Exclusive: German broadcasting network Ard has been accused of censorship following its decision to pull a scheduled broadcast of Palestinian director Annemarie Jacir’s 2017 feature Wajib due to the Israel-Hamas conflict.
The film’s German co-producer Titus Kreyenberg told Deadline that Wajib had been due to air this Sunday (November 19), with the programming slot set for months and already announced in TV listings.
“It’s been taken off the schedule. Internally, we were told that it was decided that this was not the time to show a Palestinian film,” said Kreyenberg who works under the banner of Berlin and Cologne-based Unafilm with recent credits including Octopus Skin and A Woman.
Deadline has contacted Ard – a joint network involving 10 German regional public broadcasters – as well as Hamburg-based member Ndr, which backed the production. The networks have yet to respond.
Jacir’s drama Wajib is a gentle comedy-drama capturing the reality of Palestinians living within Israeli borders.
The film’s German co-producer Titus Kreyenberg told Deadline that Wajib had been due to air this Sunday (November 19), with the programming slot set for months and already announced in TV listings.
“It’s been taken off the schedule. Internally, we were told that it was decided that this was not the time to show a Palestinian film,” said Kreyenberg who works under the banner of Berlin and Cologne-based Unafilm with recent credits including Octopus Skin and A Woman.
Deadline has contacted Ard – a joint network involving 10 German regional public broadcasters – as well as Hamburg-based member Ndr, which backed the production. The networks have yet to respond.
Jacir’s drama Wajib is a gentle comedy-drama capturing the reality of Palestinians living within Israeli borders.
- 11/16/2023
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
The Czech Republic’s premier nonfiction fest, the Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival, launched its 25th edition Tuesday in the historic town’s renovated cultural center, previewing an impressive program that accompanies its first fully live version in two years.
Fest director Marek Hovorka greeted the audience with fond memories of the improvements the event – and the communist-era hall – have seen since the Ji.hlava fest was launched as colleagues recalled it was considered a crazy idea at the time. Noting that not just film festivals but education and culture were largely sidetracked over the past year due to Covid risks, Hovorka said the lesson is that losing these “can have bad consequences for society.”
Following tradition, the prize for the Short Joy competition winner, chosen by a global audience watching the films online on the fest platform DAFilms.cz, was awarded this year to Colombian-Portuguese film “Open Mountain...
Fest director Marek Hovorka greeted the audience with fond memories of the improvements the event – and the communist-era hall – have seen since the Ji.hlava fest was launched as colleagues recalled it was considered a crazy idea at the time. Noting that not just film festivals but education and culture were largely sidetracked over the past year due to Covid risks, Hovorka said the lesson is that losing these “can have bad consequences for society.”
Following tradition, the prize for the Short Joy competition winner, chosen by a global audience watching the films online on the fest platform DAFilms.cz, was awarded this year to Colombian-Portuguese film “Open Mountain...
- 10/27/2021
- by Will Tizard
- Variety Film + TV
Majorca's creative documentary festival runs from 29 September to 3 October, offering chilled-out projections and leisurely masterclasses (both physical and virtual). MajorDocs, a self-proclaimed “slow event”, embraces a refreshingly relaxed approach to the cinematic experience. This year’s line-up presents a selection of eight creative documentaries, all with a distinct auteurist slant, “that encourage us to connect with not just the other, but also with our own sensibility”. These five days (29 September–3 October) in an intimate and congenial atmosphere are a chance to “reflect, ask and discuss each film with its author”. It’s an event designed to “stimulate the critical eye through screenings and talks, as well as workshops and discussions on documentary cinema”. Directed by Miguel Eek, MajorDocs seeks out “hybrid, innovative, transgressive, adventurous” films that “dig deeply into the ins and outs of a complex world without staying on the surface”. The jury — comprising producer Jacques Bidou...
With the first Sundance Film Festival of the new decade wrapping up today, the award winners have been announced. Leading the pack is Minari, which picked up U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic, and Boys State, which was awarded U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Documentary. It was also announced that Tabitha Jackson will be the new director of the festival, following John Cooper’s departure.
Check out the full winner list below, along with links to our reviews where available, and return for our wrap-up. See our complete coverage here.
2020 Sundance Film Festival Feature Film Awards
The U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Documentary was presented to: Jesse Moss and Amanda McBaine, for Boys State / U.S.A. — In an unusual experiment, a thousand 17-year-old boys from Texas join together to build a representative government from the ground up.
The U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic was presented to: Lee Isaac Chung,...
Check out the full winner list below, along with links to our reviews where available, and return for our wrap-up. See our complete coverage here.
