myDylarama

2025 British docs to look out for in 2026

Abla Kandalaft — 2025-12-18T12:54:56Z

As we near the end of 2025, we wanted to flag a couple of placing working class communities at their heart, which will be screening in the new year.

First up is Iron Ladies, a rousing, inspiring doc championing the women at the heart of the miners' strikes that will resonate today.

Given where we are today, it's unsurprising that many people think back to the miners' strike of 1985 with a sense of resignation and defeat. Daniel Draper's doc Iron Ladies attempts (quite successfully) to shift that narrative. The film champions the spirit and tenacity of the women that sustained the fight for a whole year. "It were a win for women", one of the featured "Ladies" shares with Daniel. The strikes were triggered by Margaret Thatcher's government's pit closure plans, which were inevitably going to lead to mass unemployment and poverty, the effects of which are still being felt today.

Through (incredibly entertaining) talking heads, archive footage, and rousing music, Iron Ladies presents us with a global and in-depth appraisal of the strikes and their impact. Daniel speaks to women from the North to the South of the country - Durham, Yorkshire, South Wales, Kent... The film highlights the nationwide character of the strikes and their inspiring community spirit. It also delves into the sacrifices and hardship that the miners and their families had to endure. Crucially, the doc really drives home the remarkable fight that these women put up, in spite of the usual sexism they faced (“my mum told me I wasn't fit to be a wife or a mother”) and the wider pain and misery caused by the pit closures and police brutality. The doc doesn't shy away from revisiting the violence of episodes like the Battle of Oregraves and is scathing about media complicity and framing - "Police didn't clash with the miners. They attacked the miners". I'm mildly inclined to agree with The Indiependent's reviewer in that the film doesn't harness the opportunity to bring up the ways in which the events resonate in today's context. But... I would argue that audiences will invariably be thinking of the current UK political landscape: from the doctors' strikes to police repression and brutality, or the most recent starker echo: the first hunger strikes in the UK since 1981.

The second doc also champions working class voices, this time in the film industry. Rather, it unpacks the many ways in which they are actively and intentionally kept out of - at least - the higher echelons of film and TV. Again, through talking heads from industry stakeholders and famously vocal figures such as Maxine Peake and Paul Laverty, as well as concrete data, Scottish filmmaker Mark Forbes offers a fairly exhaustive account of the elitism that plagues this industry. This is a surprisingly rare doc about an issue that is so widely known and accepted. There's a distinct feeling that producers, funders, those with the keys to success all wax lyrical about theoretically platforming underrepresented voices but are not prepared to properly address the very material barriers that exist. Mark's film underlines the way exclusion really starts from birth. Access to the old boys' type networks is absolutely key - then followed over the years by successive hurdles: access to money, to cities and spaces where it all happens, ability to sustain high living costs and low pay or no pay... Let's hope industry "people" watch it and genuinely address the points it raises.

Here's an interview with Mark Forbes with The Canary:

Arab picks from LFF 2025

Abla Kandalaft, Alma — 2025-10-20T10:59:06Z

Aside from our recently reviewed Palestine 36, the BFI London Film Festival marked the festival run tailend for a number of films from the Arab world. Highlights include Erige Sehiri's Promised Sky, a rare, necessary, and beautifully dramatised account of migrant women from the Ivory Coast living in Tunisia, having made their way there for a variety of reasons (study, refuge...). Surprisingly few films have been made about intra-continental migration, despite this making up the vast majority of international migration patterns.

It doesn't make the women's plight any less harrowing. Erige Sehiri, who has a knack for filming female friendships, bonds and interactions with intimacy and heart (see Under the Fig Trees), tells the stories of Preacher Marie, young mother Naney and student Jolie who moved from their homeland in search of a better life. They end up looking after young Kenza, a 4 year-old girl washed ashore after losing her family in a perilous sea journey - a character heartbreakingly based on a real girl Erige met who did perish at sea with her mother. Sehiri's nuanced, moving depiction of motherhood - Naney missing her daughter and unable to be with her, Marie taking Kenza under her wing yet aware that the girl isn't hers - serves as a prism through which the hardship of the women's displacement is told. Yet, there are great moments of humour and joy showing the resilience of these women.

