Egypt, land of confirmed cinema, and Lesotho, which is awakening to the seventh art, figure prominently in the list of winners for the 2021 edition.
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Feathers, the first feature film by Egyptian filmmaker Omar El Zohairy, won the Golden Tanit of the 32nd edition of the Carthage Cinematographic Days (JCC) which ended on November 6, 2021. Discovered at the Critics’ Week in Cannes last July, when he won the jury which awarded him the Nespresso Grand Prix, he also won the Tanit d’or for first work (Tahar Cheriaa prize). Feathers is the relentless chronicle of emancipation, that of a woman whose vain and authoritarian husband is transformed into a hen after an unfortunate magic trick at their child’s birthday party.
The screenplay and best female performance awards, awarded to Egyptian actress Demyana Nassar, also went to Feathers. Omar El Zohairy’s feature film, which attests to the good health of Egyptian cinema, is distinguished among other things by a framing that formalizes the confinement of an Egyptian family and a mother whose daily life rhymes with survival.
Rain of awards also for another film whose aesthetic is just as remarkable, the first feature film from Lesotho, a small country in southern Africa. The Indomitable Fire of Spring (This Is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection) by Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese walked away with three prizes including the Silver Tanit. The editing and the image (the photograph) of this film recounting the fight of a matriarch who defends the lands of her community, masterfully embodied by the late South African actress Mary Twala, were noticed. Still in the fictions category, the bronze Tanit went to the Tunisian feature film Insurrection by Jilani Saadi.
After the Yennenga Gold Standard in Burkina Faso, a new distinction, in Tunisia this time, for The Gravedigger’s Wife (The Gravedigger’s Wife, Somalia) by Khadar Ayderus Ahmed: actor Omar Abdi won the award for best male performance. Musical comedy High and loud by Nabil Ayouch, in competition at Cannes and expected in French cinemas on November 17, 2021, took home the prize for best music.
On the documentary side, the Golden Tanit returned to Yarmouk, diary of a besieged by the Palestinian filmmaker Abdallah Al Khatib (Palestine). Palestine is making a good harvest for the JCC this year. It’s still in the documentary As I want of the Palestinian Samaher Alqadi that the Bronze Tanit was awarded, as well as the new price Lina Ben Mhenni of Human Rights.
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