2020 Sundance Film Festival Feature Film Awards
The U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Documentary was presented to: Jesse Moss and Amanda McBaine, for Boys State / U.S.A. — In an unusual experiment, a thousand 17-year-old boys from Texas join together to build a representative government from the ground up.
The U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic was presented to: Lee Isaac Chung,...
- 2/2/2020
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Massoud Bakhshi’s second feature, “Yalda, a Night for Forgiveness,” has its world premiere in Sundance’s World Cinema Dramatic Competition, to be screened without the director.
The pic’s production company, Jba Production, and sales outfit, Pyramide International, issued a joint statement on Jan. 14 explaining that the director won’t be attending due to the U.S.-Iran crisis, adding that Bakhshi’s “position is delicate, given the current tensions between the two countries.”
In an exclusive interview with Variety, Jba Production’s Jacques Bidou and Marianne Dumoulin, chronicled the complex task of producing Bakhshi’s second feature. They also produced his 2012 Cannes-player, “A Respectable Family,” about corruption in his country, which is still banned in Iran.
Bidou and Dumoulin have been working together for 27 years and as joint producers at Jba Production for the past 20 years. They have produced 44 feature films, shot in 22 countries, and have enjoyed a...
The pic’s production company, Jba Production, and sales outfit, Pyramide International, issued a joint statement on Jan. 14 explaining that the director won’t be attending due to the U.S.-Iran crisis, adding that Bakhshi’s “position is delicate, given the current tensions between the two countries.”
In an exclusive interview with Variety, Jba Production’s Jacques Bidou and Marianne Dumoulin, chronicled the complex task of producing Bakhshi’s second feature. They also produced his 2012 Cannes-player, “A Respectable Family,” about corruption in his country, which is still banned in Iran.
Bidou and Dumoulin have been working together for 27 years and as joint producers at Jba Production for the past 20 years. They have produced 44 feature films, shot in 22 countries, and have enjoyed a...
- 1/20/2020
- by Martin Dale
- Variety Film + TV
Director will not attend festival due to flare-up in tensions between Us and Iran.
Iranian drama Yalda, A Night For Forgiveness will premiere in Sundance as planned even if director Massoud Bakhshi will not attend due to the flare-up in tensions between the Us and Iran, its French producers and sales agent have confirmed.
“Massoud Bakhshi is proud the film was selected by Sundance and is happy for it to be screened in public there,” Paris-based Jba Production company and sales company Pyramide International said in a statement. “He has never considered asking for it to be withdrawn, on the contrary,...
Iranian drama Yalda, A Night For Forgiveness will premiere in Sundance as planned even if director Massoud Bakhshi will not attend due to the flare-up in tensions between the Us and Iran, its French producers and sales agent have confirmed.
“Massoud Bakhshi is proud the film was selected by Sundance and is happy for it to be screened in public there,” Paris-based Jba Production company and sales company Pyramide International said in a statement. “He has never considered asking for it to be withdrawn, on the contrary,...
- 1/14/2020
- by 1100388¦Melanie Goodfellow¦0¦
- ScreenDaily
We look at the projects selected for the 29th edition of Montpellier Mediterranean Film Festival’s Development Aid Scholarship. The three-day professional event – Cinemed Meetings – organised as part of the 41st Montpellier Mediterranean Film Festival kicks off tomorrow Tuesday 22 October (read the news and interview with Christophe Leparc).Of note in this year’s programme is the 29th edition of the Development Aid Scholarship, which has supported 97 feature film projects since 1991. This year, the 15 selected fiction projects will be presented by their directors and producers to a jury of four professionals headed by Jacques Bidou (Jba) who will be supported by Alexandra Speciale from Italy (consultant for the Venice Film Festival where she also directs the Work-in-Progress Final Cut), Marion Tharaud (Haut et Court) and international salesman Hedi Zardi (Luxbox). Two Development Aid Scholarships will be awarded, with support from the Cnc and the Occitanie/Pyrénées Mediterranean region,...
- 10/21/2019
- Cineuropa - The Best of European Cinema
French sales companies to merge staff, infrastructure and slates.
Jour2Fête, the Paris-based sales and distribution company co-headed by Sarah Chazelle and Etienne Ollagnier, is set to acquire compatriot sales company Doc & Film International, as its CEO Daniela Elstner heads to French cinema agency Unifrance in the role of managing director.
Under the deal, which is in the final stages of completion, Jour2Fête will merge the existing staff, infrastructure, slates and catalogues of both companies into one entity over the coming months.
For the time being, the separate banners of Jour2Fête and Doc & Film will remain in place,...