An utterly original, surreal and quite gripping pick is Khartoum, the result of five directors' efforts to piece together a heartfelt tribute to the Sudanese capital told throught the lives of five of its inhabitants. What started out as a UK backed small-scale project to create 5 short poems about Khartoum was entirely upended when the directors - one Brit and four Sudanese + the Khartoum residents they were filming were forced to flee following the outbreak of the conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces in 2023. They used what production money they had left to flee to Kenya and, once there, all eventually rekindled to put together a different film. In the absence of footage and filming locations, they end up drawing on a variety of other funding bodies and opportunities to use greenscreen and animation to re-create scenes of everyday life in Khartoum. It's done in a similar vein to The Act of Killing and although some of the scenes they "perform" are heartbreaking, the end film is full of humour, joy, and colour. While director Rawya Al Haj is keen to stress the importance of raising political awareness about the conflict in Sudan and counter media misinformation - very much a proxy war as opposed to a civil war - Khartoum is a truly uplifting, rousing love letter to the both the city and its people.

Zain Duraie's Sink is a (criminally) rare film from the Arab world that tackles complex family dynamics and mental health. Duraie handles the subject with so much nuance, maturity and compassion that it came as a surprise to find out this was her first feature. Her first foray into filmmaking was in fact as Annemarie Jacir's assistant and there's something of that same treatment of intergenerational banter, of the intimacy of everyday interactions. The film tells the story of a mum (Clara Khoury, also starring in The Voice of Hind Rajab) dealing with the deterioriation of her son's mental health and the eventual fallout on her personal and professional lives and the rest of the family. Unsurprisingly, Duraie found it near impossible to garner interest on the part of the usual line up of European funders and co-productions given the subject matter. Eventually, other funding partners stepped in and the film saw the light of the day after five years in the making.

7 Activist documentaries available for free

Abla Kandalaft — 2025-10-16T16:33:34Z

The UCLA Film Archive just announced that 7 activist documentaries that are now freely available to access and stream for students, academics, and others. This update was shared through the Radical Film Network, thanks to Pr John T. Caldwell.

He writes: "This online collection is from a recent retrospective of my films that the UCLA Archive featured at the LA Hammer Museum last Fall. Now, all of these experimental documentaries and ethnographic films (made between 1983 and 2020) are available freely for classroom, area studies, or community use at the Film Archive's public Vimeo site."

These films primarily focus on immigration politics, migrant labour, indigenous organizing, and extractive economies in the U.S. and Central America.

The films deal with themese like ICE deportations, indegenous "migrant camps" and labour organising, as well as "reverse immigration” away from the “fortress America" U.S. of the late 1980s (“Freak Street: The Migratory Patterns of Hippies”, 1989); labor organizing by a local SoCal union community that broke the transnational corporate extraction economy of Anglo-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto (“Boron Lockout”, 2012); the national economic erasure of indigenous practices and identities (the Managalase Communities of Papua New Guinea in “Kuije Kanan”, 1984); and, an unfortunate precursor to the current political theater and staged media “war” against Venezuelan “drug cartels" in 2025 (i.e., the Reagan-Contra war against the Sandinistas, that exploited the indigenous Afro-Caribbean Miskitu people from Nicaragua depicted in “Personas Desplazadas", 1983)."

The films from the Border Wars collection can be accessed here.

Sophia Carr-Gomm on Return

Abla Kandalaft — 2025-02-27T14:34:58Z

Sophia Carr-Gomm is the director of short film Nobody's Darling, which we reviewed when it screened at the London Short Film Festival. She has more recently directed Return.

How has the reception and journey of Nobody's Darling impacted your career going forward? Have they afforded you certain opportunities?

'Nobody's Darling's festival run included London Short Film Festival, London Independent Festival, Unrestricted View, Hidden Film Festival, Cinecity, Little Wing, was nominated for Best Screenplay for Lift-Off Global Network and played as the introductory short at London Film Week to a preview of 'Portrait of a Lady on Fire'. Since the success of 'Nobody's Darling' I was then asked to direct a short, ‘Mine', that screened at Raindance and I wrote and directed a Paternity Leave campaign for the charity Pregnant Then Screwed that went viral on instagram. I was asked to then be a judge as part of London Film Week for a subsequent festival and I was interviewed by Pitch Fanzine and featured as 'talent to watch'.

What compelled you to make Return?

