Quartiers Lointains : Season 4
JUSTICE
Justice! What is justice? State justice, which can sometimes condemn its citizens without impartiality? Genetic justice, which can set aside people seen as too different? Social justice, which marginalises the poorest among them? Workplace justice, which isolates employees from their bosses? Or ideological justice, which leads different communities to live apart from one another? With 80 by Muhannad Lamin (Libya), A Place For Myself by Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo (Rwanda), Madama Esther by Luck Razanajaona (Madagascar), The Aftermath of the Inauguration of the Public Toilet at Kilometer 375 by Omar El Zohairy (Egypt) and Kanye Kanye by Miklas Manneke (South Africa), the fourth season of Quartiers Lointains questions the idea of justice across the great diversity of the African continent.
Our patron: Jihan el-Tahri
Travelling short-film programme from North to South of the hemisphere, with patron Jihan EL TAHRI. Jihan el-Tahri is an Egyptian documentarian known for The Pharaohs of Modern Egypt, Cuba, an African Odyssey, L’Afrique en morceaux, Behind the Rainbow and House of Saud.
The films
The Aftermath of the Inauguration of the Public Toilet at Kilometer 375 by Omar El Zohairy
Fiction - 2014 - Egypt - 18 min
Synopsis
An ill-timed sneeze, during the official laying of the first stone of new public toilets, turns into a nightmare for an ordinary civil servant. Adaptation of the short story “The Death of a Government Clerk” by Anton Chekhov.
Biography
Egyptian director and screenwriter Omar El Zohairy studied at the High Cinema Institute in Cairo, while collaborating with directors such as Yousri Nasrallah and Ahmad Abdallah. The Aftermath of the Inauguration of the Public Toilet at Kilometer 375 is his graduation film. [RETROSPECTIVE NOTE: Omar El Zohairy released his first feature, Plumes, in 2021. It won the Grand Prize of Critics’ Week at the Cannes Film Festival as well as the Tanit d’Or for Best Film and Best Screenplay at the Journées Cinématographiques de Carthage.]
Film career
Palm Springs International ShortFest 2014 (USA) – Best student film over 15 min; Short Film Festival 2014 (Kosovo); Mill Valley International Film Festival; Cinéfondation, Cannes Film Festival 2014 (France) (USA); Medfilm Festival 2014 (Italy)
Madama Esther by Luck Razanajaona
Fiction - 2013 - Madagascar - 15 min
Synopsis
Madame Esther, a cleaner in her fifties, has just been laid off. Her promise to take her grandson to see the sea no longer holding, she agrees to host clandestine cockfights in her courtyard.
Biography
A young director of 26, a graduate of L'Ecole Supérieure des Arts Visuels in Marrakech, Luck Ambinintsoa Razanajaona has directed several shorts and documentaries. In 2012 he took part in the Talent Campus organised as part of the Berlin Film Festival. [RETROSPECTIVE NOTE: In 2023, Luck Razanajoana is in post-production on his first feature, Disco Afrika.]
Film career
FESPACO 2015 (Burkina Faso) – Tanit d'argent au Poulain d'Argent; Zanzibar International Film Festival 2015 (Zanzibar); Clermont-Ferrand 2013 (France) – GOLD; Luxor African Film Festival 2014 (Egypt); AfryKamera Film Festival 2014 (Warsaw), FIFAI film festival 2014 (Réunion); Festival Iles Courts 2014 (Mauritius); Fribourg International Film Festival 2014 (Switzerland); FILMINITIATIV 2014 (Germany)
80 by Muhannad Lamin
Documentary - 2012 - Libya - 6 min
Synopsis
80 follows a man through the two most important days of his life: the day he is imprisoned and the day he escapes.
Biography
Muhannad Lamin is a Libyan filmmaker, a graduate of the Tripoli art institute with a degree in directing and screenwriting. He has taken part in several awareness-campaign projects. In addition to working on several documentaries, Lamin has directed several short films that have screened at various international festivals. Recently, he co-founded Khayal, a Libyan production company working in media production as well as the development of Libyan cinema. [RETROSPECTIVE NOTE: In 2019, Muhannad Lamin directed the fiction short Prisoner and Jailer. His first feature documentary, Donga, is currently in post-production.]
Film career
TROPFEST Arabia 2012 (United Arab Emirates); Locarno Film Festival 2016 (Switzerland)
A Place For Myself by Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo
Fiction - 2016 - Rwanda - 20 min
Synopsis
At a casual elementary school comes a five year old albino girl, Elikia. Due to her skin color her classmates make her realize that her being ‘different’ is more a problem than a special trait. While the neighborhood treats her as a stereotype, her mother encourages her. Together, they fight back and raise their voice to find a place for themselves.
Biography
Born in Kigali (Rwanda), Marie-Clémentine DUSABEJAMBO has been a self-taught filmmaker since 2008 and trained as an electronics and telecommunications engineer. Her films have screened at numerous film and television festivals around the world.
Film career
Sembene Ousmane Award for Best African Short Film, Golden Show Award for the Best short film, Signis Award 2016 for East African Talent, Zanzibar International Film Festival 2016 (Tanzania) - Journées du Court-Métrage Tunisien de Gabès 2016 (Tunisia) - Tanit de Bronze – Journées Cinématographiques de Carthage 2016 (Tunisia) – FESPACO 2017 (Burkina Faso) – Toronto Black Film Festival 2017 – Luxor African Film Festival 2017 (Egypt) – 27th edition of the Festival of African, Asian and Latin American Cinema, Milano Festival.
Kanye Kanye by Miklas Manneke
Fiction - 2013 - South Africa - 26 min
Synopsis
A city is split into two opposing camps: the greens and the reds. But a young man, Thomas, falls in love with Thandi, who belongs to the other side.
Biography
Born in Vanderbjilpark, near Johannesburg, Miklas Manneke studied at AFDA, South Africa’s largest film school, where he made several fiction shorts as director as well as working as a sound engineer. Inspired by French directors Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Michel Gondry and the Delluc impressionist movement, Kanye Kanye is his graduation film.
Film career
Jozi Film Festival, Johannesburg 2014 (South Africa) – Best Student Film; International Film Festival 2014 (USA), Cinésud 2014 (France) – Best Film; NYC Picture Start Film Festival 2014 – Best Film; Cergy-Pontoise International Short Film Festival 2014 (France) – Prix du public; Chicago International Film Festival 2014 (USA) – Prix du public; South African Film and Television Awards 2014 (South Africa) – Best Student Film; Lifetree Film Festival 2014 (Colorado, USA) – Best Film; Portsmouth International Film Festival 2014 (England) – Best Short Film; Uppsala International Film Festival (Sweden) – Best Film; ISFVF Beijing Film Academy (China) – Prix du public; Pisek International Student Film – Grand prix; Riverrun – Best Student Narrative Film
Audience feedback
Screening at Echirolles 12/10/17
Quartiers Lointains Season 4 @ Meylan 12/10/17
Quartiers*Lointains Season 4 @ Festival VO-VF Gif/Yvette
Quartiers*Lointains Season 4 @ MK2 Beaubourg
COMOEDIA LYON SEASON 4 < JUSTICE > QUARTIERS LOINTAINS
Screening, New York 06/05/17
QUARTIERS LOINTAINS AT FESPACO - OUAGADOUGOU