Mohamed Ben Attia

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Mohamed Ben Attia

Mohamed Ben Attia (* 1976 in Tunis ) is a Tunisian film director and screenwriter .

Life

Training and first short film work

Mohamed Ben Attia graduated from the Institut des hautes études commerciales (IHEC) in Tunis in 1998 . He then studied audiovisual communication at the University of Valenciennes in the north of France . He holds a Diplôme d'études supérieures spécialisées (DESS) in this field of study.

Attia first appeared internationally as a director of a short film in 2005 with Romantisme: deux comprimés matin et soir . The 20-minute work focuses on a man and a woman who attend a cinema show, notice each other and throw themselves into romantic fantasies. The short film was part of twenty Tunisian contributions that were presented at the pan-African film and television festival FESPACO in Ouagadougou ( Burkina Faso ) and that were rated by the French daily L'Humanité as “everyday stories, often far removed from any political idea”. Attia again protested that the Tunisian filmmakers could not be “martyrs of life”. Two years later he took second place at the FESPACO festival for his second short film Kif Lokhrim (French-language title: Comme les autres ). The 22-minute strip focuses on a frustrated young man who tries to break out of the daily routine and to conquer the heart of his dream woman with Chinese massages.

In 2011, the year of the Jasmine Revolution and the overthrow of President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali , Attia received the Coup de Coeur jury award for his third short film Mouja (La vague) at the francophone film festival in Vaulx-en-Velin . In the 12-minute drama, a grandmother tells her grandchild a romantic story about the origin of a scar on her arm, but confides the shocking truth to him in adulthood. Actress Sondess Belhassen received an Honorable Mention from the jury at the Mediterranean Short Film Festival in Tangier . In the same year, in connection with the beginning of the Arab Spring , Attia was invited to the 64th Cannes International Film Festival with other Tunisian short film directors such as Moez Ben Hassen , Malik Amara , Amen Gharbi , Nasreddine Maati and Ghanem Ghaouar to present their previous work. Also in 2011, Attia ventured into the fictional short documentary Loi 76 , a vision of the future of Tunisia in 2015 after new elections, exemplified by four people. With this production he wanted to promote the political awareness of his compatriots.

The 20-minute short film Selma was made in 2013 . In the drama, Nejma Zeghidi took on the title role of a young widow who, after the accidental death of her taxi-driving husband, decides to get into the business to give her daughter a better future. In doing so, she not only met resistance from her family, but also from the Tunisian bureaucracy and insurance industry.

Feature film debut

In 2016, Attia received an invitation to compete at the 66th Berlin International Film Festival for his feature film debut Hedi's Wedding (English-language festival title: Hedi ) , where he received the award for the best first work, while his main actor Majd Mastoura won the Silver Bear . The romantic comedy focuses on the young Tunisian Hedi (Mastoura), who is about to have a wedding arranged by his authoritarian mother. On a business trip to Mahdia , the future groom falls in love with the hotel employee Reem and realizes that from now on he will have to take his life into his own hands. “This story is an appraisal of the Tunisian youth of today. There are no guns, no demonstrations, no heroes climbing over barricades and offering their breasts to the cartridges. My goal is to lift the veil on this [generation] that gropes, moves forwards and backwards, ”says Attia about his film. “Like many others, Hedi tries to free herself from tradition and finally decides to change things from within. By telling a story about characters who try what they can with what they have, I wanted to paint a portrait of Tunisia today, a country in the midst of deep social, religious and economic changes. "

For the development of the script, Attia worked with the writing workshop Atelier Sud Ecriture in Tunis, organized in partnership by the Ministry of Culture and the Institut français , which was supported by the French filmmakers Emmanuel Bourdieu and Jacques Fieschi . Originally he had also planned to present Hedi's wedding, produced by Nomadis Images and Les Films du Fleuve by the Dardenne brothers , as part of the Co-production Lab Open Doors of the Locarno International Film Festival 2015. In protest against the cooperation between the festival and the Israel Film Fund in the First Look category , Attia and his compatriot Nejib Belkadhi (Retina) withdrew their contributions.

His film Dear Son / Weldi was selected as the Tunisian entry for best international film for the 2020 Academy Awards.

Filmography

  • 2005: Romantisme: deux comprimés matin et soir (short film)
  • 2006: Kif Lokhrim (short film)
  • 2010: Mouja (موجة, short film)
  • 2011: Loi 76 (short film)
  • 2013: Selma (سلمى, short film)
  • 2016: Hedi's wedding (نحبك هدي, Inhebbek Hedi)

Awards

Web links

  • Profile at africultures.com (French, English, Arabic)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Vincent, Juliette: Faire rire, émouvoir, surprendre . In: L'Humanité , March 23, 2005, p. 20.
  2. ^ Tunisia: Movies Receive Distinctions At Ouagadougou International Film Festival . In: Africa News , March 8, 2007 (accessed via the Nexis press database ).
  3. ↑ Sifouane, Wafia: 11ème édition du film-court francophone de Vaulx-en-Velin - Garagouz Decroche le grand prix . In: La Tribune (Algiers), January 24, 2011 (accessed via the Nexis press database ).
  4. ↑ Xinhua News Agency: Festival du court-métrage méditerranéen de Tanger: grand prix pourle film turc "Bicyclette" , October 8, 2011, 11:50 PM EST (accessed via the Nexis press database ).
  5. ↑ Xinhua News Agency: Participation tunisienne variée au Festival de Cannes , May 8, 2011, 11:50 PM EST (accessed from the Nexis press database ).
  6. ↑ Menacer, Lyes: Ouverture du Maghreb des films 2011 à l'Institut du monde arabe à Paris - Hommage aux martyrs du 17 octobre 1961 et à la Tunisie . In: La Tribune (Algiers), October 18, 2011 (accessed via the Nexis press database ).
  7. ↑ film profile Inhebbek Hedi at spla.pro (English, Dutch, Arabic, French, accessed on 31 January 2016).
  8. ↑ Locarno 2015: Open Doors project profiles . In: Screen International , August 6, 2015 (accessed via the Nexis press database ).
  9. ↑ Gharbi, Neila: Atelier sud ecriture - Six scénarios tunisiens à l'étude . In: La Presse (Tunis), October 29, 2012 (accessed via the Nexis press database ).
  10. ^ Locarno's unveiled co-production line-up . In: Screen International , May 6, 2015 (accessed via the Nexis press database ).
  11. ↑ Locarno round-up: Film Republic takes Carte Blanche title . In: Screen International , August 10, 2015 (accessed via the Nexis press database ).
  12. ^ "Weldi" de Mohamed Ben Attia présélectionné par la Tunisie dans la course à l'Oscar du meilleur film international 2020. In: HuffPost Tunisia. August 26, 2019, accessed August 27, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Ben Attia, Mohamed
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Tunisian film director and screenwriter
DATE OF BIRTH 1976
PLACE OF BIRTH Tunis