Jour2Fête, the Paris-based sales and distribution company co-headed by Sarah Chazelle and Etienne Ollagnier, is set to acquire compatriot sales company Doc & Film International, as its CEO Daniela Elstner heads to French cinema agency Unifrance in the role of managing director.
Under the deal, which is in the final stages of completion, Jour2Fête will merge the existing staff, infrastructure, slates and catalogues of both companies into one entity over the coming months.
For the time being, the separate banners of Jour2Fête and Doc & Film will remain in place,...
- 10/11/2019
- by 1100380¦Melanie Goodfellow¦0¦
- ScreenDaily
Jesús premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival last autumn.
Breaking Glass Pictures, who acquired North American rights to Chilean writer-director Fernando Guzzoni’s Jesús last November, has unveiled release dates for the film.
Jesús will open theatrically in New York and Los Angeles on September 1, New Orleans on September 8, with other markets to follow leading up to the DVD/VOD release on September 19.
Nicolás Durán and Alejandro Goic star in the film that centres on eighteen-year-old Jesús, who is trapped in a dead end cycle of drugs, sex, apathy, and an obsession with violence.
After he and his friends attack a young boy, Jesús has no choice but to turn to his father for help, despite their troubled relationship.
The film held its Us premiere at the Neighboring Scenes Series held by the Film Society of the Lincoln Center in New York City.
Jacques Bidou, Marianne Dumoulin, Giancarlo Nasi produced, while [link=nm...
Breaking Glass Pictures, who acquired North American rights to Chilean writer-director Fernando Guzzoni’s Jesús last November, has unveiled release dates for the film.
Jesús will open theatrically in New York and Los Angeles on September 1, New Orleans on September 8, with other markets to follow leading up to the DVD/VOD release on September 19.
Nicolás Durán and Alejandro Goic star in the film that centres on eighteen-year-old Jesús, who is trapped in a dead end cycle of drugs, sex, apathy, and an obsession with violence.
After he and his friends attack a young boy, Jesús has no choice but to turn to his father for help, despite their troubled relationship.
The film held its Us premiere at the Neighboring Scenes Series held by the Film Society of the Lincoln Center in New York City.
Jacques Bidou, Marianne Dumoulin, Giancarlo Nasi produced, while [link=nm...
- 8/1/2017
- ScreenDaily
French actress Laetitia Casta attends the photocall for the film 'Visage' (Face) by Tsai Ming-Lang in competition in the 62nd edition of the Cannes film festival in Cannes, France, 23 May 2009. Epa/Guillaume Horcajuelo President director of the Louvre Museum Henri Loyrette, producer Jacques Bidou, director Tsai Ming-Liang, French actress Fanny Ardent, Taiwanese actress Yi-Ching Lu, French actress Laetitia Casta, and actor Kang-Sheng Lee attend the photocall for the film 'Visage' (Face) by Tsai Ming-Lang in competition in the 62nd edition of the Cannes film festival in Cannes, France, 23 May 2009. Epa/Guillaume Horcajuelo French actress Laetitia Casta attends the photocall for the film 'Visage' (Face) by Tsai Ming-Lang in competition in the 62nd edition of the Cannes...
- 5/24/2009
- by James Wray
- Monsters and Critics
Film Review: Salt of This Sea, Cannes, Un Certain Regard
Boldly grabbing hold of the central issue at the heart of the Israel-Palestine conflict -- namely, whose land it is that is being contended by both sides -- “Salt of This Sea” will certainly make people talk, even while it fails to fully involve them in its artificial drama.
Making her first feature film, Palestinian Annemarie Jacir shows she is a courageous director able to articulate Palestinian pain and longing to return to the land of their ancestors. But the drama of a Brooklyn-born waitress who naively travels to Ramallah and Israeli-occupied Jaffa to live in “her homeland” is depressingly one-note, a story that never springs to life.
Arriving at Tel Aviv airport, the American Soraya (a fascinatingly stubborn Suheir Hammad) is hassled by the authorities for her Arab name. But bare minutes later, she has reached Ramallah, then finds an apartment and a good-looking escort Emad (Saleh Bakri, son of famed actor Mohammed Bakri).
Since they won’t give her back her grandfather’s savings, lost in 1948 when the family was forced into Lebanon, she simply robs a bank with Emad and pal Marwan (Riyad Ideis). Then everybody slips through a checkpoint back into Israel, without passports, disguised as Jews.
Viewers still with the film at this point can savor the shock of the film’s crucial scene, when Suheir is hosted by the current renter of her family home in Jaffa, a disarmingly liberal Israeli girl. “We had lives here. We were robbed, ” Suheir tells the girl, who naturally has no reply.
