OPEN AIR CINEMA: „WWW - What a Wonderful World" (Original with German subtitles) by Faouzi Bensaïdi (Morocco), on Thursday, 02 August 2012 at 21.15h at Freiluftkino Hasenheide

AfricAvenir in cooperation with Planète Métis presents the postmodern and poetic cult movie „WWW - What a Wonderful World"by Moroccan director Faouzi Bensaïdi on Thursday, 02 August 2012 at 21:15h at Freiluftkino Hasenheide in Berlin. Permeated by political symbolism, the movie tells the story of a contract killer who falls in love with a police woman. „WWW - What a Wonderful World"is an entirely modern movie, burlesque in its acting, strange in its composition of pictures, funny and bold. With Nezha Rahil and Faouzi Bensaïdi, an amazing couple. Günter H. Jekubzik of Programmkino writes: „Cinema at its best, full of fantasy, poetry told with inventive pictures, modern, bold and funny. The movie by Moroccan filmmaker Faouzi Bensaïdi is a unique discovery of World Cinema", and Le Nouvel Observateur: „The cinema of a poet and visionary".

Synopsis

DE
Casablanca ist nicht nur ein legendärer Film aus Hollywood, es ist auch eine real existierende Stadt voller Kontraste, modern und archaisch in einem. Hier lebt Kamel als Auftragskiller in einer Art Einzimmer-Penthouse. Die Aufträge erhält er übers Internet. Cool führt er sie aus. Nach jedem ausgeführten Auftrag ruft er Souad an, eine Gelegenheitsprostituierte, mit der er anschliessend ins Bett steigt. Wirklich den Kopf verdreht ihm aber Kenza, die an einer der am stärksten frequentierten Kreuzungen in Casablanca den Verkehr regelt oder besser: dirigiert, so, als würde sie ein Symphonieorchester leiten. Zunächst kennt Kamel nur Kenzas Stimme, aber er wird nicht locker lassen, bis er den Körper dazu gefunden hat. Der professionelle Hacker Hicham, der davon träumt, sich nach Europa abzusetzen, mischt sich übers Internet in die Kontakte von Kamel ein - und das schafft diesem Probleme.

WWW - WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD ist ein durch und durch moderner Film, burlesk im Spiel, schräg in der Bildkomposition, witzig und kühn.
Mit Nezha Rahil und Faouzi Bensaidi, einem grossartigen Liebespaar.


EN
Casablanca is a city full of contrasts. Here lives Kamel, a contract killer, in a kind of one-room penthouse apartment. He gets his orders via the internet. He carries them out in a cool manner. After each job done he phones Souad, an occasional prostitute who he sleeps with after each execution. But it is Kenza, who navigates the traffic at one of Casablanca's main crossings or rather: who conducts it as if she were leading a symphonic orchestra, who turns his head. At first he only knows Kenza's voice but he does not let go unto he finds the matching body. The professional hacker Hicham, who dreams about immigrating to Europe, interferes with Kamel's contacts via the internet - thus causing him problems.

WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD from The Global Film Initiative on Vimeo.

Press Reviews
„Breathless in Casablanca."Walter Ruggle, Trigon

„The movie of a poet and visionary."Le Nouvel Observateur

„Between surreal thriller and melodrama - a beautiful Moroccan movie about the world in alteration."Les Inrockuptibles

„With political artfulness and cinematic joy the 40-years old Moroccan Faouzi Bensaïdi mixes genres and forms."Thomas Allenbach, Der Bund

„Mit www Bensaïdi creates a postmodern revolution. [The movie is] an opus, a film that does not want to be understood but felt, heard and noticed in the global world of communication."Mohammed Bakrim, Africiné

„Bensaïdi denaturalises cinema, recycles Almodovar, Jarmush (Down by Law), Murnau (Nosferatu), Tati (Playtime), Fellini (Amarcord) or Arthur Penn (Bonnie and Clyde), and of course Orson Welles, his idol, but also the Music Hall and the Comédie Musicale, the animated film, the thriller, Bollywood, the silent picture, the burlesque and certainly many more that I have missed. In short, he enjoys himself."Olivier Barlet, Africultures

„A mix between comedy, gangster movie and romance: The second work of the Moroccan Faouzi Bensaïdi is characterised by a great visual playfulness."Julia Marx, Tages-Anzeiger

„In a wonderfully fantastic chaos of genre, people full of hope and longing on the run from disappointments of the social hardship or from personal loneliness meet in a city that is as much chaotic as it is contradictory on its way to modernism."Didier Plaschy, Nahaufnahme

„On a big screen, Bensaïdi mixes the repetitions, the signs and effects while joyfully choreographing the energy flows of the city and of the hearts. This formalistic fireworks does not lack beauty, but it is much more: through the art of estrangement and the provocation of its aesthetics, the movies is a wonderful draft of the "Cinema of the South" in the big debate of globalisation."Olivier Barlet, Africulture

WWW - What a Wonderful World
R: Faouzi Bensaidi
Morocco, 99 min., Arabic, French with German subtitles
Actors: Faouzi Bensaïdi (Kamel), Nezha Rahil (Kenza), Fatima Attif (Souad), Hajar Masdouki (Fatima), El Mehdi Elaaroubi (Hitcham), Mohammed Bastaoui (father)

