Brussels: Europe and Arabs

Brussels, the capital of Belgium, and the European Union will host in the first half of October the activities of the 11th edition of the Southern Film Festival, an Arab film festival that starts on Tuesday the eleventh of October and continues until the fourteenth of the same month.

The Egyptian film “Feathers” by Omar Al-Zuhairi was chosen as the opening film, while the Moroccan film “High and Strong” by Nabil Ayouch will be shown at the end of the festival this Friday, along with other co-productions from Algeria, Tunisia, Lebanon, Senegal, Belgium, France, Germany, the United States, Greece, the Netherlands and others.

In addition to the screening of a group of short and feature films, there are concerts, exhibitions, seminars, music and singing, in the presence of a number of artists and filmmakers from different countries.

All of these activities are under one title, which is "Women," according to what Rashida Shaibani, director of the festival, said in statements to "Europe and the Arabs."

She added that the new version of the festival will be dedicated to women, as this year the festival celebrates women's cinema to highlight and empower them in the film industry, in which the male component is still dominant. Rich with its own peculiarities and beauty

Sheibani pointed out that in 1927, the Egyptian director, Aziza Amir, in her movie “Laila,” was the source of inspiration for a number of women in the sixties and seventies to break into this field, but the momentum of these directors and producers could not change the image of women who were always associated on the screen with submissiveness to men, and this motivated a generation of women to take charge and play a role in the advancement of women in cinema. Indeed, they have had success in bringing subjects that were often forbidden to be shown on screen, and their films still struggle to find a wide audience and distribute them properly.

Moroccan Rachida Chibani added, "Among the activities will be a round table symposium on "The Place occupied by women in cinema or women's cinema." The discussion will be organized in cooperation with Dar Al-Tunisi and the Association of Tunisian Democrats in the Benelux. her artistic career

She concluded by saying that most of the films shown will have a women's theme, many of them directed by women. The festival will also feature an art exhibition with workers by the two artists, Piroska Vesnyi and Amina Bogdan, and the short films jury will be responsible for awarding the selected films the best screenplay award and the best director award. The Audience Award will be voted on in the Feature Films category

The festival succeeded in its past ten sessions in achieving the optimal goal, which is to link the members of the Arab communities residing in Europe with the nation of nations through artistic and cultural activities, while at the same time shedding light on the issues that the southern Mediterranean countries suffer from. Each party has the other, and the festival has become followed by Europeans and Arabs and has a place on the map of art festivals.