Cast: Suheir Hammad, Saleh Bakri, Riyad Ideis. Director: Annemarie Jacir. Screenwriters: Annemarie Jacir. Producers: Jacques Bidou, Marianne Dumoulin. Director of photography: Benoit Chamaillard. Production designer: Francoise Joset. Music: Kamran Rastegar. Sound: Eric Vaucher, Peter Flamman. Editor: Michele Hubinon
Sales Agent: Pyramide International, Paris
No MPAA rating. 109 minutes.
Boldly grabbing hold of the central issue at the heart of the Israel-Palestine conflict -- namely, whose land it is that is being contended by both sides -- “Salt of This Sea” will certainly make people talk, even while it fails to fully involve them in its artificial drama.
Making her first feature film, Palestinian Annemarie Jacir shows she is a courageous director able to articulate Palestinian pain and longing to return to the land of their ancestors. But the drama of a Brooklyn-born waitress who naively travels to Ramallah and Israeli-occupied Jaffa to live in “her homeland” is depressingly one-note, a story that never springs to life.
Arriving at Tel Aviv airport, the American Soraya (a fascinatingly stubborn Suheir Hammad) is hassled by the authorities for her Arab name. But bare minutes later, she has reached Ramallah, then finds an apartment and a good-looking escort Emad (Saleh Bakri, son of famed actor Mohammed Bakri).
Since they won’t give her back her grandfather’s savings, lost in 1948 when the family was forced into Lebanon, she simply robs a bank with Emad and pal Marwan (Riyad Ideis). Then everybody slips through a checkpoint back into Israel, without passports, disguised as Jews.
Viewers still with the film at this point can savor the shock of the film’s crucial scene, when Suheir is hosted by the current renter of her family home in Jaffa, a disarmingly liberal Israeli girl. “We had lives here. We were robbed, ” Suheir tells the girl, who naturally has no reply.
Cast: Suheir Hammad, Saleh Bakri, Riyad Ideis. Director: Annemarie Jacir. Screenwriters: Annemarie Jacir. Producers: Jacques Bidou, Marianne Dumoulin. Director of photography: Benoit Chamaillard. Production designer: Francoise Joset. Music: Kamran Rastegar. Sound: Eric Vaucher, Peter Flamman. Editor: Michele Hubinon
Sales Agent: Pyramide International, Paris
No MPAA rating. 109 minutes.
- 5/18/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
In Otar Iosseliani's droll "Monday Morning" (Lundi Matin), the Georgia-born French filmmaker makes the world over into a random, almost absurd stage on which to explore the stultifying isolation that daily life imposes on people. Central to the film's success is a touching, funny performance by Jacques Bidou, one of France's leading film and TV producers, who makes an absolutely astonishing debut as an actor. Why has he bothered with producing when he can perform like this?
At times reminiscent of comedies by Jacques Tati and often operating like a silent movie, "Monday" achieves its impact through action, gestures and visual humor. Dialogue is a secondary consideration.
In Competition at the just-concluded Berlinale, this comic fable should do well internationally in art houses. The film needs precious few subtitles -- indeed the translator doesn't even bother with much of the dialogue -- and, like Chaplin's "Modern Times", it represents a satiric attack against the drudgery of monotonous routine.
Bidou plays Vincent, who lives in a small wine-country village and commutes via transit to his job as a welder in a chemical factory. The routine each Monday never varies. The regimented sameness of his life provokes much of the visual wit in early sequences as the viewer experiences one such day -- its monotony, loneliness and estrangement from his family.
Vincent constantly craves tobacco, but smoking is forbidden inside the plant. He sneaks furtive cigarettes all day in this almost surreal factory, which emits billowing clouds of smoke, liquids in many colors and strange, unimaginable sounds. In the village at night, where children play games of fantasy, his family ignores him. If anything, he is more an employee at home than at work. His only pleasure comes from the solitary act of painting, which constantly gets interrupted.
Then comes another Monday. This time he stands outside the factory fence, unwilling to enter. He lazily takes the day off and never makes it home. He gets beaten up, is given too many drinks by a bunch of Cossacks and visits his equally isolated father, who gives him money to journey to Venice. Why Venice? Why not Venice?
Vincent's odyssey to Italy and, coming full circle, back home again is filled with serendipity. He makes friends, visits a marquis, gets his pocket picked and en-counters workers whose conditions in that sunny clime remind him of home.
Like a Tati film, Iosseliani has the movie unfold in a series of deadpan visual gags. But these gags lack the physicality of Tati's; they are more cerebral and cunning. Iosseliani is less a clown and more a social critic.
