Posted by Nabil Echchaibi on Tuesday, May 17, 2011
It was just a matter of days before Egyptian filmmakers turned the revolution in their country into a film. Tamantahsar Yom (18 Days) is a collection of 10 shorts chronicling the events leading up to the removal of Mubarak's regime. The film is being shown at the Cannes Film Festival where Egypt has been invited as a "country guest" to celebrate its landmark revolution. There is already some controversy surrounding two filmmakers in this project who are accused of working too closely with the old regime. Another film to watch is La Sources des Femmes (the Source) a comedy by Radu Mihaileanu is set in rural Morocco and is about a group of women who refuse to please their men until they get justice. You can watch both trailers below.
I was born and raised in Morocco. My research focuses on the intersections between Islam, Arab popular culture and the media. I'm currently an assistant professor in the School of Journalism at the University of Colorado-Boulder.