I was commissioned by the Fieri Consort, funded by the Genesis Foundation to create a film for a 30 minute piece of music called ‘A Short Walk' by the Fieri Consort and through that project, ‘Return' was made, and a new piece of music composed especially for it. It was a creative gift given to me by Fieri and essentially started as a response to the themes of the original piece of music and then ‘Return' was born out of that as we distilled the story and themes of the original piece. So, quite a roundabout and unusual way to create a film but has proved to be very enriching. The themes within the original music and subsequently what ‘Return' became are: grief, isolation, loneliness, love, life, death and suicide. These themes are deeply important to me, as I have experienced these themes in my life and most people have, so it really resonates.

Can you tell us a bit more about casting and working with Peter Faulkner?

After I wrote the film, Peter was the actor who immediately came to mind. His energy, his presence and his face kept playing in my mind's eye as I imagined the film. I approached him with the offer, and he loved the concept, the script and agreed to be in it. The story was very close to his life story, having lost his daughter to cystic fibrosis and his wife to cancer a few years later, Peter was very familiar with isolation, grief and loss. Working with him was wonderful. He was such a receptive and creative actor. He was also very sure of himself so I could trust that we could be in honest communication with one another. Peter took his own life five months after we finished filming. He had always struggled with his mental health since the passing of the two he loved most. This film was the last film he was in and it was such a beautiful experience working in the stunning and evocative landscapes with him, he threw his whole self into everything he did and always had an easy going attitude and good sense of humour. I will always remember him making friends with the wild horses we came across on the shoot. All the crew and actors loved him, and we miss him greatly. It makes it even more pertinent to get ‘Return' out there, for his legacy.

Tell us more about the location of the shoot.

We shot all over the place! Sussex, the New Forest and Scotland. The recce's were a lot of fun, with our amazing producer Victoria Fäh and brilliant cinematographer Max Paterson. Jumping in our car and searching for places I had written, and finding places to be even better than expected. The locations are a huge part of the storytelling, nature being a character itself within the film. The beauty and the starkness of the locations expresses our leading man's inner world and the enormity of the world mirroring that of the enormity of a single life in all its glory and tragedy.

Would you say your experience shooting Return was different from previous work in terms of, say, industry support for short films and opportunities?

This shoot felt great as it was funded by Genesis and supported by Fieri. But it was still a low budget short, and we didn't get any industry support, it was a group of hard working creatives coming together to make it happen with what we had access to. For that, I am eternally grateful.

What are your hopes for the film?

That people are moved by it and think more deeply about the impact of grief and isolation. To get in touch with those who are grieving or lonely for example. I would hope there might be some existential or transcendent thoughts or experience when watching the film, to think or have feelings around the enormity of a single life - the beauty and the tragedy of it. It's so easy to get caught up in the mundane and the stress, but to remember and recognise the miracle of life and that the single final breath out - that life is gone. There is painful poetry in that. This film I would hope reminds us of how deeply we can love one another. The deeper you grieve is an expression of the depth of your love. I would love for ‘Return' to be showcased at film festivals and gain the recognition and audience it deserves.

What's next for you as a director?

I'm developing a documentary around postpartum care, a narrative short to be shot on film and a feature film, a coming of age comedy set in Glasgow. As a Director I have two quite opposite genres I love to make - deep poetry (Return) and coming of age/comedy (Nobody's Darling). Maybe one day I can fuse them together!

Latin American highlights - Clermont-Ferrand FF 2025: Lanawaru

Abla Kandalaft, Mydylarama team — 2025-01-30T19:06:19Z

A boy learns from his grandfather how rituals in the rainforest are important to maintain the balance between humans and nature.

Absolutely mesmerising and compelling film driving home the importance and urgency of the essential work carried out by indigenous communities protecting the environment.

Where did the idea for the film come from?

The idea for the film began when, together with the NGO Conservation International, we discussed making a movie in the Colombian Amazon about conservation. I made my first trip to the Amazon, where I met with indigenous communities who were involved in species conservation in the Lower Caquetá region. During my initial talks with them, they explained that for any film made in the area, I needed permission from the traditional healer of the community, “Don Alfonso.” After meeting with him, he shared with me his practices in healing and protecting the territory, which became the main origin of the film.

Can you tell us about the shooting process and location?

The filming process had several unique aspects that I'd like to highlight here. In recent years, the self-governing systems of the Amazonian indigenous communities have been strengthened as part of social and cultural resistance in the region. As a result, the making of the film followed these principles of governance and decision-making. On one hand, the story was developed in collaboration with them; their anecdotes, cultural and spiritual connection to the land, and their social dynamics inspired the film, with a focus on capturing the atmosphere of the place rather than explaining it. On the other hand, the film's production followed the same system they used for organizing their meetings: catering, transportation, fishermen, translators, and the cast were all equally shared among the communities involved, creating an intercultural balance in how the film was made.

