Two movies hailing from Morocco and Tunisia have been nominated as Best Foreign Film at the 28th edition of MedFilm Festival, the first Italian Film festival dedicated to Mediterranean cinematography. “Le Bleu Du Caftan” by Maryam Touzani, from Morocco, and “Under The Fig Trees” by Erige Sehiri, from Tunisia, were nominated for a special prize at the festival, which will run between 3 to 13 November. The Rome-based festival will span a total of ten days, with screenings and debates unfolding across cinemas in the Italian capital as well as online platforms.
“Le Bleu Du Caftan” will open the series of screenings of this year’s edition at the Savoy Theater in Rome with the movie’s main character, Lubna Azabal, as the guest of honor. Along with receiving the 2022 Career Award, Azabal will also host her own masterclass on 4 November. Director and female powerhouse Maryam Touzani was born in Tangier in 1980. Following her studies in London, she made her film debut with “Adam,” premiering in the official selection of the 2019 Cannes Film Festival. “Le Bleu Du Caftan” is her second film and follows a gripping storyline centered on the lives of a couple who owns a Caftan store.
“Under The Fig Trees,” directed by Franco-Tunisian Erige Sehiri will be screened on 4 Nov. It is the first fictional film for Sehiri, who has previously won a number of post-production awards at the Venice Film Festival. Rural youth working the Tunisian summer fig harvest steal away to practice their own budding desires, settle drama, and share dreams in this radiant narrative debut.
MedFilm is Rome’s longest-running film festival. Since its genesis in 1995, the film festival has been avidly working to showcase, promote and champion Mediterranean and Middle Eastern cinema. It is also the only Italian film festival focused on Euro-Mediterranean movie productions, hoping to foster mutual knowledge and inter-cultural dialogue between the two shores of the Mediterranean. The 2022 event will also organize a number of professional meetings, university masterclasses, encounters with young talents and great masters of cinema, literature presentations, and conferences on today’s most pressing issues in cinema.
