Screening of „The Wedding Song/Le chant des mariées“ (OmU) in presence of the director Karin Albou, Sunday, 2nd Dezember, 2012, 5pm

On Sunday, 2nd December 2012, at 5pm AfricAvenir, in cooperation with Zentrum Moderner Orient (ZMO), invites you to the screening of ’The Wedding Song/ Le chant des mariées’, (Original French version with German subtitle) in presence of the director Karin Albou at Hackesche Höfe Kino. In her second movie the Franco-Algerian director tells, in wonderfully poetic images a story of two young women – one is a Jew and the other a Muslim – who against the background of the Second World War and the Nazi occupation of Tunis are fighting for their first love, their identity and emotions as well as their position in society. An open discussion with the director Karin Albou and the scholar Dr. Saadi Nikro will take place after the movie, followed by a small reception in the Cinema’s Foyer.

As a special offer we will screen Karin Albou’s latest short film “Yasmine and the Revolution” (French with English Subtitles). Yasmine, an eighteen-year-old young woman, visits her boyfriend she hasn’t seen for two weeks but it doesn’t turn out as usual. Since the revolution started in Tunesia, she has understood the importance of political engagement. Returning home, she finds her brother negotiating on the phone with their father who stayed in Tunisia: he doesn’t want his children to participate in the demonstration that is going to take place on Republic Square. He opposes his authoritarianism to his son’s arguments…

The event is taking place thanks to the financial support by the Evangelischer Entwicklungsdienst (EED) and Zentrum Moderner Orient.

Synopsis
Tunis, 1942. Nour and Myriam, 16, have been friends since childhood. They share the same house in a modest neighbourhood where Jews and Muslims live in harmony. Each one secretly desires the other girl’s life: while Nour regrets that she doesn’t go to school like her friend, Myriam dreams of love. She is envious of Nour’s engagement to her cousin Khaled, a sort of fantasy of the charming Arabian prince that they both share. Unfortunately, Khaled cannot find work. The engagement lingers and the prospect of a carnal union grows more distant. In November 1942, the German army enters Tunis. Pursuing the policies of the Vichy regime, the Nazis impose a heavy fine on the Jewish community. Tita, Myriam’s mother, no longer has the right to work. Crippled with debts, she decides to marry her daughter to a rich doctor. Myriam sees her dreams of love suddenly fade away… In a very sensitive manner the movie narrates a love story in times of the Second World War and the Nazi occupation. 

Director: Karin Albou
The daughter of a French mother and Algerian father, Albou grew up in France singing and dancing before studying theater and literature. Eventually she enrolled in film school to study screenwriting. After school she made her first short film, Chutl, which won the Best First Movie Cinecinema Award. Her second short, Aid el-Kebir, was a love story set in Algeria. In addition to international acclaim and critic praise, Albou’s first feature, Little Jerusalem, won the Best Screenplay prize at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival (Critic’s Week section) and received two nominations: Best First Work and Most Promising Actress to the film’s lead, Fanny Valette, at the 2006 César Awards (France’s Oscars). ’The Wedding Song’ is her second feature film, which confirms her status as an aspiring star in the art movie category. At the 10th International Images Film Festival in Harare, “The Wedding Song” was nominated in 6 categories and won the price for the best movie, for the best illustration and the best stage direction. Moreover “The Wedding Song” was represented in the 2008 Palm Springs International Film Festivals official collection. 

Karin Albou will be present at the movie screening. 

Discussant: Dr. Saadi Nikro
Saadi Nikro has a Lebanese Australian background, and is currently Research Fellow at Zentrum Moderner Orient in Berlin. He previously held the position of Assistant Professor at Notre Dame University in Lebanon. Addressing in the main literature, film and art, his work has been published in the journals Southerly, Plurale: Zeitschrift für Denkversionen, and Postcolonial Text. His book, The Fragmenting Force of Memory: Self, Literary Style, and Civil War in Lebanon, has just been published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

Press: 
"The most decisive charm in this movie is grounded in the Tête-à-tête of the two girlfriends whose bodies communicate with each other, attaching to and again detaching from one another. In these intimate scenes the director succeeds to convey the influences of the religious traditions and the suppressive power of the rituals, which have a great impact on these young and rebellious girls and finally transform them into women ’formatted‘ by a society, which absorbs them." Michel Amarger (Afrimages / RFI / Medias France)

"Nominated for the César Award the director and actress Karin Albou brings light into one part of Second World War history which was not taken into account until today." AfricAvenir Namibia

"The one area where Albou succeeds magnificently is in her understanding of a woman’s body as a contested battleground and its parallel in the contested battleground of wartime Tunisia. Wedding Song abounds in female nudity, but it is often put to very different uses, seen both as an instrument of casual female intimacy and as an object of male domination." Andrew Schenker (Slant magazine)n"Second feature by Karin Albou ("Little Jerusalem") is a bold, very carnal take on adolescent female bonding in a setting not often portrayed onscreen, and including areas normally forbidden to male viewers. (…) Together with "Little Jerusalem," pic confirms Albou as a new and original voice. Her preoccupations include feminine sexuality and Jewish and Arab culture and religion — plus the major and minor clashes all these elements provoke when thrown together." Boyd Van Hoeij, VarietynFilmography:n

• 2011: Yasmine et la Révolution
• 2009: The lost body (Corps de dame)
• 2008: The Wedding Song (Le chant de mariées) 
• 2005: My little Jerusalem (La Petite Jérusalem)
• 2001: Combats de Femme
• 1999: Aïd El Kebir

nLe chant de mariées/ The Wedding song (OmU)
France/ Tunesia, 2008, 100 Min
Director Karin Albou
with Lizzie Brocheré (Myriam), Olympe Borval (Nour), Najib Oudghiri (Khaled), Simon Abkarian (Raoul), Karin Albou (Tita)

Sunday, 02. Dezember 2012, 5pm Uhr
Entrance fee: EUR 7,50€
Dicsount via Berlinpass, Gildepass, Heavy User Card, Filmreihe-Pass (Further information: www.hoefekino.de/preise-und-rabatte)

Tickets and Information 
030/ 283 4603

Hackesche Höfe Kino
Rosenthalerstr. 40/41
10187 Berlin
S Hackescher Markt
U Weinmeisterstraße

Support our projects with a donation to
AfricAvenir International e.V.
Badische Beamtenbank
BLZ 66 09 08 00
Kto 00 16 72 13 03