The film was shot in a sacred conservation area called Puerto Caimán, where two communities are working to conserve species like the black caiman. It's also near indigenous communities that remain voluntarily isolated, often referred to as "uncontacted tribes." To enter the territory, we had to undergo a healing and protection process, in which the entire filming team participated.

What hurdles did you face?

I believe that every creative process faces challenges, but one major obstacle occurred two days before filming began. Our protagonist at the time, “Don Alfonso,” the traditional healer of the indigenous reserve, had to leave urgently and had to withdraw from the film. This raised alarms, and we had to quickly take a boat to the house of another traditional healer, who welcomed us into his home before the sunset. We asked him if he could take on the role of the traditional healer in the film. It was undoubtedly the best decision, and sometimes things happen the way they need to.

What is your background as a filmmaker?

I started studying film in Colombia and later at the ESCAC film school in Barcelona, where I specialized in cinematography. I've been making films as a director of photography and director for at least 15 years, focusing on documentaries, hybrid films, and fiction.

What stories would you like to tell next?

I have several projects in development, but two directions I'm exploring are: A feature film that would allow me to continue making movies in the Amazon, and redefining production models in collaboration with the communities there. Co-writing, co-creating, and co-learning interculturally throughout the creation process. On the other hand, I'm working on a more personal fiction film about the idea of returning home. It's like Homer's Iliad, but not about returning to a physical place, but to a state of joy, of childhood, which stays with us throughout life. For now, they're just concepts and ideas, but my goal is to finish writing them this year.

What do you like about the short format?

What I appreciate most about the short format is the possibility of imagination. When I watch a short film, I like to feel the atmosphere, almost like a daydream, a fleeting moment that's difficult to grasp right away and needs to settle after it's over. That's one of the strengths of short formats.

What are your hopes for the festival?

What interests me most about the festival, and film festivals in general, is that films become starting points for bigger discussions. They should encourage questioning, dialogue, and possibilities for imagination. I hope the festival provides spaces for this and also gives me the chance to meet people with whom I can collaborate on future projects.

Latin American highlights - Clermont-Ferrand FF 2025: Jacaré

Abla Kandalaft, Mydylarama team — 2025-01-30T18:53:39Z

Pedro is a teenager who sells drinks in the traffic jam on an expressway that takes thousands of people to the coast during summer. Driven by curiosity and desire, Pedro embarks on an adventure that transforms him profoundly.

Victor Quintanilha's short is a transportative journey into the lives of our protagonists that's full of heart.

Where did the idea for the film come from?

The idea for the film Jacaré came to me on my way back from visiting some relatives. The route back to my house passes through the road where we filmed the short, and during the summer, that road is often clogged with long traffic jams. In this setting, a whole mini-economy emerges, with vendors selling drinks and snacks to travelers heading to the beaches. I was stuck in one of those traffic jams, trying to get home, and, as often happens in those moments of idleness, my mind started to wander, and that's when ideas tend to come to me—ideas that eventually turn into scripts.

As I watched the vendors walking between the cars, selling their goods under the blazing sun, a thought crossed my mind: what if I told the story of someone who works in these traffic jams on the way to the coast but has, ironically, never seen the sea? From that question, I began to unravel the idea, and little by little, it took shape and became what Jacaré is today.

It's a sunny story, full of warmth, where I explored the power in something as simple as breaking free from routine and discovering something new.

Can you tell us about the shooting process and location?

Filming this short was, in many ways, a truly enjoyable experience because we were in places that are very familiar to me—places I've been visiting since childhood. What made it even more special was how much my relatives were involved in the process. It was a beautiful experience to see my uncles and cousins actively contributing. That's something I'll never forget and will always be grateful for.

That said, making this film came with its fair share of challenges, and perhaps the biggest one was recreating a traffic jam. When you stop to think about the logistics, you realize how complex it actually is. How do you get that many cars without a big budget? Where can you film the scenes without disrupting traffic? Who can drive all these cars to position and adjust them as needed? And how do you calculate the impact on the shooting schedule? There were so many questions that made filming those scenes incredibly stressful. But, despite all the stress, it's very rewarding to see the final result and know that all the hard work paid off. Still, the lesson learned is clear: never write a scene with a traffic jam again.

