Festival: Carthage Film Festival 2021 – Emotion and Resistance

For the 32nd time, the Carthage Film Festival (JCC) will bring together the best of African and Arab cinema in Tunisia from 30 October to 6 November 2021. After the last edition held in the midst of a health crisis and marked by many tributes, the organizing committee has been unveiling for a few weeks now, the articulations and programming of this edition which will be held under the sign of emotion, sharing and resistance according to the words of the festival’s general director, filmmaker Ridha Behi.

As in previous years, the JCC is designed to be a time of cinematographic discoveries but also of exchanges, creation, innovations and tributes. And speaking of tributes, the official poster of the festival, unveiled on 1st October  2021, is a vibrant tribute to two important personalities of Tunisian cinema: the actress Hend Sabri and the director Moufida Tlatli. The poster, designed by graphic designer and teacher Anis Ben Ammar, translates the festival’s desire to take cinephiles and festival-goers into a world of dreams and hope through its choice of warm and joyful colours. A noble ambition in a post-Covid 19 pandemic world context.

And to make this dream come true, the festival is counting on a rich and dense selection. No less than 750 films divided into 11 sections will be shown during the festival. This is a huge objective for the organising team, which will have to cope with the various restrictions linked to the pandemic. The film Lingui by Chadian director Mahamat Saleh Haroun will open the festival. Recently in  official competition at Fespaco, the film evokes the still taboo issue of abortion and excision in Africa. A subject that has been dealt with many times but is still topical. In the feature film competition, we will find, among many others, La Femme du Fossoyeur by Khadar Ayderus Ahmed, which was awarded the Golden Stallion of Yennenga at the last Fespaco a few days ago. Will it convince once again the JCC long and short film jury chaired by the Italian Enzo Porcelli? We’ll find out on the evening of November 6th.

What should be remembered about the huge selection of films in official competition during this edition of the JCC is the desire of the organisers to present a selection that illustrates “the contribution of filmmakers to decipher the ills of our continent and to translate them into a filmic language marked by freshness and formal innovation”. In this vein, the public will discover a varied selection of feature films and shorts, fictions and documentaries, from several African and Arab countries, but also parallel sections such as “Cinéma du Monde“, “Vision Belgique“, “Vision Lybie” which will be accompanied by a round table on the evolution of cinema in this country. Another section to be followed closely is “JCC and Francophonie“. This section, organised as a prelude to the 18th Summit of the Francophonie to be held in Djerba on 20 and 21 November 2021, will see the screening of 8 Francophone films and a round table on Francophone film.

Besides the film screenings that will take place in cinemas and prisons, the JCC is also a place for professional meetings with the Carthage Pro, which includes the Chabaka development workshops and the Takmil post-production workshops. A total of 15 film projects will participate in these workshops.

All information about the festival on:  JCC 2021

Rostand Wandja