The third El Gouna Film Festival ran from September 19th to 27th. Aiming to discover new international artistic voices, the GFF focusses particularly on encouraging film-making in the Arab world, and opening up inter-cultural ideas in the region.
Three Jordanian films were shown in competition this year:
– the documentary feature Tiny Souls by Dina Nasser
– the short film Freekeh, by Bassel Ghandour
– the short film Give Up the Ghost by Zain Duraie
Tiny Souls (which inter-weaves portraits of children caught up in the Syrian crisis) and Give Up the Ghost (the story of a woman who cannot have children with her husband) have already competed at international festivals having received post-production grants from the Jordan Film Fund. Freekeh (a minor incident turns to drama in a neighbourhood of Amman) was given its preview at the GFF.
This year the GFF also celebrated three major Arab film personalities, including Palestinian-Jordanian director Mai Masri, director of several films shown around the world, who has won more than sixty international awards.
Source: http://www.film.jo/