What hurdles did you face?

Filming on the beach turned out to be a real challenge. I wanted the camera to be as close to the actor as possible so we could capture all his emotions during this important experience for the character. But it quickly became clear that this decision brought a whole set of obstacles. The waves were relentless, and with the ocean moving so much, we kept losing our shots. On top of that, the noise from the sea made it almost impossible for the actor to hear my directions.

The cold water was another issue—the actor was shivering so much he couldn't stay in for long. We had to keep cutting to give him breaks to warm up. And, of course, the camera wasn't too happy about being in the water either. It started overheating, and before we knew it, the waterproof casing fogged up, making it hard to get good shots.

Despite all of that, the team really pulled together and adapted to each setback, and in the end, we managed to get the best we could out of the situation. But honestly, there were moments when I wasn't sure it was going to work. And I promised myself right then and there: never again will I write a scene in the ocean.

What is your background as a filmmaker?

I graduated in Film Studies in Rio de Janeiro and later specialized in sound for cinema at EICTV in Cuba. Since 2016, I've been working as a dialogue editor and ADR supervisor on films and TV shows—this is my main job, the one that supports me. But from the very start of my studies, I've always found ways to carve out time to write and direct my own projects, to tell my own stories. In 2020, I released my first professional short film, "Little Portugal", which earned a Special Mention at the 2021 Clermont-Ferrand Film Festival.

I'm someone who's always observing and open to the world around me, as it's the reality I live in that inspires me to create stories—films that connect with people and hopefully make a positive impact on their lives.

What stories would you like to tell next?

My next short film is called "Saara", and it's set in Rio de Janeiro's most important street market. It follows Niàn, a 55-year-old Chinese man who owns a variety store, and Marlene, a 53-year-old woman from the northern province of Pará, Brazil, who runs a small diner. Their paths cross at a pivotal moment in both of their lives. Marlene is on the verge of returning to her homeland, something she's dreamed of for years, while Niàn feels trapped by a store he inherited and can't escape a reality he no longer wants.

Both seek belonging and share dreams of a future where their different origins are bridges, not barriers. When Niàn's shop is shut down by the authorities for safety violations, Marlene steps in to support him as he navigates the uncertainty ahead. Together, they find comfort and hope in the face of adversity, showing the strength of empathy and resilience. As their lives become more intertwined, one question remains: will they find the courage to rewrite their stories, or will the weight of the past keep them bound to a life they never wanted?

What do you like about the short format?

I love a quote by Eliseo Altunaga, a great Cuban screenwriter, who says: "A short film is like an arrow that goes straight to the heart."

For me, the short film format has that unique power to impact the audience in just a few minutes. It is like an espresso—intense and concentrated, leaving its flavor lingering long after it's over. Shorts are like doors that, when opened, lead to a deeper exploration of the themes they touch on. And that's incredibly enriching—it's an irresistible invitation to dive into realities and discussions that extend far beyond the film itself.

What are your hopes for the festival?

In 2021, when "Little Portugal" was selected for the festival, I wasn't able to attend in person due to the pandemic, so this is a really special opportunity for me. I'm incredibly grateful to have a second chance to be part of the festival and finally experience it in person. I'm excited not only to share the film with the audience but also to connect with other filmmakers, producers, and creatives from all over the world. The chance to discuss our work, exchange ideas, and learn from each other is something I've been looking forward to. I hope this experience will help me grow both personally and professionally, and that the film will resonate with those who see it, sparking conversations and reflections beyond the screen.

Latin American highlights - Clermont-Ferrand FF 2025: Servicio Necrologico Para Usted

Abla Kandalaft — 2025-01-30T18:47:14Z

Maria Salafranca's film (titled Obituary Service For You in English) offers a tour of the funeral home in a small Cuban town led by Maurilio and Fidela, driver and assistant on duty, who have been preparing corpses for 17 years in the same space where they live their lives and their love.

A humorous and endearing portrait of a couple undertaking a skilful yet peculiar job.

Where did the idea for the film come from?

I originally wanted to make a film about Fidela's job. She was a woman who had been working in a funeral home for over 17 years. But filming the deceased presented a real ethical conflict for me. So Fidela suggested that Maurilio, her husband and co-worker, could play the role of the dead person during the film. I found that idea fascinating and comical, and so I decided that would be the device I would use, that would set the tone of the film.

