Two Arab filmmakers nominated for Oscars
Two films produced by Arab filmmakers have been nominated for this year's Oscars, which will take place on 25 April. "The Man Who Sold His Skin" and "The Present" are the two titles competing for a prize at the Academy Awards ceremony.
Tunisia's Kaouther Ben Hania will compete with The Man Who Sold His Skin in the international feature film category, while The Present, by Palestinian-British director Farah Nabulsi, is up for the award for best live-action short film.
The first film, starring Yahya Mahayni, follows the story of a Syrian refugee, Sam Ali, who leaves his country to flee war and heads for Lebanon. There he agrees to have his back tattooed by a famous artist so that he can travel around Europe and live with the love of his life. After turning his body into a prestigious work of art, Sam slowly realises that his decision means the opposite of what he originally wanted, freedom.
The story is inspired by real-life events, as Ben Hania told The National last year. In 2001, Wim Delvoye, a Belgian artist, produced the artwork Tim, a tattoo on the back of Tim Steiner, a former tattoo parlour owner in Zurich. "The original artwork was just a starting point," he told The National. "A lot of films start with an image, then you have to have a story with an emotional journey."
This film, in addition to the issue of the expensive visas foreigners have to apply for to enter the Schengen zone, examines the portrayal of the artist who is conceived as a Mephistopheles-like character. Ben Hania draws a comparison between art and religion "people go to museums looking for meaning, trying to understand things and think that artists can make sense of them" he notes in the interview with The National.
"The Man Who Sold His Skin" premiered at the Venice International Film Festival and is up against "Another Round" from Denmark, "Better Days" from Hong Kong, "Collective" from Romania and "Quo Vadis, Aida?" from Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The Present" tells the story of Yousef, played by Palestinian actor Saleh Makri. He sets out to buy a gift for his wife on their anniversary, something that becomes impossible due to the challenges of life under occupation. The film is about human dignity and what it means for someone to be continually dehumanised, it is a simple story that speaks volumes about the absurd situation in Palestine.
The film, co-written with Palestinian filmmaker and poet Hind Shoufani, was shot over six days in Palestine and even filmed at Checkpoint 300 in Bethlehem. In an interview with The National, Nabulsi says that was the hardest part: "Making a film is exhausting and it's not easy, especially when it's live action," he says, talking about deadlines and shot lists, "then you have that extra cloud of doing it in occupied Palestine.
It premiered at the Festival du Court Metrage in Clermont-Ferrand in 2020 and won the Audience Award for Best Film. It also had its North American premiere at the Cleveland International Film Festival, where it won the Jury Award for Best Live Action Short Film.
Tunisian director and screenwriter Kouther Ben Hania studied at the Tunisian School of Arts and Cinema, where she directed several short films, one of which, "La Brèche", became a notable film. His film "The men who sold his skin", premiered at the Venice Film Festival and won the award for Best Actor. His previous film "Beauty and the Dogs", premiered in the official selection of the Cannes Film Festival Un Certain Regard in 2017, won the Best Sound Creation Award and was distributed in many countries.
Challat of Tunis, his first feature film, opened the ACID section at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival and was widely distributed. His second documentary "Zaineb hates the snow" premiered at the Locarno Film Festival 2016 and won several awards. "Imams go to School" was his first documentary premiered at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) 2010. She also directed several short films, including "Wooden hand", (2013) and "Sheikh's watermelons" (2018) which had a long and successful run on the international festival circuit.
Farah Nabulsi, on the other hand, is a British-Palestinian filmmaker and first-time director. She left the corporate world in 2015 to start in the Palestinian film industry as a writer and producer of short fiction films. In these, she included themes related to Palestine, such as "Today they took my son" in collaboration with Ken Loach and screened at the United Nations. In 2019 he created and co-wrote "The Present", his first feature film. His short career starts with an Oscar nomination.