Aiding his vision is Bidou. His expressions change little. He nonchalantly accepts what life delivers. He adapts. He perseveres. Bidou's Vincent is a beaten-down Everyman who impulsively de-cides to change his life.
Iosseliani himself appears in a wry role, that of the Italian marquis whose wealth and social status have gained him little over the French blue-collar worker. He too is a prisoner of routine and self-importance.
Behind the camera, music, cinematography and set decor all create a world remarkably like our own, only somewhat pixilated.
MONDAY MORNING
Pierre Grise Prods./Rhone-Alpes Cinema/
Mikado with the participation of CNC,
Canal Plus, Gimages 4, Cofimage 12
Credits:
Producers: Martine Marignac, Maurice Tinchant, Roberto Cicutto, Luigi Musini
Screenwriter-director-editor: Otar Iosseliani
Director of photography: William Lubtchansky
Production designer: Manu de Chauvigny
Music: Nicolas Zourabichvili
Costume designer: Cori d'Ambrogio
Cast:
Vincent: Jacques Bidou
Wife: Anne Kravz-Tarnavsky
Mother: Narda Blanchet
Father: Radslav Kinski
Carlo: Arrigo Mozzo
Michel: Pascal Chanal
Bathroom Attendant: Manu de Chauvigny
No MPAA rating
Color/stereo
Running time -- 128 minutes...
At times reminiscent of comedies by Jacques Tati and often operating like a silent movie, "Monday" achieves its impact through action, gestures and visual humor. Dialogue is a secondary consideration.
In Competition at the just-concluded Berlinale, this comic fable should do well internationally in art houses. The film needs precious few subtitles -- indeed the translator doesn't even bother with much of the dialogue -- and, like Chaplin's "Modern Times", it represents a satiric attack against the drudgery of monotonous routine.
Bidou plays Vincent, who lives in a small wine-country village and commutes via transit to his job as a welder in a chemical factory. The routine each Monday never varies. The regimented sameness of his life provokes much of the visual wit in early sequences as the viewer experiences one such day -- its monotony, loneliness and estrangement from his family.
Vincent constantly craves tobacco, but smoking is forbidden inside the plant. He sneaks furtive cigarettes all day in this almost surreal factory, which emits billowing clouds of smoke, liquids in many colors and strange, unimaginable sounds. In the village at night, where children play games of fantasy, his family ignores him. If anything, he is more an employee at home than at work. His only pleasure comes from the solitary act of painting, which constantly gets interrupted.
Then comes another Monday. This time he stands outside the factory fence, unwilling to enter. He lazily takes the day off and never makes it home. He gets beaten up, is given too many drinks by a bunch of Cossacks and visits his equally isolated father, who gives him money to journey to Venice. Why Venice? Why not Venice?
Vincent's odyssey to Italy and, coming full circle, back home again is filled with serendipity. He makes friends, visits a marquis, gets his pocket picked and en-counters workers whose conditions in that sunny clime remind him of home.
Like a Tati film, Iosseliani has the movie unfold in a series of deadpan visual gags. But these gags lack the physicality of Tati's; they are more cerebral and cunning. Iosseliani is less a clown and more a social critic.
Aiding his vision is Bidou. His expressions change little. He nonchalantly accepts what life delivers. He adapts. He perseveres. Bidou's Vincent is a beaten-down Everyman who impulsively de-cides to change his life.
Iosseliani himself appears in a wry role, that of the Italian marquis whose wealth and social status have gained him little over the French blue-collar worker. He too is a prisoner of routine and self-importance.
Behind the camera, music, cinematography and set decor all create a world remarkably like our own, only somewhat pixilated.
MONDAY MORNING
Pierre Grise Prods./Rhone-Alpes Cinema/
Mikado with the participation of CNC,
Canal Plus, Gimages 4, Cofimage 12
Credits:
Producers: Martine Marignac, Maurice Tinchant, Roberto Cicutto, Luigi Musini
Screenwriter-director-editor: Otar Iosseliani
Director of photography: William Lubtchansky
Production designer: Manu de Chauvigny
Music: Nicolas Zourabichvili
Costume designer: Cori d'Ambrogio
Cast:
Vincent: Jacques Bidou
Wife: Anne Kravz-Tarnavsky
Mother: Narda Blanchet
Father: Radslav Kinski
Carlo: Arrigo Mozzo
Michel: Pascal Chanal
Bathroom Attendant: Manu de Chauvigny
No MPAA rating
Color/stereo
Running time -- 128 minutes...
- 2/19/2002
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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