Can you tell us about the filming process and the location?

The filming took place over four nights at the funeral home in Bauta, a small town 30 kilometres from Havana. During the process, we didn't use any script. Everything you see in the film are scenes and situations that I incorporated from the things I observed during the research and filming stages. The process was quite playful and full of humour for both Fidela and Maurilio, as well as for the whole team.

What obstacles did you face?

The main obstacle was combining filming with the daily life of an active funeral home. While we were filming, Maurilio and Fidela were still working, and the funeral home was open. It was also a challenge to make a low-budget film in a country where basic material conditions are not covered.

What is your career as a filmmaker?

I studied a Master's degree and specialized in documentary film at the International School of Film and Television of San Antonio de los Baños in Cuba. In my career, I have directed several short films that have played at various international festivals: "Negra Sombra" winner of the Gold Hugo Award for Best Documentary Short at the Chicago International Film Festival 2024, "Compañía" winner of Best Documentary Short at the Concordia Film Festival and Honorable Mention at the Santo Domingo Global Festival, "Cimientos" premiered at the Havana Film Festival and "Servicio necrológico para usted", which was premiered at Visions du Réel in 2024.

What stories would you like to tell next?

I want to continue filming and experimenting with different cinematic forms, based on seemingly simple and everyday stories and places that almost always hide an extraordinary side if you know how to observe them.

What do you like about the short format?

I think that the short is a format of cinematic expression that forces us to work with extraordinary precision as directors, and that is a wonderful challenge. It is also a format that allows for sustainability in our work as directors, since its form of production is usually more accessible and faster than that of a feature film.

What are your hopes for the festival?

I hope to be able to share a bit of the films we make from Cuba and Latin America, and also to learn about the work of other colleagues around the world. I hope that my time at the festival will help me to build networks that will allow me to continue filming my next projects.

A Short Film About Kids: Bethlehem-based Ibrahim Handal on his second ClermontFF entry

Abla Kandalaft — 2024-03-22T14:15:24Z

Four kids from the refugee camp in Bethlehem decide to visit the sea for the first time in their life. Ibrahim Handal is a cinematographer and filmmaker living in Bethlehem, who graduated in Cinematography in 2019 from Dar Al-Kalima University. His previous short film Bethlehem 2001 was also selected by the Clermont-Ferrand International Film Festival. Yet again, Ibrahim offers a sensitive, eye-opening glimpse into Palestinian daily life, this time through the prism of an incredibly likeable cast of young children.

Second year at Clermont! Congratulations! Why did you choose to look at this story through the prism of children?

Thank you! It's great to be selected again, and to be able to attend physically this time! To be fully honest with you, children are the most honest, creative and purely imaginative amongst us, so the story could only be told through their eyes, desire and personal needs, as in reality, they have never seen the sea. Every day, they dream of reaching it. They can't see or visit it because of the hard reality that we live in Palestine. These kids live in a refugee camp in Bethlehem, which is a very small place with many narrow buildings and tight streets. They can even hear their next door neighbours talk and laugh as they are cooking. So, telling a story of these 4 kids from a refugee camp and their true desire to visit the sea is a very simple human need.

How did you cast them?

Luckily, Wisam Al Jafari a close friend of mine was working on a film workshop with kids from refugee camps in Bethlehem. As he was teaching and showing them films, these 4 kids developed a very simple idea about themselves visiting the sea for the first time, and they wanted to be the main actors in the film! Wisam was also the main coordinator on a film project run between Dar Al Kalima and CineFabrique, as they invited me to work with them as post-graduate student. Wisam shared the idea the kids had come up with with me, and we already had our cast!

How straightforward was it to shoot? What were the biggest hurdles?

The deadline given by Dar Al Kalima and CineFabrique was a very specific, which put me under pressure to develop the idea into a script in 3 days!! And surprisingly, we only had one day for pre-production, so it was a very short time to prepare and film a short but luckily, despite the fact I am not from a refugee camp and with my humble experience as a cinematographer, I know from personal experience how to portrait the soul of the camp, which I had experienced during my time with Wisam Al Jafari shooting the films Ambience in 2019 and By the Sea in 2021. And we had those four excited kids, who were going to act for the first time in their lives in a film based on their ideas, so it was a mix of some pain and joy.

