Saint-Denis: 18th edition of the Panorama des cinémas du Maghreb et du Moyen-Orient

From 10 to 21 March, the PCMMO will celebrate its 18th anniversary with a selection of 20 films - fiction and documentaries, including 13 premieres and unpublished, screenings accompanied by meetings with film teams and film personalities. At the opening of the Festival, the Cinéma l'Écran de Saint-Denis, the birthplace of the event, welcomes The last Queen of Adila Bendimerad and Damien Ounouri, in the presence of the directors, film selected during the "Writers' Days" of the 79th Venice Mostra.

Sessions in partnership with feminist media 21st Century Women are organized in order to highlight the place of women in the 7th art and by revealing original talents.

School and youth. On 17 March, the College Session proposes The Court of Miracles Carine May and Hakim Zouhani. Houria de Mounia Meddour while the High School Session invites to discover Houria Mounia Meddour and meet Chloé de Cambournac, head decorator of the PCMMO team. On March 19, present Dounia and the Princess of Aleppo of the Syrian poet and storyteller Marya Zarif and French cartoonist André Kadi. This Franco-Québécois animated film tells the story of the loss and uprooting of children.

Projection of L'Olivier Sauvage of Kamel Azouz in the presence of the filmmaker and Méziane Azaïche, protagonist of the film and now director of the Le Cabaret Sauvage concert hall. L'Olivier Sauvage relates the exceptional destiny of Méziane Azaïche, a young Algerian who came to France in the late 1970s.

© Chevalier noir / INDIE PROD/UPRODUCTION/PILOTS/ALI MOSAFFA PRODUCTIONS/BIBI FILM TV SRL/TAKE SHELTER 2022

Other films, The main by Chad Chenouga with Roschdy Zem, an unpublished film whose theatrical release of French fiction is scheduled for May 10, 2023 and Black knight, (A Tale of Shemroon) by Emad Aleebrahim-Dehkordi, presented and moderated by Bamchade Pourvali film historian, founder of Iran Ciné Panorama.

2023 Festival Partnerships

Carried by the Association of the Palestinian Film Festival in Paris and created in 2015 to contribute to the promotion of Palestinian cinema, the Ciné-Palestine Festival is held every year in several locations in Île-de-France. On March 18, the Bir'em, French film by Camille Clavel (in his presence) with Sama Abuleil, Yazan Bakri and Ibrahim Eisa and Alam by Firas Khoury, film Palestine – France – Tunisia – Saudi Arabia – Qatar, released August 30, 2023.

Window on Lebanon, in partnership with the Lebanese Film Festival of France (FFLF). Since its creation in 2019, the Lebanese Film Festival of France has aimed to raise awareness, federate and promote Lebanese cinema in France. The FFLF hosts a short film competition at each edition and accompanies Lebanese filmmakers throughout the year during previews, round tables, professional meetings and innovative partnerships.

Night of the glass of water Photos © Louis Sarmad

Night of the glass of water of Carlos Chahine in his presence. Lebanon, 1958. While the Lebanese fight between Christians and Muslims in the coastal cities, Layla, a young mother and model wife, spends the summer with her family in a remote village in the Christian mountain. His meeting with a Frenchman and his mother will open his eyes on his status as a woman in a patriarchal society where men, father, husband and son, decide the fate of women, released in theatres on June 14, 2023

© Intramovies

Dirty, Difficult, Dangerous of Wissam Charaf, meeting by Skype, and in the presence of Ziad Jallad, lead actor. Ahmed is a Syrian refugee who hoped to find love in Mehdia, an Ethiopian housekeeper. But in Beirut, it seems impossible… Fiction -France-Lebanon-Germany-Qatar received the Europa Cinemas Label and was named Best European Film of the Venice Mostra 2022

Documentaries

At the cinema The 7 Parnassians, Guardian of the worlds, unpublished French documentary (French premiere), by Leïla Chaïbi in the presence of her and her producer, Maud Martin.  Forty years ago, on the heights of Jellaz in Tunisia, Hassan fell asleep at the foot of a tomb. Since then, he watches the absent and observes the living. Over the days and nights, according to the seasons and the encounters, between reality and dream, Hassan invites us to discover the singular life of this great cemetery...

At the IMA, Arab World Institute, Tales of the Purple House of Abbas Fahdel. In the presence of the director and Nour Ballouk, protagonist of the film. Since purple house In southern Lebanon, Franco-Iraqi filmmaker Abbas Fahdel and his Lebanese wife, the painter Nour Ballouk, set out to explore a Lebanon with many facets, which seems to be on the edge of the abyss... awarded at the New York Film Festival 2022 and the Locarno International Festival 2022.

© Nour Ballouk Co

At the Luxor cinema, a tribute to Dalila Ennadre with Jean Genêt, Our Father of Flowers, in the presence of Lylia Ennadre. Under the benevolent shadow of Jean Genet, this posthumous documentary film by Franco-Moroccan filmmaker Dalila Ennadre is a dialogue between the living and the dead, an invitation to hold the worlds together, between a deaf humanist revolt and poetic elegy. This French-Moroccan documentary was screened at the New York Film Festival 2022 and the Locarno International Festival 2022. The screening will be followed by a reading of texts about Dalila’s Genet by his daughter Lilya Ennadre, accompanied by Mounsi’s musical arrangements with Malika Abbes.

At the end of the 18th^e edition of the PCMMO, the IMA, Arab World Institute presents Life suits me well by Al Hadi Ulad-Mohand in the presence of the film team. In the mid-1990s, in a small town in northern Morocco, Fouad (Samir Guesmi) was the only employee of the post office. A neurological disease changes his life and that of his family... Fiction presented at the 2022 Marrakech International Film Festival

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"The Last Queen", image from the film © Bertrand Noël