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SMILE THE PHOTO COMES OUT BETTER
Director: Sherif Arafa
Photographer Sayed Gharib worries when his daughter Tahani moves to Cairo to study medicine, concerns that prove justified when she struggles to fit in with her privileged fellow students. His solution is to follow her to the city, moving close to the school where she studies. While she is falling in love with the son of a famous businessman, Sayed continues to take pictures. He has strong ideas about photographs of people, which reflect his own sense of dignity in poverty but is also his strongest professional principle. They must look happy; no matter how much sadness anyone carries with them, photographs must express joy. Mona Zaki plays in this film with other important Arab actors, including Ahmed Zaki and Leila Eloui.

BETTER MAN
Director: Michael Gracey
Singer Robbie Williams, the one-time cheeky star of the boy band Take That, often said that he felt like a performing monkey for his whole creative life. Director Michael Gracey, best known for The Greatest Showman, duly represents Williams as a monkey in this sensational biopic. It is an outrageous idea, but it works. Williams himself voices the monkey, but his involvement does not mean his tabloid-fodder life of fame, disgrace, humiliation and ultimate resurgence gets watered down. We see it all: the bad behavior, his terrible boyfriend instincts, being a neglectful son and an unbearable workmate. But by highlighting his trademark humor, compelling honesty and irresistible showmanship, Robbie trumps again. There is also a slew of great pop songs to sing-a-long to.

SUPERBOYS OF MALEGAON
Director: Reema Kagti
This entertaining romp is based on the life of Nasir Shaikh, an amateur film-maker from the poor Indian town of Malegaon who was inspired by his love of silent slapstick to make a film of his own, featuring local characters and put together by a crew of friends. As the locals favoured Bollywood escapism, he adapted some of their favourites with the tales transported to Malegaon. People loved it, but their success threatened to split the group, one of whom turned out to have bigger ambitions: a few hurdles had to be jumped before everyone realised what really mattered to them. It is a poignant and at times funny take on film-making, friendship and what happens when those worlds collide.

HANAMI
Director: Denise Fernandes
The remote volcanic island of Fogo, off the coast of Cape Verde, is a difficult place to make a living. Like many other young people, Nia chooses to go, leaving her new baby Nana to be raised by her grandmother. Nana is observant and sensitive; when she develops a high fever and is sent to recover with a healer under the volcano, she immediately responds to the magical atmosphere of the island’s interior. It is as if the island itself, along with the network of women who give the film a strong feminine energy, is caring for her. A moving story about longing and belonging, culminating in the older Nana’s quandary: should she stay here forever, or follow her mother into the wider world?