 |
 |
|
|
July 25 , 2007
Brahem Film at Locarno Festival
Anouar Brahem’s first film, the documentary “Words in the Wake of War”, shot in Lebanon last summer, has been selected for the Locarno International Film Festival 2007 in the section “Ici et ailleurs / Outlook on the Middle East”; the official screening is on August 4 in the Cinéma Rialto .
Of the film, director/producer Brahem writes, “I made my first trip to Beirut in 1994 to give a concert. I was taken aback by the traces of the successive wars the country had been through, whose cinders were still burning.... Since then the country has strived in a remarkable outburst of energy, to rebuild and reconcile .
In Summer 2006 Lebanon was thrust back into torment. In retaliation to the capturing by the Hezbollah of two of its soldiers, the Israeli army launched a vast offensive. Within a month the country was devastated. When the end of the conflict was decreed, feeling bruised and deeply uneasy, I wanted to go there, urgently, to understand, to feel, up close, the reality of what happened...Thus, the idea to make this film was born.”
Although “Words on the Wake of War” is Brahem’s first film, he has long had strong connections to the cinema, and has written soundtracks for important Tunisian films by directors Ferid Boughedir, Mufida Tatli, and Nori Bouzid. Increasingly, too, his ECM recordings are incorporated into the soundtracks of films around the world.
Anouar Brahem first recorded for ECM in 1990, his label debut album “Barzakh” issued the following year . His most recent release is “Le Voyage de Sahar” .
|
|
|
|
|
|
