• info@closeupinitiative.org
Close-Up-LogoClose-Up-LogoClose-Up-LogoClose-Up-Logo
  • Who we are
    • Founders
    • Note from Founder
    • Mentors, Special Experts & Team
    • Funding Partners
    • Advisory Members
    • Support Us
  • What we do
  • Projects
    • Projects 2022-2023
    • Projects 2021-2022
    • Projects 2020-2021
    • Projects 2019-2020
  • Workshops
    • Workshops 2022-2023
    • Workshops 2021-2022
    • Workshops 2020-2021
    • Workshops 2019-2020
    • Storytelling Edit Lab Berlin December 2021
  • Industry
    • Pitching Forum
    • Selection Committee
  • Collaborations
  • News
  • Contact
  • Apply
    • Requirements
    • Application Form
  • Gallery
✕
Projects 2020/2021
November 27, 2020
Published by Close Up on July 24, 2020
Categories
Tags

Projects 2019/2020

Project 2019-2020

CLOSE UP

After a very competitive selection process, powerful documentary projects were selected for the 2019-2020 Close Up Program! The projects were selected among 123 applications submitted to Close Up from all across Southwest Asia and North Africa, including: Afghanistan, Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Israel, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey & United Arab Emirates. We would like to thank all the filmmakers that apply, they all faced tremendous competition!

40 YEARS OF SILENCE

Zainab Al-Hariri and Maythem Ridha, IRAQ


After years in exile, Zainab Al-Hariri returns to her homeland of Iraq, to uncover the circumstances surrounding her father’s involvement in a plot to assassinate Saddam Hussein, and his subsequent arrest and execution decades earlier. As Zainab confronts the past and unravels the history of a despotic regime, what will she discover about the man she loved and lost?

A GRANNY & A TERRORIST?

Hale Guzin Kizilaslan and Engin Volkan, TURKEY


After serving 30 years in prison for being a “terrorist”, 67 years old Turkish Marxist socialist woman, Güneş embarks on a challenging journey to complete her mission; making a revolution, from where she left off. Güneş holds on to her mission, but the challenges of the new world will push her to question her endurance and her relevancy.

KAMAY

Shahrokh Bikaran & Ilyas Yourish, AFGHANISTAN


After a young girl from the mountains of central Afghanistan mysteriously commits suicide inside Kabul University, her family’s calm rural life enters into a painful event and exhausting process. Parents are now looking for justice in one of the most corrupt judicial systems in the world; while Freshta -their younger daughter- attempts to gain admission to the same university, to complete what her sister had started.

MOM YOU TRESPASSED

Ilham Bakir and Dilek Aydin, TURKEY


An eighty-year-old woman is sentenced to three years of house arrest by Turkish courts for sending clothes to her son, a Kurdish guerrilla, whom she has not seen for twenty-five years.

OUT OF PLACE

Mohammed Al-Majdalawi, PALESTINE


A coming of age story of young Palestinians from Jabalia refugee camp, who have now successfully settled in Europe. Built on unique visual material filmed throughout 20 years, the film explores the personal transition and change of its protagonists from youth to adulthood. As a deep and intimate dialogue of this generation, spiced with humor and brutal honesty, the film reflects upon universal questions of personal growth and change.

ROTTEN STRAWBERRY

Yzza Slaoui, MOROCCO


As part of a circular immigration program, Saloua, a Moroccan widow with five children, goes four months a year to harvest strawberries in Andalusia to provide for her family. Rotten Strawberry provides an intimate view into the female experience of seasonal work…

SEARCHING FOR MARIAM

Jehan Selim Harney, EGYPT


In Egypt, Cinderella is trying to adjust to the new biological expression of her gender as a woman, while searching for her missing trans friend, Mariam. In order to survive, Mariam, who identifies as a woman, continues to live as a man. She ends up growing a beard and becomes an imam. Cinderella‘s quest to find her offers a unique perspective on Mariam’s complex character. The narrative reveals the underrepresented trans struggle in the only Arab country that legalized medical transition.

SIX WEDDINGS AND A BABY

Samira El Mouzghibati, MOROCCO


Six weddings and a baby ​tells the story of how the birth of my little girl confuses my feminine identity, forcing me, as a new mother, to go back to my childhood memories. On both sides of the Mediterranean, from the Moroccan Rif to Brussels, I go on a journey through the history of the women of my family.

THE ACROBAT

Sarah Sellami, MOROCCO


From the myth of the patron saint of the acrobats, Sidi Ahmed ou Moussa, to the myth of my family, and my grandfather. Mbark born in Morocco in 1900, who at 12-years-old joined the circus and moved to Germany, later he married the German Acrobat, Anna, together, they returned to Morocco and Mbark married Mm’i, a young Moroccan woman who was my grandmother. The Acrobat will go beyond the legend and forgotten to discover and reveal my family’s hidden and sometimes mysterious past.

THE CAMERA NEVER CRIES

Elsadig Mohamed & Abuzar Osman, SUDAN


When Elsadig and Abuzar met while filming the Sudanese revolution in 2019, neither knew they would eventually turn the camera on each other. An intimate journey of a growing friendship between two directors, whom seeking redemption and beauty through the art of filmmaking when all the odds are against them.

THE IMMORTAL, IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF SALIM HALALI

Sara Nacer, ALGERIA


This film is a personal quest, triggered by the oriental jewish artist Salim Halali’s music, that makes me question my identity and belonging. The film takes us in an extraordinary journey into his life and his music and brings me to the source of my origins, exploring the most intimate impact of art.

THE THERAPY

Zvi Landsman, ISRAEL


An exclusive look inside “Conversion Therapy”. Lev and Ben attend conversion therapy in order to battle their same sex attractions and marry a woman. While Lev struggles to make it work, Ben has doubts that are about to change his life.

ANONYMOUS PROJECT

AFGHANISTAN


Share
0
Close Up
Close Up

Close Up

Close Up is a training, development, and mentorship program for documentary filmmakers from Southwest Asia and North Africa, founded by individual partners who have been working together for over a decade. Together we have supported more than 200 filmmakers from the region.

Projects 2019/2020

  • Who we are
  • What we do
  • Apply

Contacts

 

CLOSE UP Office in Belgium

Rue des Colonies 11, 1000, Brussels, Belgium
M. info@closeupinitiative.org

© 2023 Close Up. All Rights Reserved. Powered by meltin'Concept
Privacy Policy