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part of
double bill #37
Oumoun
Courtisane
2017
Berwick Film and Media Arts Festival
2017
DocLisboa
2017
Int’l Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen
2018
Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg
2018
“Dear Grandma, you’ll be surprised to hear my voice in your language...”. These are the first words of a letter that was never sent, but was instead played aloud in real time by Brussels filmmaker Fairuz Ghammam to her elderly grandmother in Mahdia, Tunisia. In the company of the camera, the lines easily turn into a voiceover that, as one listens and looks attentively, gradually transforms into a dialogue that spans languages, cultures and generations.
Bio Fairuz Ghammam
Fairuz Ghammam graduated as an experimental filmmaker at a time when categorisation was still fashionable. In her practice, she mainly explores (auto)biography and dialogue, as well as themes like predetermination, abundance and scarcity, or co-creation. Since no one is truly the author of Oumoun (but her grandmother most of all), Fairuz has also co-credited her brother, El Moïz. He helped discover the film’s potential after Fairuz had left the rushes sitting in a drawer for five years. Without his involvement, the filming, and consequently the film, would never have existed.
Credits
Camera
El MoÏz Ghammam, Fairuz Ghammam
Producer
El MoÏz Ghammam, Fairuz Ghammam
Distributor
Auguste Orts
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