In-Conversation with Mona Zaki
SHOWTIME
Other movies
AÏCHA
Director: Mehdi M. Barsaoui
Aya is the sole survivor of a bus crash on a mountain road. When she realises that nobody knows she is alive, she makes a snap decision to escape her dead-end village existence and become someone else. In thriving, liberal Tunis, she calls herself Amira, a thrilling change until one of those men is murdered and the investigating police start to question “Amira”’s sketchy life story. Fatma Sfar is vivid and immediately sympathetic as Aya/Amira, while narrative twists and nested details gradually reveal that she isn’t the only trickster with something to hide. Aicha was judged Best Mediterranean Film from the Academy of Fine Arts at this year’s Venice Film Festival.
GHOST TRAIN
Director: Se-Woong Tak
YouTube creator Da-kyung (played by shooting star Joo Hyun-young), has made her name by recounting real-life horror stories but she has lost a lot of subscribers recently. Her quest to uncover the scariest tales possible leads her to Gwangrim Station; a subway station that is known for the mysterious incidents occurring there. While the station master (Jeon Bae-soo) is initially hesitant to reveal the hidden stories of his workplace, he gradually shares more and more spooky secrets, which does not leave Da-kyung unaffected. Telling one occurrence per episode, this series delights as an exciting play on horror and ghost story tropes, with a cleverly timed narrative structure, and a thrilling sense of atmosphere and mood.
HOLES
Director: Abdulmohsen Aldhabaan
Rakan and his wife Rim are looking for an apartment to rent instead of living with his aged mother. It seems they have found the right spot, except for the hole in the wall that looks as if someone bashed it with a hammer. Rakan seems strangely unengaged, however, barely speaking to his wife. Gradually, as we slip from present to past, we piece together the story that explains his barrage of unwanted calls, chance encounters with shady characters and outbreaks of violence. When his mother’s home is burgled and she is attacked, he is confronted by the person he least wants to see.
QUIET LIFE
Director: Alexandros Avranas
Sergei and Alina, both teachers, have fled persecution in Russia with their two daughters to Sweden, where they have applied for asylum. They do their best to fit in: the parents work hard, the children throw themselves into their Swedish school lives and the family welcomes regular inspections, proving what excellent Swedish citizens they would be. It is a shock when their application is rejected, after which the younger daughter Katja collapses into a coma caused by Child Resignation Syndrome, a well-documented phenomenon among refugee children. The callousness of the authorities and its institutions, which seem designed to strip everyone of humanity and hope, is chilling, only just trumped by the film’s core values of justice and resilient love.