24/10/2023 - The second edition of the festival's international co-production forum presents new projects from the Mediterranean basin

Director Silvia Rey Canudo, whose project Calle de Los Ángeles has been selected

Five creative documentaries and five fiction projects from Mediterranean countries such as France, Spain, Morocco, Lebanon, Croatia, Portugal and Turkey will take part in the second edition of València Film Afers, the Mostra de València International Co-Production Forum, which will be held on 25 and 26 October at the Barreira Arte + Diseño art and design school. The producers and directors of the projects will participate in different pitching sessions and meetings with professionals from the industry in order to find and establish links in order to complete their production process.

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The selected proposals include genres such as comedy, autofiction, drama and social issues, and among them, projects directed by women: Flying Elephants, a documentary directed by Mona Khaouli about the story of a Lebanese musician whose lifestyle is a kind of small revolution; Grand Petit Frère, the first feature film by Moroccan Karima Guennouni, a road movie where a young woman and her autistic brother set out in search of their father; Right Where I Left You, by Turkish Ümran Safter, a film about the heartbreaking journey of a woman who transports the body of her brother, who died by suicide, to bury him in his home village; and Beirut, journal d'un effondrement, by French-Lebanese filmmaker Katia Jarjoura, about how the explosion in the port of Beirut in 2020 disrupted the lives of a Lebanese family.

Among the projects from Spain, two come from Valencia: Calle de Los Ángeles, an autofiction documentary about the gentrification of the Cabanyal neighbourhood, directed and produced by Silvia Rey Canudo, and Donant la nota, a comedy in Valencian which is the first feature film by Abdelatif Hwidar, 2008 Goya winner for his short film Salvador (Historia de un milagro cotidiano). And also from Spain, ¿Es usted secuestrable?, the first feature film by the Mallorcan Charli Bujosa, where the director evokes a memory of her aunt, who was present at the hijacking of a flight in 1977. Completing the list of selected projects are Jusqu'à l'aube, by Mohamed Zineddaine, based on the Moroccan Dostoyevsky novel by Mohamed Zefzaf; Penitentes, directed by Diogo Pereira, a documentary that portrays the collaboration between mountaineering and science through the expeditions of João García; and Viktorija, by Luka Galesic, an acid comedy that narrates the liberation of a mature, bitter and virgin woman who is reborn after placing her sick mother in a nursing home.

The list of projects:

Calle de Los Ángeles – Silvia Rey Canudo (Spain)
Production: Quatre Films Audiovisual

Donant la nota – Abdelatif Hwidar (Spain)
Production: Gaia Audiovisuals

¿Es usted secuestrable? – Charli Bujosa (Spain)
Production: Mansalva Films

Flying Elephants – Mona Khaouli (France/Lebanon)
Production: Easy Riders Films (France), Madame Le Tapis (Lebanon)

Grand Petit Frère – Karima Guennouni (Morocco)
Production: Janaprod

Right Where I Left You – Ümran Safter (Turkey)
Production: Ekim Medya

Beirut, journal d´un effondrement – Katia Jarjoura (France)
Production: Les Films de l’Après-Midi

Jusqu´a l´aube – Mohamed Zineddaine (Morocco)
Production: Ouarzazate Films

Penitentes – Diogo Pereira (Portugal/Colombia)
Production: Bam Cinema (Portugal), Invasión Cine (Colombia)

Viktorija – Luka Galesic (Croatia)
Production: Cobra Chicks

(Translated from Spanish by Vicky York)