CINEMA∃AST

The second biennial of CINEMA∃AST film festival ended today: Thanks to my friend, we spent the past couple of days hoping from screening to presentation and vice versa. It was a very lively festival. The screenings covered a vast collection of short, documentary and feature films from Middle East.

I Am the One Who Brings Flowers to Her Grave was co-directed by Hala al-abdallah and Ammar el-Beik. The film was a rough collection of memories by three Syrian women living in exile. The story formed stage by stage and shaped a mosaic-like image with many blank spots. In addition to the ambiguity that these missing pieces created in the story, consciously or unconsciously these blanks gave a universal touch to the humanitarian part of this semi-documentary.

From Iran 6 films were exhibited. Tehran Has No More Pomegranates by M. Bakhshi, Traveler of Horizon by H. Bahrami, POW 57187 by V. Zara-Zade, Cocoon by B. Shahravan, Mainline (Khon Bazi) by R. Bani-etemad / M.Abdolvahab and also The Day I became My Mother a co-production between Iran and Turkey directed by Annem Oldugum Gun.

Besides these independent films I also watched:

American Gangster (2007) directed by Ridley Scott: it was indeed the best performance I saw from Denzel Washington. The story had a simple line. I am so glad that the movie didn’t fall for Frank Lucas’ biography and that indeed created a great thriller.

Gone Baby Gone (2007) directed by Ben Affleck: I should say Ben Affleck is doing much better as a director rather than an actor and Casey Affleck as Patrick Kenzie was a good choice for a young private detective. My vote is B+ for it.

What caught my attention in both these films was a huge number of great performers in supporting roles, which made the films believable. In his short life in the movie John Ortiz was amazing.





PS.1 I am wondering if there is any mental sickness regarding graduate thesis and dissertations: I am rereading, rewriting and constantly changing what I had wrote, finished, presented and got graduated by.

PS.2 Also these days, I was happily surrounded by Bibi Huryeh and IMovie rearranging a Photo-Clip: Lack of Photoshop or/and Image-Converter was the biggest torture, but nonetheless it was a fun project.

PS.3 The CINEMA∃AST film festival is organized by ART∃EST.