The inaugural edition of the Red Sea International Film Festival, which runs from December 6 to 15 at Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, will present a section titled “Extraordinary Global Storytelling”. With eight movies, these will be part of the “International Spectacular Category”.
This selection will showcase some of the most powerful stories from iconic, award-winning directors and writers. Half of them will be women. The films will be Arab premieres, and the Festival guests will have a chance to watch some of the very best of international cinema.
Ennio is a documentary focusing on the late Ennio Morricone, who was among the most influential and prolific musicians of the twentieth century, the winner of two Academy Awards and composer of over 500 unforgettable movie soundtracks.
Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon, written and directed by acclaimed filmmaker Ana Lily Amirpour, is a fantasy thriller, telling the story of a girl with unusual powers, who escapes from a mental asylum and tries to make it on her own in New Orleans. Starring Jeon Jong-seo, Kate Hudson, Craig Robinson and Ed Skrein, the the movie had its world premiere at this year’s Venice Film Festival.
Sisters, from French-Algerian director Yamina Benguigui –starring Isabelle Adjani — tells the story of three French-Algerian sisters. For three decades, they have been searching for their brother who was kidnapped by their father and hidden in just de-colonised Algeria. When they learn that the father is dying, they rush to Algeria to try and wrest the truth out of him.
The Lost Daughter is by debutant director Maggie Gyllenhaal and it stars Academy-Award winning Olivia Colman and Dakota Johnson. Adapted from Elena Ferrante’s novel with the same title, the film is a psychological drama narrating the story of a woman on a holiday who meets a younger woman and her family. The meeting brings back memories of the older woman’s own motherhood. It premiered at Venice and got Gyllenhaal the Golden Osella for Best Screenplay.
Belfast, written and helmed by Academy-Award nominee Kenneth Branagh, is an autobiographical, poignant story of love, laughter and loss in one boy’s childhood, amid the music and social tumult of the late 1960s in Northern Ireland. This is a lovely tribute to Branagh’s native city and is shot in black and white, with Judi Dench, Jamie Dornan, Jude Hill, and Ciarán Hinds.It got the People’s Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival.
The Good Boss, a Spanish comedy, has been penned and directed by Fernando Leon de Aranoa. Javier Bardem plays the major part, and his character owns a factory manufacturing industrial scales for major retail outlets. The movie is Spain’s submission for the 2022 Academy Awards.
You Resemble Me is the helming debut of Egyptian-American film-maker and award-winning journalist, Dina Amer. It is the story of cultural and intergenerational trauma, tackling one of the darkest issues of our time and deconstructing it in an intimate way. About family, love, sisterhood, and belonging. After two sisters on the outskirts of Paris are torn apart, the eldest, Hasna, struggles to find her identity and is forced to make a choice that shocks the world.
The Colour Room from Claire Mccarthy is a fascinating period drama about how a woman trying to establish herself as a pioneering ceramic artist, battled odds in a male dominated world.
(Gautaman Bhaskaran is author, commentator and movie critic)
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