CAIRO - 15 August 2021: With the attendance of the film’s cast and creators, Tunisian film Streams, by Mehdi Hmili, landed its world premiere at the Locarno Festival, where it competes for six awards within the Filmmakers of the Present (Concorso Cineasti del presente) competition.
The film had four screenings within the festival, including a press screening.
The premiere was attended with the director Mehdi Hmili and the film’s cast including Afef Ben Mahmoud, Zaza and Sarah Hannachi, in addition to the Producer Moufida Fedhila and the Sound Designer Aymen Labidi. Most recently, the film’s poster has been released.
The press screening was held on Wednesday, August 11, at 7:00 PM (GMT +1) at Teatro Kursaal, while the first public screening was held on Thursday, August 12, at 6:00 PM at Pala Cinema 1 and was followed by a discussion with the film’s cast and crew.
Also, the film was screened on Friday at 5:00 PM at La Sala and on Saturday at 1:30 PM at PalaCinema Sala 2 and PalaCinema Leopard Club.
The Filmmakers of the Present (Concorso Cineasti del presente) competition is one of the festival’s most remarkable competitions that is dedicated to emerging directors from all over the world and showcases their first and second films.
It presents 15 world premieres of feature films and documentaries that compete for the following awards: Golden Leopard for Best Film, Special Jury Prize, Best Emerging Director, Swatch First Feature Award, Leopard for the Best Actor, and Leopard for the Best Actress.
Founded in 1946, the Locarno Festival has occupied a unique position in the landscape of the major film festivals.
Every August, the town of Locarno, located in the heart of Europe, becomes the world capital of auteur cinema for the course of eleven days.
Amel works in a factory in Tunis. She lives with her alcoholic husband Tahar, a former local football player, and their only son Moumen, a talented teenage football goalkeeper. The mother meets Imed, who claims to help Moumen with his career. But the wealthy businessman takes advantage of the situation and abuses her. The police catch them. Amel is imprisoned, accused of adultery and prostitution. Moumen finds himself destroyed by the scandal. Furthermore, he falls into the abyss of the Tunisian nightlife. After her release, Amel searches for Moumen in the lower and violent streets of Tunis. In this long quest for the missing son, Amel has to face the falling Tunisian society.
Written and directed by Mehdi Hmili, Streams stars Afef Ben Mahmoud, Iheb Bouyahia, Zaza, Sarah Hannachi and Slim Baccar and features music composed by Amine Bouhafa. MAD Solutions handles the film’s distribution across the Arab world.
Streams is a joint production between Yol Film House (Tunisia), Tarantula (Luxembourg), MPM Film (France), Clandestino Production (Tunisia) and in association with Allam Film (USA). It was developed in the prestigious Canadian workshop (Grand Nord) and received the screenplay Prize of the Institut Français and the CineGouna post-production prize and grants from The Tunisian National Center of Cinema, The Film Fund Luxembourg, and The French National Center of Cinema.
Mehdi Hmili is a Tunisian writer and filmmaker. He studied cinema in Tunisia before graduating from the Paris Film School. While in France, he directed his short trilogy about love and exile: “X-Moment” (2009), “Li-La” (2011) and “The Night of Badr” (2012). His first feature-length film, “Thala Mon Amour” (2016), was selected in worldwide film festivals like Torino Film Festival, Carthage Film Festival and won several prizes. His last production “Fouledh” was selected in La Fabrique Cinema at the 72nd Cannes Film Festival.
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