You missed at the cinema the very rock and roll Casablanca Burning (2021) or Gaza my love (2020), one of actress Hiam Abbass’ last films; where you want to finally see The Trial of Viviane Amsalem co-directed by Israeli actress and filmmaker Ronit Elkabetz, who passed away in 2016, or again Oran of the Franco-Algerian Lyes Salem… Yema, “the first French-speaking VOD platform dedicated to films from North Africa and the Middle East”has been offering paid à la carte sessions since June 9, 2022.
“It’s a niche platform that is aimed at an audience that does not find itself in the current offer or who cannot find these films from the Maghreb-East”, explains journalist Léa Taieb, co-founder of Yema with Juliette Gamonal, who works in the audiovisual industry, to franceinfo Afrique. The idea for this site was born “about a year ago”. “Together, we have seen this lack (and) we wanted to work to fill it.”
“Today, continues Léa Taieb, there is no VOD platform that centralizes all the films that have been released in theaters or that have not had this chance. On generalist VOD platforms and even in cinemas, these films are not always well highlighted (…) They are not easily found either. Yema was born from “our common passion for these cinemas”, summarizes Léa Taieb. The catalog now offers fiction, documentaries, recent films and heritage films. In short, Yema’s promise is “to make discover works that one would not have been able to discover otherwise”.
We thus find pell-mell High and loud by Nabil Ayouch, A story of love and desire by Leyla Bouzid A hero by Asgar Farhadi or even documentaries like For Sama by Waad al-Kateab and Edward Watts, story of a mother in the hell of the war in Syria or M by Yolande Zauberman, an incursion into the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community in Israel, in the footsteps of Menahem, a victim of pedophilia. Overall, Yema highlights “a beautiful eclectic program” and “of the films that have marked the cinema news“, emphasizes Léa Taieb.
Exit “the algorithm to guide users”: “hyper-editorialization” is the other “specificity” claimed by the video on demand site. A way of “make you want to go further and discover the catalog through a theme that is presented each month“. For instance, “the launch theme is Algeria, Algerian cinemas. We wanted to present Algerian filmmakers differently, thanks to four perspectives. We asked director Sofia Djama (The Blessed)to two Franco-Algerian filmmakers – Zak Kedzi (who made the documentary Algerian chronicles presented exclusively on Yema) and Azedine Kasri (who signs the short film Timura) – and to the historian Benjamin Stora to speak on this theme.”
The status of women will be the next theme. Yema users will then be guided by “the look” by the Franco-Moroccan writer Leïla Slimani, “which will bring films like Much Loved (from Moroccan Nabil Ayouch), papicha (from the Franco-Algerian Mounia Meddour) or even Mustang (by Franco-Turkish director Deniz Gamze Ergüven). The idea being, as soon as we discover a film of the theme, to want to explore the rest of the programming”. Available à la carte, Yema’s offer respects the chronology and thus includes “pretty cool movies” who went out “three months earlier in theaters”, underlines Léa Taieb.
The platform, which is currently independent, benefits from the support of the Public Investment Bank. The launch of Yema was supported by a crowdfunding campaign “which was a way of measuring the commitment and adherence of potential users”, indicates Léa Taieb. In order to develop further, she “expects to be accompanied by people who are specialists in this industry who could support us financially and in terms of know-how”. The platform should offer, “within a year”subscription formulas, the opportunity to expand your catalog with series.