FRANCE / 11th Panorama des Cinémas du Maghreb/Moyen-Orient

For the 11^th year the association Indigènes Films is renewing its Panorama des Cinémas du Maghreb et du Moyen-Orient (PCMMO) in Paris and Seine-Saint-Denis. The 2016 selection of 43 films, dramas and documentaries, long or short, will be screened from March 29^th to April 17^th.

In troubled periods like the one we are living though it seems essential to highlight the work of film-makers (men and women) from Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Palestine, the Lebanon, Egypt, Syria. This is PCMMO’s ambition (Panorama des cinémas du Maghreb et du Moyen-Orient).

“Good Luck Algeria” by Farid Bentoumi, with Sami Bouajila, opens the Panorama, a chance to see it before its release in French cinemas on March 30^th. Among the other films screened, several have not been shown before, while others are reminders of recent film-events: Leyla Bouzid’s “A peine j’ouvre les yeux”, Hassen Ferhani’s “Dans ma tête un rond-point” and “La vache” by Mohamed Hamidi.

This year’s Focus looks at Palestine and its film-makers through some fifteen films, including Tarzan and Arab Nasser’s “Dégradé”, “Le sel de la mer” by Annemarie Jacir and Tamara Erde’s “This is my land”, winner of the Mediterranean Issues Grand Prix in the 2014 PriMed. The Panorama welcomes two prestigious guests in particular: director Nadine Naous who will show her film “Chacun sa Palestine” (co-directed with Léna Rouxel), and the former Palestinian ambassador to the European Union, Leila Shahid.

Created in 2006 in Saint-Denis, the PCMMO is an international film festival. Several cultural events are organised during the festival: pre-release screenings, special screenings with young people or women from the difficult neighbourhoods, literary discussions, round tables with film professionals, concerts, workshops. The PCMMO is special because of the variety of venues where films are shown: in cinemas, but also in schools and médiathèques of the difficult neighbourhoods.

The festival has many ambitions:
– To allow an emerging force in film-making, still rarely seen in France, to be better known.
– To show a wide choice of film representing a broad spectrum of film-making from North Africa and the Middle East
–To try to transform the sometimes caricature perception of Islamic and Arab culture by showing innovative and unique films.
– To reach a broad public, both film-goers and novices.

Click here to consult the complete programme.