Festivals and awards (selection)

2009: MedFilm Festival, Rome, Italy, www.medfilmfestival.org; Showcase Morocco (Nuovo Cinema Marocchino / Elogio all'erranza)
2007: CinemaEast Film Festival, New York, www.washingtonmoroccanclub.org/cinemaeastfestival.html
2007: Istanbul International Film Festival, 2007
2007: French Film Festival, Athens, 2007
2007: International Film Festival Rotterdam, 2007
2006: Venice Days (Giornate degli Autori), 2006
2006: Dubai International Film Festival, 2006
2006: The Times BFI, London Film Festival, 2006
2006: Festival International du Film Francophone de Namur, Belgien, 2006

Director: Faouzi Bensaïdi
Faouzi Bensaïdi was born in Meknès in 1967. After his acting studies at the Theatre Institute of Rabat he got parts in numerous theatre plays. He continued his education at the Conservatoire National Supérieur d'Art Dramatique in Paris and staged several plays himself. In 1997, he presented his first short movie „La falaise". In 1999, Bensaïdi worked as co-author on the script of André Téchinés's „Film Loin", in which he also acted. In 2000, he shot the short movies „Le mur", which received an award in Cannes and „Trajets", which was awarded in Venice. As an actor Faouzi Bensaïdi played in the reflective road movie „Le cheval de vent"of his fellow countryman Daoud Aoulad Syad. „Mille mois"(2003), his first feature-length movie won an award in Cannes in 2003. In 2006, his second long movie, WWW.What a Wonderful World, was chosen for the Venice Days of the Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinemato grafica in Venice.

Filmography

* 1998 La Falaise (The Cliff),
* 2000 Le Mur (The Wall), short movie
* 2000 Trajets (The Rain Line), short movie
* 2003 Mille Mois (A Thousand Months)
* 2006 WWW.What a Wonderful World
* 2011 Death for Sale

Thursday, 02 August 2012, 21.15 h
Freiluftkino Hasenheide
At Volkspark Hasenheide, 12049 Berlin-Neuköln
Entrance: Hasenheide or Karlsgartenstr.
Metro: U7 Hermannplatz/U8 Boddinstr.

Admission: 6,50 €
Children 4,00 Euro; 10-ticket card 50,00 Euro
This 10-ticket card is only valid for one person per show.
Not valid for other events and concerts.
Ticket reservation and hotline: 030-283 46 03

CONTACT
-
Eric Van Grasdorff
AfricAvenir International e.V.
Kameruner Str. 1
13351 Berlin

Mail: e.vangrasdorff@africavenir.org
Web: www.africavenir.org
Youtube: www.youtube.com/user/africavenir2009
Facebook: http://de-de.facebook.com/pages/AfricAvenir/185433334381

-
Neue Publikation: Nkechinyere Mbakwe: Oral Nollywood - Trauma und Heilung
Die erste umfangreiche deutschsprachige Publikation zu Nollywood!
ISBN 978-3-9812733-6-6
Preis: 14,00 € zzgl. 1,80 € Porto& Verpackung (innerhalb Deutschlands, außerhalb bitte anfragen)
Bestellungen: info@africavenir.org / Fax: 032 12 - 12 58 815

DVD: Der Standpunkt des Löwen
Ein dezidiert panafrikanischer Dokumentarfilm!
R Didier Awadi, SN 2011, mit deutschen oder englischen UT
Preis: 10,00 € zzgl. 1,80 € Porto& Verpackung (in Deutschland; außerhalb bitte anfragen)
Bestellungen: info@africavenir.org / Fax: 032 12 - 12 58 815

Publikation: 50 Jahre afrikanische Un-Abhängigkeiten - Eine (selbst)kritische Bilanz (2. Auflage - Ebook)
Editions AfricAvenir/Exchange& Dialogue
Preis: 14,00 € zzgl. 1,80 € Porto& Verpackung (in Dtld)
Bestellungen: info@africavenir.org / Fax: 032 12 - 12 58 815

Publication: 200 Years Later … Commemorating the 200 year anniversary of the Abolition of the Transatlantic Slave Trade (Edited by Nadja Rahal)
Order Information: ISBN: 978-3-9812733-0-4
138 pages, full 4-colour print with 25 portraits
15€ + Packaging and Shipping (Germany: + 2,50€; Europe: + 6,00€)
Orders: info@africavenir.org / Fax: 032 12 - 12 58 815

Prince Kum'a Ndumbe III.: Afrika... Eine Milliarde Menschen im Aufbruch - Deutschsprachige Anthologie in 11 Bänden
Editions AfricAvenir/Exchange& Dialogue
Anthologie (11 Bände) im Geschenkschuber: 189,00 € / 125 000 FCFA
Bestellungen& Lesungen: order(at)exchange-dialogue.com
Website: www.africavenir.org/de/ueber-africavenir/prinz-kuma-ndumbe-iii/anthologie.html

Film: Kamerun - Autopsie einer Unabhängigkeit
Dokumentarfilm über den Kolonialkrieg der Franzosen in Kamerun!
R: Valérie Osouf & Gaëlle Le Roy; F 2008; 54 Min; OmU
Verleih: info@africavenir.org / Fax: 032 12 - 12 58 815