Since your previously selected shorts, including Bethlehem 2001, for which we interviewed you, has it been easier for you to make films? What has it given you, having films in festivals?

Oh, I think it's never been an easy thing to make a film! It's always been a challenge when it comes to work on low/nano budget films but these films teach me a lot, especially as a DOP!

Maybe it's a little bit odd to know that I am a DOP and am more interested in this role than that of a director. Even when I'm directing my own films, I find a lot of joy in exploring a particular vision I have, as I am a very visual person. I have nothing to lose and there is no specific rule for people regarding how to become a DOP. Even if there was, I would break it! I have to build my own career, as I won't get that much work given the low amount of films being produced in Palestine, compounded by the Covid effect, despite my films being shown in great festivals like Cannes, Locarno, Clermont-Ferrand, and many others, as well as virtual screenings, but this doesn't necessarily change anything on the ground.

Tell us about your collaborations, you've been working with Wisam Al Jafari, with Dima Hamdan, Muayad Alayan... How do you all work together? Is there much collaboration between the current generation of Palestinian filmmakers?

I have been lucky to know these amazing and creative people, and be part of their projects. Each one has been search a learning curve. Luckily, my first feature experience was on Muayad Alayan's second feature film, which was such an eye-opening experience. I learned so much more about cinematography, as I was working in the light department. Muayad and I became friends, as he has been mentoring me and giving me feedback. Wisam and I were colleagues at Dar Al Kalima, and collaborated with him on Ambience and then on his second short By the Sea. Conversely, he has helped me with my personal projects, so it's been mutually beneficial.

When Dima Hamdan approached me to work on her short film Blood like Water, she was looking for a cinematographer. She sent me her script and I sent her my notes. This was such a unique opportunity to work on a very delicate, sensitive and haunting film, and we developed a wonderful friendship.

What did you make of this 2024 edition of the Clermont film festival? What were your highlights?

Being selected for the second time in Clermont, a wonderful place to show my humble film A Short Film About Kids, is a great opportunity. It was better to experience it physically than virtually. Currently, I am finalising my upcoming film Cinema, Mon Amour, which is a huge collaboration between me and Wisam, as co-writers, co-producers, and co-directors, although I kept the DOP role to myself! I was able to meet many festival programmers, and tell them about the new film project. I hope it will see the light very soon!

Q&A with Morad Mostafa, director of I Promise You Paradise - Clermont-Ferrand 2024

Abla Kandalaft, Elise Loiseau — 2024-02-01T20:04:35Z

Eissa, a 17-year-old African migrant in Egypt, races to beat the clock and save his loved ones after a violent incident, no matter what it takes.

Morad Mostafa has a real knack for telling complex, intimate and three-dimensional stories from the perspective of marginalised people. A young girl and her mother in Henet Ward, a teenage boy here, all members of Egypt's African migrant community. It's a beautiful film, in which the play with light and shadows transforms this initially mundane but moving love story into a rich, slightly other-worldly fable.

I Promise You Paradise will be screening at the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival.

After Henet Ward, I Promise You Paradise also deals with the plight of the African immigrant community in Egypt. What motivated you to tell Eissa's story?

I always try to search for new stories to talk about the Egyptian society through real and different heroes. This time it was about a small family, and two people in love that society strives to keep apart. It is a very complicated relationship about an African immigrant teenager and an Egyptian girl. This is my second film that focuses on African immigrant stories, after “Henet Ward.” I lived during my childhood in a poor neighbourhood, a was very complex place. It had a mix of Egyptians and immigrants, each group with their respective social mores. Therefore, this informed a part of my perception of the world since childhood, through the prism of a society that's a mix of different groups and nationalities, specifically Africans, because I am African as well.

What sort of research did you do?

It is not research in the conventional sense, as much as an attempt to recall some of the situations of that world and that region in which I used to live, by revisiting those moments and that neighbourhood. It is my good fortune that the co-writer of the film “Sawsan Yusuf” still lives in that place, and she was an essential scout for me during the period of brainstorming. Moreover, she created the story. We'd been working together for more than two years to develop the script and we wanted to make it special, because there were many films that talked about the issue of immigration, but these always have the "local" citizen helping the immigrants leave. But I wanted to turn that around, with the African immigrant as the one who helps and seeks to liberate the local citizen, helping them reach safety, as if he was promising them paradise from their perspective.

