Description:

Basketball is much more than a game in David Fine’s stirring documentary about an Iraqi women’s basketball team at the American University of Iraq—Sulaimani (AUIS) in Kurdistan. For the young women on the team, most of whom have never touched a basketball or been allowed to play sports at all before, it is a blissful escape from the realities of living in a war-torn nation.

The team members come from a variety of ethnicities and sects—Arab, Kurd, Christian, Sunni, Shiite—but the joy they discover in playing together and the deep love they come to feel for one another and for Ryan, their young American coach, reveals an Iraq united in a way we’ve rarely seen before.

Reviews:

“A stirring example of the possibilities for young Iraqis outside the country’s war zones.”
- Variety

“Of the majority of images and video to be coming from Iraq…SALAAM DUNK stands aside from the pack.”
- IndieWire

“Sometimes, it’s the simple things that we take for granted that can become the subjects of powerful films when told through the eyes of people a half a world away.”
- Film Slate Magazine

“The film captures their love for one another and for the game. It’s a purity that leads them to shoot free throws in the rain, or run layup drills at a hoop in the middle of nowhere. They don’t play for fame, scholarships, or money; they play because they can.”
- ESPN

Trailer:

At Festivals

2011 – LA Film Festival – World Premiere

2011 – Winner! Golden Plaque, Chicago Film Festival

2011 – DOHA Tribeca Film Festival – International Premiere

2011 – (IDFA) International Documentary Festival Amsterdam – European Premiere

2012 – Reframe International Film Festival – Canadian Premiere

“Magnificent!…must not be missed. I could heap praises on it forever.”
— The Stranger

“Fascinating…Deneuve’s disorientation comes to stand for that
distance we all feel in the West when forced to think about the reality behind the headlines and news reports.”
— FILM4

“An unusual, personal film…defies description.”
— Seattle Times

While in Beirut to attend a glamorous banquet, legendary French actress Catherine Deneuve (Potiche, Belle de Jour) insists on being taken to the southern regions of Lebanon in order to see first-hand the devastation caused by Israel’s month-long bombing campaign there in the summer of 2006.

Cleverly blurring the lines between documentary and fiction, directors Khalil Joreige and Joana Hadjithomas (A Perfect Day) create a mesmerizing, thought-provoking travelogue in which they appear as filmmakers capturing Deneuve’s road-trip on camera.

After visiting the crumbling ruins of ancient villages and watching as the shattered remnants of cities and towns are slowly pushed into the sea, Deneuve’s perception of Lebanon is transformed somewhat when she appears later that evening before the myriad photographers ardently capturing her image at the elegant evening gala.

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Description:

An accomplished new documentary feature from Jawad Metni, Remnants of a War is a portrait of the people of South Lebanon who endeavor to rebuild and reclaim their land for their fellow countrymen following the devastating 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel.

During the 33 days of fighting, Israel dropped more than one million cluster bomb munitions onto the fields, orchards and towns of South Lebanon—with the majority of the bombs being deployed in the final 3 days of the war. An estimated 35% of these cluster bombs failed to detonate upon impact, leaving the mine-like devices scattered over the countryside until unwitting civilians stumble upon them and are maimed or killed by the resulting explosion. In 2007, teams of locally recruited and trained de-miners race to locate and deactivate the bombs before even more civilians are injured or killed.

Remnants of a War takes an intimate look into the lives of these brave workers—Muslims and Christians; Sunnis and Shia; women and men—who work shoulder to shoulder in the sweltering heat to make their lands available for ranching, farming and for children to safely play upon once again.

Reviews:

“Metni offers an humanitarian advocacy, economically and judiciously, about a silent war which is still killing and maiming civilians in South Lebanon…a masterpiece of documentary filmmaking.” – L’Orient Le Jour

“Reveals the uncertain future of a Lebanon where the generation that should be running the country is struggling to survive.”  - filmjournal.com

“The film speaks volumes about the fate of civilians caught in the crossfire.” - filmcritic.com

Trailer:

On TV

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In Theaters

At Festivals

WINNER! – Best Documentary, 2010 British Independent Film Festival
WINNER! – Golden Palm, 2010 Mexico International Film Festival

War, Love, God, & Madness and Budrus will be screening at the 2011 Movies that Matter Festival at The Hague!

War, Love, God, & Madness makes its Dutch premiere!

While visiting Iraq in 2007 for the premiere of his first feature film, Ahlaam, director Mohamed Al-Daradji summons the courage to look back over the turbulent past three years of his life and the making of his film in a volatile war zone.

Undaunted by ever present dangers and heartbreaking chaos, Mohamed returned to his home in Baghdad in 2004. The Iraq he had once known had vanished, replaced by the gritty aftermath of 35 years of dictatorship, three wars, and the wake of occupation. Finding the once vibrant streets consumed by unemployment, poverty, and madness, he strives to fulfill his dream of making a film in the country he loves.

Determined not to succumb to physical and emotional strife, Mohamed’s camera rolls on as the world begins to unravel around him. A spectrum of society previously sidelined by images of war is introduced to the audience: a young child sings for Saddam; a father grieves for his hanged son; a young actor thinks back on his time in prison; a troubled friend becomes lost in madness.

War, Love, God, & Madness shows the huge risks filmmakers in ‘liberated’ Iraq face. There is hardly any equipment, safety cannot be guaranteed on the set and crew members, including the director himself, are arrested and tortured.

Al-Daradji’s movie Son of Babylon will also be screened at the festival. This road movie is part of the Iraq’s Missing Campaign, an initiative from The Iraq’s Missing Persons Organisation, that was founded by the filmmakers to support the families of missing persons in Iraq: www.iraqsmissing.org

Budrus at The Hague

When the residents of Budrus learn that the Israeli army plans to build the Separation Barrier through their town, cutting them off from neighboring Palestinian villages and uprooting their precious olive groves, they decide to organize. Under the leadership of Ayed Morrar, Palestinian men of all political factions come together to wage an unarmed struggle to preserve their lands. Victory seems unlikely until Ayed’s 15-year-old daughter steps in to organize a female contingent that brings the women of Budrus to the front lines in a tense stand-off with the military.

As word of the nonviolent protest spreads, Israeli citizens, international activists and Palestinians from other villages join the people of Budrus to demand that the Barrier be moved. Struggling side by side, father and daughter unleash an inspiring, yet little-known movement that is still gaining ground today.

Ayed Morrar is one of the ten human rights defenders featuring in the A Matter of ACT main programme and will attend the festival.

About the Festival

The Movies that Matter Festival is the Netherlands’ main platform for engaged cinema, with dozens of documentaries and movies of inspired film makers being screened every year. Films that stir the debate about human rights, human dignity and situations where these are at stake. The Movies that Matter Festival will present over seventy human rights films and documentaries from all over the world. Many films will be screened for the first and only time in the Netherlands. All films are English spoken or subtitled.

Reservations and ticket sales starts on March 10th.