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Projects 2021/2022
October 19, 2021
Published by Alia on October 19, 2022
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Projects 2022/2023

Projects 2022-2023

CLOSE UP

We are excited to share the 17 powerful documentary projects that are selected to participate at the Close Up 2022-2023 Edition. This year’s cohort of directors  hail from Afghanistan, Algeria, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran, Israel, Jordan/Palestine, Lebanon, Morocco, Tunisia and Turkey.

BETWEEN WORLDS

Abdul Ghafar Faizyar, AFGHANISTAN


Afghan actor, Afshin, feels alive on stage. Being sentenced to death for his art in Afghanistan, he flees to Europe in search of life and freedom. For fifteen years now he is caught in a limbo in the Swiss Alps, without a homeland, without a family, without an audience and permission to work. With no permission to leave Switzerland, he decides to cross the borders anyway for a crucial film casting in Germany.

BITTER SUGAR

Ana Barjadze, GEORGIA


Nika, Gika and Levan are three brothers from a small town in Georgia, navigating life by only relying on each other, while their absent mother provides for the family from abroad. This is a universal and intimate story about the unique bond between brothers… And the children who are abandoned by parents who are forced to work abroad.

CHASING THE CRISIS

Parviz Majidov, AZERBAIJAN


The film follows the personal journey of the filmmaker and the effects of the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War on the youth in Azerbaijan. Exploring memories and dreams as a way to access personal and collective traumas, the film provides an inside look into the devastating effects of the war and the growing antiwar resistance movement in Baku.

DEPOT-VENTE


Confidential project.

EVER SINCE I KNEW MYSELF

Maka Gogaladze, GEORGIA


I, the daughter of a school teacher and high-maintenance mother, launch a journey around post-Soviet Georgia to observe children in the education process and reflect on my childhood experiences. During this quest, which is accompanied by my conversation with Nino, my mother, I explore the implementation of power in intergenerational relationships and challenge my ability to control power of the filmmaker while enframing reality.

HEART DON’T BE AFRAID

Ana Kvichidze, GEORGIA


Dachi is a queer boy from a religious place in Georgia, oppressed by the Archbishop, religious society, and even his own family. He finds an old witch, taught and empowered with her magic spells he begins to change reality.

HOMEMADE MULBERRY VODKA

Anzhela Frangyan, ARMENIA


A filmmaker and a soldier who both experienced the war in Nagorno-Karabakh, set off on a road trip to overcome the survivor’s guilt, returning to the wartorn areas, towards a common search for a renewed, mulberry-infused taste of life. Passing by fields of mulberry trees, we look for the region’s famous homemade mulberry vodka – something our friends from the Yerevan have asked for. But are they ready to listen to the stories that we will take with us as well?

I LOOK LIKE MY MOTHER

Amina Maher, IRAN


The film follows Amina Maher’s intimate and courageous journey to free herself from the constraints of norms, taboos and traditions. Her coming out as a trans woman, she pours her energy into her fight against rape culture, the patriarchy and her engagement for a future beyond cis-normativity. “Ten” (2002) by Abbas Kiarostami recorded ten-year-old Amina sitting in the passenger seat of her mother’s car without her consent. Now, she has taken the wheel, driving her filmmaker mother, Mania Akbari, through Berlin – in a new body and with a new name, Amina.

ONE OF THOSE CREATURES

Ali Ozkul, TURKEY


A body-thriller documentary that delves into the complex relationship between identity and the body, told through the intersecting emotions of two cousins’. The film dives into close relationship of two men and the connection between self and identity.

OUR SEEDS

Erhan Arik & Meryem Yavuz, TURKEY


A farming couple lives with their children in a village, far from the city, in northeastern Turkey. Every spring, they sow 1500 years-old wheat seeds, that their family inherited from their ancestors, and when time is, they grind the grain in their mill and make the flour into bread. Although the harvest of this family-seed is difficult and its yield is low, they believe that this heritage is a source of life. The farming couple’s faith in nature begins to be tested by the emerging dreams of their children and the test deepens as the harvest of this year is harder than usual.

RED INK

Redha Menassel, ALGERIA


This documentary tells the fabulous epic of El Manchar (The Saw), the first satirical newspaper of the Arab world of the 90s in Algiers. Between learning about freedom of expression and a fierce fight against Islamist terrorism, these heroic cartoonists and journalists left their mark on Algerian society in indelible red ink. This story, 30 years later, takes humour as a weapon of resistance that flourished during the “Hirak”, but also echoes with the freedom of press which is once again heavily oppressed in Algeria.

ROSA’S ILLUSION

Anas El Hatimi, MOROCCO


Amine, a young researcher in the traditional arts, is transformed every evening into Rosa, a drag-queen who dances and sings poems dating back several centuries. He has a crazy project, that of creating the first voguing troupe in the Maghreb, a “House” made up of young artists who live and practice their art in their countries of origin. Rosa tries through her art to make known her fight for respect and equality. From Casablanca to New York, this film is a unique immersion in the hidden world of North African artists.

TRASH CEMETERY

Firas Rebiai, TUNISIA


For the last 20 years, Borj Chakir’s landfill grew dwarfing & ravaging the once peaceful El Attar village. Ridha, a popular singer in that community, refuses to go down without a fight: His crusade will be against this monster that feeds on trash coming from far beyond Tunisia’s borders. But as ravaging this landfill is to that community, it constitutes the only lifeline for survival for the marginalized ragpickers called “Barbesha”, like Marwan & his peers, whose number is only increasing.

WE

Grigor Poghosyan, ARMENIA


Biker Dero, dancer Anahit, musician Albert, teacher Robert and basketball trainer Artush are romantic creators who are living in once glorified but now despised town Vanadzor. They love the town, but does the government love the town too? Robert and Artush lost their youth dreams in Vanadzor during the collapse of Soviet Union. Are Dero, Anahit and Albert going to get the same fate?  Together five portraits create a description of a person’s fate in a town stuck between the Soviet Union and modern world.

WHY I LEFT

Fayssal Zaoui, MOROCCO


Salvador is a young Cameroonian who left his native village in pursuit of his dream to immigrate to Europe by walking, defying all odds. When he is so close to his goal, he meets Moroccan artists who open his eyes to his true quest. The meeting with Moroccan artists opened the door to another journey, of art and the search for oneself. Today Salvador lives and works in Morocco, he is an established painter and actor. This path, which he did not suspect, has made him an accomplished individual. Perhaps he had to leave his country and suffer a journey full of dangers to find his way?

YALLA PARKOUR

Areeb Zuaiter, JORDAN/PALESTINE


Areeb carries an idealistic perception of the faraway birthplace where she never lived. While combing the troubling news that comes from home, Areeb crosses paths with Ahmad. Ahmad desperately wants out while Areeb desperately wants in. They exchange worlds.

YUNG YIDDISH

Noa Ben-Shalom, ISRAEL


In his journey to save Yiddish libraries and cultural treasures, Mendy Cahan visits the homes of the last Yiddish speakers, and gives their beloved books a home in the center he established at Tel Aviv Central Station. However, his life’s work to salvage the Yiddish cultural heritage is facing yet another threat—the closing of the central bus station in Tel-Aviv, home to Mendy’s book center ‘Yung Yiddish’. The movie will tell the story of a dying culture and the hopeless struggle of a single Don Quixote to save it.

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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 2022/2023

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