Can you tell us more about the use of light in your film? The play on light / shadows creates both a stark intimacy and an eeriness that permeates the film?

Stories are always, for me, the ones that dictate the method of narration and style. For this film, I wanted to leave space for the images, in order to tell the story with a little mise-en-scène in moments of tension, and movement of characters, but I relied more on paintings, especially since the places we filmed in are indeed historical and visually very attractive places. To come up with the frames and light, I made a storyboard and drew each frame before the start of filming, so that I could see the film completely and ensure its consistency.

Did the success of Henet Ward help in any way in making this film?

Henet Ward was the cornerstone of my career. This film and everything I did after it are ways for me to talk about different topics involving Egyptian society. It helped me a lot, especially since its world premiere was at the Clermont-Ferrand IFF. There, I learned what a short film really means, and so much about making shorts in general.

What were the biggest hurdles in the shooting process?

The filmmaking process was not easy at all. In my opinion, this is a road movie, and this the most difficult genre. Also, there was a limited budget for the film to be completed, so we had to compress the filming schedule to only three days.

What are your hopes for Clermont 2024?

I hope it will be a very successful edition, as we are always used to from the festival, and that it continues in full force, because it's a land of short films, and a destination for all their makers. So I wish it all the best.

Q&A with Phoebe Arnstein, director of If You're Happy - Clermont-Ferrand 2024

Abla Kandalaft, Elise Loiseau — 2024-01-28T16:58:35Z

A woman struggles with the pressures of motherhood and uses a childish game at a local baby group to vent her fury, sparking an unexpected chain reaction.

The chaos, misery, elation, isolation and general upheaval - positive or negative - generally associated with early motherhood is such fertile ground for visual story-telling that I'm surprised it's not the focus of many short films. In If You're Happy, director Phoebe Arnstein utilises the format in the best possible way, taking us along on an emotional roller coaster that culminates in a cathartic moment of explosive rage. Many mothers will identify with Lotte (Erin Doherty) but, that aside, it's an often humorous, astutely portrayed slice of human life, and a remarkable filming feat with its 8 baby-strong cast.

If You're Happy is showing at the Clermont-Ferrand International Film Festival 2024.

Where did you get the idea for the story?

Writing IF YOU'RE HAPPY became a refuge during the early days of motherhood. It was a way for me to fight for my visibility and validate the solitary and often surreal moments I experienced as a new mother. I wanted to make a film that reflected the absurdity, the loneliness, the exhilaration, the joy, the physical sacrifice and the emotional resilience that is demanded of a woman when they become a mother for the first time.

How did you get your cast and crew together? How was it shooting with a baby?

I knew Erin Doherty's work from THE CROWN and CHLOE, however it was when I saw her at the National Theatre playing Abigail in ‘The Crucible' that I knew she was perfect for this role because of the way she allowed Abigail's rage to slowly build and spill over. She is mesmerising. The crew were a combination of heads of departments I had loved working with before on other projects, and suggestions from my producers (Sophia Gibber and Scarlett Barclay) who both have great taste and instinct. It was a happy marriage! The hero baby was played by twins to maximise the amount of legal time we could have with them on set. They were brilliant and did everything we needed them to do at the right time – kudos to their mum and my 1st AD who worked our shooting schedule around their routine so we could capitalise on times during the day when they would be hungry, tired or relaxed. When it came to the baby group shooting day however, it was absolute pandemonium! Eight babies on set all with different needs and schedules, combined with the very heavy and intricate camera coverage I needed for those scenes – it's a miracle we completed the day!

What's your own background as a filmmaker?

I worked as a Clapper Load (2nd AC) on productions such as THE CROWN and THE WORLD'S END for almost a decade. It was an invaluable period that taught me so much about the process of filmmaking. You can have so many ideas as a filmmaker, but you need to know where to put a camera and understand technically how to shoot a scene. I would shoot music videos and short films in my time off, with the help of friends who I worked with in the industry – the best film school I could ask for!

What are your hopes for the Clermont FF?

I have a four-month baby and a two year-old at home, so honestly I'm just excited to take a solo trip and to reconnect with myself while watching some exceptional films, drinking a little wine and meeting fellow filmmakers. A prize would of course be the cherry on the cake ;)

What are your top shorts recommendations from recent years?

I love BEAT by Aneil Karia, ENJOY by Saul Abraham and WREN BOYS by Harry Lighton.

For more on Phoebe's work, visit her website here.