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VALENCIA 2021

The Mostra de València plies the Mediterranean once again

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- Films produced on the shores of Mare Nostrum make up the jam-packed programme of the 36th edition of the festival, which kicks off on Friday 15 October

The Mostra de València plies the Mediterranean once again
El lodo by Iñaki Sánchez Arrieta

The 36th Mostra de València – Cinema del Mediterrani opens on Friday 15 October and will draw to a close on Sunday 24th. This year, the gathering gets under way with a thriller: El lodo [+see also:
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interview: Iñaki Sánchez Arrieta
film profile
]
by Iñaki Sánchez Arrieta (Zerø [+see also:
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), which was shot on the Albufera lagoon, and sees Raúl Arévalo and Paz Vega play a married couple who return to the rice fields in order to protect Mother Nature. The festival will wrap with another thriller: El sustituto [+see also:
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by Óscar Aibar, starring Pere Ponce, Vicky Luengo and Ricardo Gómez. In its Official Competition Section, there are 12 Spanish premieres duking it out for the Golden Palm, which, as stated by programmer Eduardo Guillot, “offer a striking overview of this season’s Mediterranean film and will allow audiences to discover titles that are guaranteed to leave no one indifferent”.

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They include Souad [+see also:
film review
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film profile
]
by Egypt’s Ayten Amin, which tells of how a girl struggles to navigate her traditional education and social networks. Another film that offers a glimpse of today’s youth is the feature debut by France’s Louda Ben Salah-CazanasThe World After Us [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Louda Ben Salah-Cazanas
film profile
]
. Another title hailing from France is Playlist [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Nine Antico
film profile
]
, the feature debut by comic-book artist Nine Antico

The Croatian contribution is Sonja Tarokic’s The Staffroom [+see also:
film review
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interview: Sonja Tarokić
film profile
]
, a drama in which a school counsellor attempts to remain on the fringes of the power dynamics in the institution. Tailor [+see also:
film review
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interview: Sonia Liza Kenterman
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]
by Sonia Liza Kenterman is set in modern-day Athens and zooms in on a tailor who has pledged to keep his father’s profession alive.

Meanwhile, Luzzu [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Alex Camilleri
film profile
]
is a Maltese drama helmed by Alex Camilleri: it depicts one man’s struggle when he joins the black-market fishing industry. The offering by Mehdi Hmili portrays a journey into a collapsing Tunisian society: Streams [+see also:
trailer
interview: Mehdi Hmili
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]
is a co-production with Luxembourg, France and the USA.

Syria is the country of origin of The Translator [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Rana Kazkaz and Anas Khalaf
film profile
]
by Rana Kazkaz and Anas Khalaf, a thriller that broaches the subject of the Arab Spring. Bosnia and Herzegovina’s representative is So She Doesn’t Live [+see also:
film review
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]
by Faruk Lončarević, based on the murder of a young woman.

Portugal’s Vencidos da vida by Rodrigo Areias takes place in a decrepit cinema, while the Official Section will be brought to a close by the black comedy Heavens Above [+see also:
film review
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interview: Srđan Dragojević
film profile
]
, a co-production between the republics of the former Yugoslavia, directed by Srdjan Dragojevic

For its part, the Informative Section is taking a punt on Alephia 2053, the first animated film for adults in Arabic, directed by Jorj Abou Mhaya and made as a co-production with France; also hailing from Lebanon is Jimmy Keirouz’s Broken Keys (a co-production with France, Cyprus and the USA), in which a pianist attempts to escape from fundamentalists. Rocking up from Turkey, and also zooming in on music, is When I'm Done Dying [+see also:
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]
by Nisan Dag

Egypt is represented by Trapped, in which Manal Khaled sets the action in Cairo in 2011. From Morocco comes the road movie Zanka Contact [+see also:
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]
by Ismael El IrakiBlackberry Season, from Kurdistan and helmed by Hasim Aydemir, is an adaptation of a novel by Murat Turk.

The French contingent is made up of Just Like a Woman [+see also:
film review
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film profile
]
by Amro Hamzawi, starring his sister as a woman who sees her dreams of becoming a writer shattered; and Should the Wind Drop [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Nora Martirosyan
film profile
]
, which was made as a co-production with Armenia and Belgium, and is the feature debut by Nora MartirosyanBitch, a Derogatory Term for a Woman [+see also:
film review
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]
, directed by Slovenia’s Tijana Zinajić, tackles the subject of depression. This strand is rounded off by North Macedonia’s Only Human [+see also:
film review
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interview: Igor Ivanov
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]
by Igor Ivanov, a portrait of desperate characters doing their best to survive.

Detailed information about all of the sections, tributes and activities set to take place at the Mostra de València can be found on its website.

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(Translated from Spanish)

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