 183 million viewers across 36 markets, according to results from Ebu, and based on Glance, relevant partner and Ebu Members data. Additionally, the program’s Grand Finale scored a four percent higher audience share than its 2019 counterpart, more than doubling the average primetime share for its broadcast slot.
The program was a...
Reality
2021’s Eurovision Song Contest was watched by more than 183 million viewers across 36 markets, according to results from Ebu, and based on Glance, relevant partner and Ebu Members data. Additionally, the program’s Grand Finale scored a four percent higher audience share than its 2019 counterpart, more than doubling the average primetime share for its broadcast slot.
The program was a...
- 6/1/2021
- by Jamie Lang
- Variety Film + TV
The 13th edition of Meetings on the Bridge took place this week.
The 13th edition of Meetings on the Bridge, the industry section of the Istanbul Film Festival, has presented a series of cash prizes to a raft of projects in development and in post-production to features by new and estblished filmmakers from Turkey, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran and Syria.
Nearly 100 international industry professionals attended the event’s Film Development Workshop that showcased 17 feature projects and the Works In Progress event that provided a platform for six features in post-production.
They included Film Development Workshop jury members Vincenzo Bugno (Berlinale / World...
The 13th edition of Meetings on the Bridge, the industry section of the Istanbul Film Festival, has presented a series of cash prizes to a raft of projects in development and in post-production to features by new and estblished filmmakers from Turkey, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran and Syria.
Nearly 100 international industry professionals attended the event’s Film Development Workshop that showcased 17 feature projects and the Works In Progress event that provided a platform for six features in post-production.
They included Film Development Workshop jury members Vincenzo Bugno (Berlinale / World...
- 4/20/2018
- by Louise Tutt
- ScreenDaily
New projects by Karabey, Aydogan, Sakaoglu among award winners at Istanbul Meetings
New film projects by Hüseyin Karabey, Zekeriya Aydoğan, and Sinem Sakaoğlu were among the award winners at the 10th edition of Meetings on the Bridge (April 15-16) during the Istanbul Film Festival.
Four awards were given to projects presented as part of this year’s Film Project Development Workshop and were decided by an international jury comprising of such leading industry figures as Meinolf Zurhorst (Zdf), Sergio Garcia De Leaniz (Eurimages), Gabrielle Dumon (Le Bureau Films), Giovanni Robbiano (Mediterranean Film Institute/Mfi) and Khalil Benkirane (Doha Film Institute).
The $ 10,000 Meetings On The Bridge Award went to German-born director Tarik Aktaş’ Dead Horse Nebula - about a sequence of incidents taking place around a small village -, while the € 10,000 Cnc Award was given to The Death of Father and Son by Zekeriya Aydoğan, a period drama set in the Kurdish society.
Aydoğan’s latest...
New film projects by Hüseyin Karabey, Zekeriya Aydoğan, and Sinem Sakaoğlu were among the award winners at the 10th edition of Meetings on the Bridge (April 15-16) during the Istanbul Film Festival.
Four awards were given to projects presented as part of this year’s Film Project Development Workshop and were decided by an international jury comprising of such leading industry figures as Meinolf Zurhorst (Zdf), Sergio Garcia De Leaniz (Eurimages), Gabrielle Dumon (Le Bureau Films), Giovanni Robbiano (Mediterranean Film Institute/Mfi) and Khalil Benkirane (Doha Film Institute).
The $ 10,000 Meetings On The Bridge Award went to German-born director Tarik Aktaş’ Dead Horse Nebula - about a sequence of incidents taking place around a small village -, while the € 10,000 Cnc Award was given to The Death of Father and Son by Zekeriya Aydoğan, a period drama set in the Kurdish society.
Aydoğan’s latest...
- 4/17/2015
- by screen.berlin@googlemail.com (Martin Blaney)
- ScreenDaily
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