Brussels: Europe and the Arabs
The Euro-Mediterranean Film Festival kicks off this evening, Thursday, November 28, and will continue until December 6. The festival, in its 24th edition, is a meeting place to discover high-quality films rooted in the Mediterranean scene and to meet personalities from the world of cinema, but also to participate and discuss. Not to mention concerts, Mediterranean food and flavors, art exhibitions, and an atmosphere dominated by feelings of affection during the celebration of 60 years of Moroccan and Turkish presence in Belgium, according to what the organizers of the festival stated on the official website

The film BXL, which is an abbreviation of the word Brussels, will be the opening film. The film seeks to answer an important question: Are our dreams a blessing or a curse? It is the first feature film by the Ait Hamou brothers. This exclusive screening, in the presence of the film crew, will take place after the opening ceremony of the festival. BXL tells the daily life of Tariq, 26, and his younger brother Fouad, 12. When Tariq has the opportunity to leave his neighborhood and finally become a professional boxer, the brothers' lives take an unexpected turn. Inspired by their childhood in Brussels, the work brilliantly depicts a city often misunderstood and reveals its importance. Richness and complexity.
Ich Ait Hamou, known for his talents as a choreographer and writer, and actor and director Mounir Ait Hamou were able to count on an excellent collaboration to realize this project. Nico Leunen, Maximilien Derickx for photography, and an original soundtrack composed by the talented Brussels artist Jean-Luc Favchin and recorded by the Brussels Philharmonic Orchestra.
BXL is part of a selection of films that pay tribute to 60 years of Moroccan and Turkish immigration to Belgium. The festival is keen to present Mediterranean films, reflecting immigration, which nourishes our history and culture. This year will be no exception, and will highlight those who come from there and participate in the cultural richness of our capital. According to the festival management, the film, an intimate portrait of two young brothers of Moroccan origin who are pursuing their dreams in Brussels, adds the festival management, "This year, more than seventy films will be screened, the common theme of "At the Crossroads" will be carried through the different sections of the festival program. This dichotomy between rural displacement and returning to the roots clearly feeds a number of ideas among filmmakers who have portrayed characters torn between cities and villages, between the need to establish themselves and the need to seek a future elsewhere. Many guests will be present during this twenty-fourth edition. Filmmakers from all backgrounds will accompany the premieres of their films in Belgium. Many artists will also come to punctuate the program with their screenings. As every year, Marché Med will offer you a complete immersion in the Mediterranean with its flavors, dance performances and cooking workshops. The festival will close with the film Her Majesty the Queen Mother by director Maneli Labidi on Friday evening, December 6 at the Palace Cinema, the premiere of Tunisian director Maneli Labidi, with the talented Camelia Jordana and Sofiane Zermani. A wonderful comedy that explores the bonds and gaps between generations in a French family of immigrant origins, without giving a painful lesson in history.

Among them are Arab films, European films and others competing for the festival awards, and also with the presence of a number of artists and filmmakers from Arab and European countries, some of whom attend as guests and others participate in the juries and from several Arab and European countries, including Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Lebanon, Italy, Belgium, France, Germany and others.
Fiction and documentary films are mixed to provide an overview of the many facts and diversity of film production in this constantly evolving region.
The films are selected based on specific criteria because the festival seeks to discover but also to make the audience think. The festival is an appropriate framework for discussion thanks to the meetings and discussions organized during the session.

Official Competition: It includes feature films, the Grand Prix and the Special Jury Prize
There is also a RÊVOLUTION competition, which includes feature films and documentaries, and the RêVolution Jury Prize | The Young Jury Prize, a competition for favorite short films and short fiction films, and there are also films shown in the framework of the Panorama, which are feature films and short films. The festival management also said on its official website that "CinemaMed" is a film festival, but above all it is a celebration, a winter break to celebrate the Mediterranean, a region that cannot be separated from forms of musical expression, each richer than the other, including origins that intertwine to make us dance almost every evening. Large numbers of foreign immigrants live in Belgium, especially from Morocco and Turkey. The first group of them arrived in the late fifties and early sixties to work in the field of reconstruction of what was destroyed by World War II. Moroccans and Turks constitute the largest number of successive generations of foreign origins. The new generations have succeeded in reaching prestigious positions in various fields, including political work, and have held ministerial positions and members of parliament, and in the fields of medicine, engineering, teaching, law, art, and others.