NIGHT OF THE ZOOPOCALYPSE
SHOWTIME
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In-Conversation with Mona Zaki
Director: Mona Zaki
Red Sea Film Festival is proud to have Mona Zaki as an Honoree guest. Mona is a successful Egyptian Actress who started her career at the age of 16 with a role in “Bel Araby Elfaseh” under the well-known Actor and Director Mohamed Sobhy. She has portrayed many diversified roles throughout her career, showcasing her exceptional talent while working alongside the region’s top actors and directors in over 60 movies and series. Through her acting career, Mona Zaki has become a quintessential star of her generation, portrayed as a role model for successful women in cinematography. Throughout her career, Mona has won multiple prestigious awards. Known for extremely complex compositional roles, Mona Zaki's conversation will revolve around her experience with the characters she has played, her profound way of acting, her experience with directors, and her personal contribution to each role.
TO A LAND UNKNOWN
Director: Mahdi Fleifel
Palestinian cousins Chatila and Reda have fled a Lebanese refugee camp for Athens. Their sights are set on Germany but, with no money or passports, they are stuck in an underground limbo living off scams and petty crime. For Chatila, who has discovered a ruthless streak, anything is justified – even ripping off their fellow refugees – but Reda hates what he has become, a shame he smothers with drugs, squandering the little money they have. Things look up, however, when they meet Malek: a young boy who says his aunt will send him money to bring him to Italy. Working in a style between documentary and fiction, director Mehdi Fleifel brings home the reality of desperation with poignancy and warmth.
LITTLE JAFFNA
Director: Lawrence Valin
“You’re not in Paris any more. You’re in Little Jaffna.” During the civil war in Sri Lanka that raged from 1983 until 2009, Tamils in the Parisian district of Little Jaffna were forced to contribute towards buying arms for Tamil Tigers. Aya, ostensibly a grocer, leads the ruthless extortion gang that bleeds the community dry. Michael, a straight-shooting young police officer with Tamil roots, is sent to infiltrate the organization but as he befriends the gang’s members at terrible risk to himself, he starts to see the issue in a more nuanced way and feels his loyalties shifting. Valin combines the theatricality of Tamil movies with the hard edge of new French cinema, using largely non-professional actors, in this spectacular thriller.