São Paulo – The 38th São Paulo International Film Festival, set to begin on the 16th, will feature 330 productions from around the world until the end of this month. Arab countries are featured in the festival with seven own productions, co-productions or as the theme of films made in other countries. Cinephiles can watch prize-winning movies, a documentary on the Syrian conflict and even a Palestinian production about a boy who tends giraffes. This year’s edition of the festival is paying tribute to Spanish cinema, highlighting the work of Pedro Almodóvar.
According to festival director Renata de Almeida, this year’s edition has received 1,000-plus submissions. All submissions were viewed by a team of jurors. The Arab or Arab-themed films, says de Almeida, focus on myriad subjects. Some are about political conflicts, such as Our terrible country, in which two men travel through embattled Syrian cities and are ultimately forced to seek shelter in Turkey. Other movies focus on human conflicts instead, like those experienced by the six characters in the Egyptian-Emirati co-production The Mice Room.
Among the Arab-made films or those about the Arab culture and reality, the director recommends two pictures by the Kurdish filmmaker (from Iraq’s autonomous region Kurdistan) Hisham Zaman. Letter to the king tells the story of five refugees who travel to Oslo, the capital of Norway, each with a different purpose. The oldest of them wants to deliver a letter to the king. In Before snowfall, an eldest brother has the mission of reestablishing his family’s reputation after his sister flees her wedding. These were the director’s first two feature films and won prizes at Sweden’s Gothenburg Festival in 2013 and 2014.
A French-Palestinian co-production, Rani Massalha’s drama “Giraffada” is inspired by a true story and portrays a boy and his father’s struggles to find, in Israel, a companion for a giraffe from the West Bank’s Qalqilya Zoo following an airstrike.
Dancing Arabs, directed by Israel’s Eran Riklis, depicts the dilemmas of a young Palestinian Arab who falls in love with a Jewish girl. Another Israeli production, The green prince, is a documentary about the son of a member of radical group Hamas who served as an informant for the Israeli government for over ten years. “Many of the films depict conflicts, either political or personal. There are some good stories, because the conflicts are ultimately human,” says Almeida.
Tribute
This year, the festival is paying tribute to Spanish cinema, featuring Luis Buñuel’s first two productions, An Andalusian dog and The golden age, plus an exhibition of photographs taken by the director. The highlight of this year’s tribute to Spanish cinema will be Pedro Almodóvar. The festival will feature Women on the verge of a nervous breakdown, Talk to her and his latest film, The skin I live in. Almodóvar also designed the festival’s poster, at the organizers’ request.
This edition will also honour the director and producer of authorial films Marin Karmitz. The tribute will include Krzysztof Kieslowski’s The three colors trilogy and Ruy Guerra’s Ópera do Malandro, among other productions, including a documentary about Karmitz.
Celebrating the centennial of Charles Chaplin’s character the Tramp, the festival will screen The circus on November 1st. The movie will be shown in open air, outside the Ibirapuera Auditorium on Ibirapuera Park. The soundtrack will be played live by Fundação Theatro Municipal’s Orquestra Experimental de Repertório (Experimental Repertoire Orchestra). The screening will take place at 8 pm and admission is free.
The festival will also feature the New Directors Competition. Movies by directors who have made up to two feature films will be shown throughout the event. The most voted motion pictures will be viewed by a jury, which will award the Bandeira Paulista Trophy to the best ones.
Service
38th São Paulo International Film Festival
October 16th to 29th
Information and program: http://38.mostra.org/br/home/ (in Portuguese)
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
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