44 films by committed female directors to discover during a week at the Films Femmes Méditerranée festival in Marseille

From November 29 to December 6, the festival is back for a 19th edition, in partnership with France 3 Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur. Screenings, meetings, round table… A unique event in Europe, which combines female cinema and southern cinema.

This is an area in which they remain under-represented: only 26% of European feature films are directed by women. So highlighting female directors from both Mediterranean shores is the entire ambition of the Rencontres Films Femmes Méditerranée since their creation in 2006.

Fiction, documentaries, feature-length and short films… This year again, the general public will be able to discover, in 8 locations in Marseille, a wide range of often award-winning works, which tell the story of the world in all its complexity.

On the bill, 44 films, including 3 previews and 4 new films, 14 countries represented and more than 40 guests: female directors of course, who “share committed works where the intimate mixes with History, oscillating between drama and comedy“, but also producers, actresses, screenwriters…

The opening evening, November 30 at 8:30 p.m. at the Artplexe, will immerse the public in the world of Emma Dante. This Italian director is also a playwright, actress and theater director. She explores the theme of family and marginalization, through a poetics of tension and madness in which humor is not lacking.

With “Misericordia”, Emma Dante adapts her own play presented at the 2021 Avignon Festival. Three prostitutes live in an outcast village by the sea. Their existence is marked by poverty, ignorance and violence. The only ray of light in their lives is Arturo, a weak-minded young man who is like a child in an adult’s body and whom they take care of together…

Among the films previewed at the festival, “Sauve qui peut” by Alexe Poukine, a young director who questions the flaws in our society. This documentary takes us to a training center, where real caregivers and fake patients simulate medical consultations. Role-playing games that aim to develop the human qualities of therapists…

In a completely different register, “Vermiglio or the Bride of the Mountains”, second feature film by Maura Delpero, will also be presented in preview on December 2 at 8 p.m. at Variétés. This fiction paints the portrait of a woman who, in the heart of winter 44, becomes free out of necessity.

Each year, a personality is highlighted: for this new edition, it is Fatima Sissani, a committed director whose work resonates deeply with the values ​​of the festival. Born in Algeria, living in France since the age of 6, she explores with sensitivity and acuity the themes of exile, transmission, identity, often focusing on the stories of those who find between two worlds.

Three of his films will be screened in his presence. With “The Language of Zahra”, her first documentary filmed in 2011, she looks at Algerian immigration through the portrait of her mother.

In “The Graceful”, Fatima Sissani paints the daily portrait of six childhood friends, living in the same suburban HLM project. Proud and independent young women, who play against stereotypes.

Finally, “Résistantes” is the shared perspective of three women engaged alongside the FLN during the Algerian war. They experienced clandestinity, prison, torture, psychiatric hospitals and after decades of silence, they decided to testify.

As a preamble to the festival, the organizing team wanted to encourage collective reflection on gender representations in cinema, not only on screen but also throughout its entire industry, from the conception of a film to its distribution. .

A round table (free entry) will therefore bring together several guests on November 29 at 6 p.m. at the town hall on 1/7:

• Sabrina Bouarour, director, lecturer at the University of London Institute in Paris (ULIP), doctor in film studies and specialist in gender representations and cultural studies.
• Teresa Sala, director, programmer of the Some Prefer Cake lesbian festival in Bologna (Italy).
• Lau Ralin Nollet, co-founder of the short film festival Les Mains Gauches in Marseille, DJ, performer, cultural programmer and queer decolonial activist.
• Christine Ishkinazi, programmer of Films Femmes Méditerranée.

This year, the festival invited two young French directors for this cinema lesson: Caroline Poggi and Jonathan Vinel already have several films to their credit, separately or together. The duo was awarded the Berlin Golden Bear in 2014 for the short film “Tant que nous il reste des rifles à à pomp”, they are also the author of “Eat the night” (Cannes 2024).

Preceded by a short film, this session is organized on December 5 from 2:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the University of Aix-Marseille (Turbulence building).

The closing will highlight “Vingt Dieux”, the first feature film by Louise Courvoisier, acclaimed at the Cannes Film Festival in the Un Certain Regard category. This fiction takes us to preserved nature in the depths of the Jura. There we meet Totone, who is enjoying his youth before having to take care of his 7-year-old little sister alone. Too young, too inexperienced, he does not fit into the workplace where male rivalries overtake him…

The evening will continue with the awards ceremony. That of the short film will be awarded by a jury made up of students from the Marseilleveyre cinema prep school and a class from the St Charles high school. As for the prize for best documentary, it will be awarded by the team of the France 24 show ActuElles.

Very attached to accessibility to as many people as possible, the festival maintains free sessions for young people under 26, students, job seekers and beneficiaries of minimum social benefits.

This year it is also renewing sessions adapted to spectators with sensory disabilities. Thus, the screening-debate around the film “Mãos no Fogo” by Margarida Gil will be translated into French Sign Language. Likewise, the closing film “Vingt Dieux” will be offered in audio description for people with visual impairments.

Finally, various actions are carried out in favor of audiences far from cinema, for example in detention: during the festival, screenings and meetings with directors are offered to detainees of the Exit Support Structure (SAS). from Baumettes prison.

Mediterranean Women Films
From November 29 to December 6 in Marseille
All programming