The Alexandria film festival is into its second day. On Thursday, 16 September, the Green Plaza screens, which are showing films to critics, press persons and jury members, hosted three movies: Syrian production “Bawabet al-Ganna” (The Gates of Heaven), Turkish film “A Step into the Darkness”, and the French film “Welcome”.
The Syrian movie “Bawabet al-Ganna” (The Gates of Heaven), based on a book by Palestinian author Hasan Sami Yousef, chronicles the life of Nada, a Palestinian student in London who goes back to her family house in Palestine for a visit, where a series of events pushes her to join the resistance against the Israeli Army. The movie, set in 1987, was not well received by those attending the press conference.
“When I saw the final product, I myself was surprised,” says Nadine, the lead actress, who claims that director Maher Keddo never provided her with a script for the film, but relied on the text of the novel, by-passing the use of a scriptwriter.
Raouf Tawfeek, an Egyptian critic, saw the movie as, “An experiment with good intentions, but you can’t judge a movie on the motivation behind it.”
The Syrian film was filled with illogical twists and turns and a basic lack of research on the simplest of facts. (Anyone who has ever watched “House M.D.”, “E.R.” or even “Scrubs” knows that a doctor doesn’t stand weeping next to a bleeding patient while he waits for a delivery from the hospital.)
The Turkish movie “A Step into The Darkness”, however, elevated the mood. The film tells the story of a Kurdish woman, Gennat, who lives in a small village in Iraq before the death of her family in an American raid. After these events Gennat begins the journey from Iraq to Istanbul on foot looking for her brother who has been transferred to hospital there. With nothing to keep her safe but the name of her brother, Gennat proves an easy target for human-traffickers, rapists and terrorists.
The movie has won multiple international awards, including Best Actress at the San Francisco Film Festival this year for Suzan Genc, who managed to mesmerize audiences with her amazing acting ability and lovely facial expressions.
Commendations for direction and for its soundtrack have also been received.
The final screening of the day had yet another story to tell about migrants from Iraq to Europe.
The French film “Welcome” tells the story of an Iraqi boy, Bilal, who walks all the way from Iraq to France after the death of his family to find his beloved girlfriend. The girlfriend, Mina, lives with her family in London and the only thing standing between the two is the cold and forbidding English Channel.
Bilal tries to get into the UK in several different ways but fails each time. Eventually, he hires the services of a French swimming trainer, hoping that he will be able to swim the channel, reaching Mina before she’s married off to a cousin.
The heartbreaking story is extremely well-crafted and was very well received by the audience. Bringing tears to the eyes of some, the films provoked great empathy between the audience and the two main characters of Bilal, and the heartbroken French trainer.
