French director Mehdi Fikri spent a decade working as a reporter covering social conflict and the issues of police violence and justice in France’s notoriously deprived out-of-town suburbs.
What he learned and saw during this time now feeds into his work as a filmmaker.
First feature After The Fire, which debuts in Toronto’s Discovery line-up, follows Malika, a French woman of North African descent, living in an outer suburb of the city of Strasbourg, who seeks justice after her younger brother dies in suspicious circumstances after being stopped by the police.
“I was born and grew up in Saint Denis in northern Paris, which has the reputation for being one of the most disadvantaged places in the entire Paris region,” says Fikri.
“The question of police violence has been a political issue in France for years and is something that has touched me personally as a young man...
What he learned and saw during this time now feeds into his work as a filmmaker.
First feature After The Fire, which debuts in Toronto’s Discovery line-up, follows Malika, a French woman of North African descent, living in an outer suburb of the city of Strasbourg, who seeks justice after her younger brother dies in suspicious circumstances after being stopped by the police.
“I was born and grew up in Saint Denis in northern Paris, which has the reputation for being one of the most disadvantaged places in the entire Paris region,” says Fikri.
“The question of police violence has been a political issue in France for years and is something that has touched me personally as a young man...
- 9/11/2023
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
Belgian directors Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, French filmmaker Alice Diop and Romanian director Cristian Mungiu have demanded that Iran’s Fajr International Film Festival remove their films from the line-up of its current edition, running from February 1 to 11.
The filmmakers said in separate statements that they discovered by chance that their respective films Tori And Lokita, Saint Omer, Rebel and R.M.N. had been included in Fajr’s selection without their personal permission.
“We have just learned that our film Tori And Lokita is in the selection of the Fajr festival in Tehran,” the Dardennes said in a statement on Thursday.
“We demand that the film be withdrawn immediately from the program of this festival which is a showcase for a dictatorial and murderous religious regime that we condemn.”
Saint Omer director Alice Diop said she had been alerted to her film’s...
The filmmakers said in separate statements that they discovered by chance that their respective films Tori And Lokita, Saint Omer, Rebel and R.M.N. had been included in Fajr’s selection without their personal permission.
“We have just learned that our film Tori And Lokita is in the selection of the Fajr festival in Tehran,” the Dardennes said in a statement on Thursday.
“We demand that the film be withdrawn immediately from the program of this festival which is a showcase for a dictatorial and murderous religious regime that we condemn.”
Saint Omer director Alice Diop said she had been alerted to her film’s...
- 2/3/2023
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
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