Turkey ogles at Africa

That African cinema is going around the world is not surprising, but when it comes to a participation in Turkish festivals and moreover to a national events, it becomes intriguing.
The Adana Golden Boll Film Festival was organised from the 17th to the 25th of September in the rich capital of the Turkish south west. This 18th edition tells a bit about the orientation of the Turkish policy towards Africa. In addition to traditional participation of north African films, some black African ones were shown to a curious local public.
That North African films are programmed in such festival, that goes without saying. Looking at the evolution of the situation of these countries, all festivals of the world are celebrating the uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt and the other still grumbling societies. Quite all festivals are having a section dedicated to the so-called “Arab Spring”.
The participation of some films from the Mediterranean sea was actually a tradition in this festival taking place in a region which is very closed to the Arab world and which has a historical connection with the northern part of Africa. It was a part of the ottoman (Turkish) empire for around five century until the establishment of the European colonization in the 19th century.
What is new this year is the participation of black African films. A Screaming man by Chadian filmmaker Mahamat-Saleh Haroun and Soul boy by young Kenyan filmmaker Hawa Essuman took part in the section dedicated to a panorama of international cinema.
Both of them where indeed big success since two years ago. The first was in competition in Cannes film festival and won the jury price; the second discovered in Rotterdam Film Festival doesn’t stop running from a festival to another showing a small Kenyan story.
It is not a lot, one could say. But still for a Turkish film festival, which is moreover a national one, it is quite surprising. The two films do really have an international success, but their presence at that moment precisely, shows a special will to let Turkish audience see African images and to show Africans, that they could be interesting to Turkish people and policy.
The growing economy of turkey needs new areas, and new markets. Just like for china and the western world, Africa is an economical challenge, and culture can always help to make things easier. Yet it is always frustrating to see that culture is only used for other purposes.
Indeed our continent is an object of competition between world’s big powers. After the colonial times and the neo-colonial control of African economies came the times of the way to deal with the concurrence of the Chinese invasion of African soil and markets. The new deal is to face the new Turkish ambition.
With its growing economy, and the strategic role it is willing to play in the renewal of the north African societies, Turkey is a serious concurrent to the traditional hegemonies in Africa. For many reason, it has even a chance to play a leading role.
In the north of the continent it is already quite done. The historical presence and the identity of religion (Islam) in addition to the geographic proximity, help a lot to invade a very liberated markets and temporarily open to all kinds of infiltrations.
For example, the Islamic political parties in both Tunisia and Egypt consider the AKP (party of the actual Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan) as an example of political Islam. In both countries Muslim brotherhood is a serious candidate to get the power and at least to play a key role in the future political system in the two countries.
Already before the revolution, Turkish investments in the region were growing in a notable manner. A Turkish company could win, years ago already, the contract to build the biggest airport in Africa in Tunisia. The new policy in the region is going to strength this orientation and Turkey is going to be the leading country in the process of reconstructing Libya.
This is going to be only the beginning. Once this is insured, the hegemony will be willing to extend its presence in the black continent. We would see in the near future Turkish Prime Minster going around in sub-Saharan countries with hundreds of Turkish businessmen and investors. There is no hope to see in the delegation one single filmmaker or producer, this is for sure.
Films are only nice to show in temporary events as entertainment. When it comes to serious things like investing, buying and selling, these people are useless. Will filmmaking or distributing ever be of some kind of interest for politics, this is not going to be tomorrow.
However a film festival can very often reveal the strategic, political and economic orientations of a country.
Read Also http://www.africareview.com/Arts+and+Culture/Turkey+takes+African+cinema+out+on+a+movie+date+/-/979194/1244276/-/13t8qp0/-/index.html

Maghrebian cinema gets its own festival

From the 7th to the 11th September the first edition of the newly established Festival of Maghrebian Cinema will take place in the city of Nabeul (North East of Tunisia). Professionals from the North African countries (but Egypt) are gathering in the very special after-revolution context.
The establishment of new cultural traditions is one of the signs of the changes following the uprisings in the region. Administration has to be flexible and let initiators do. It is no more time for political and bureacratic rigidity.
This is the case in the media for example. But it is also relevant for cultural events like film festivals which existence depended for a long time from the will of the prince and from the political vision of the former regime.
In this context, one could consider the birth of a festival dedicated to the cinema of the Maghreb in Tunisia. In fact it is a re-birth. The festival changed only its focus. It was called the Nabeul Film Nights; it is now re-baptized Maghrebian Film Festival of Nabeul.
Politics and culture
This shift is connected to the will to have a special vision. The festival was a kind of opportunity to create some animation in the touristic city on the northeastern coast of Tunisia. Cultural activities were not supposed to be connected to any political issue unless as a celebration.
The idea of a maghrebian cinema is naturally connected to the project of a geo-political regional union between five countries: Tunisia, Libya, Algeria, Morocco, and Mauritania.
This was the mood in the 90’s. Many institutions were created, but because of tensions between some leaders, it never went enough further.
At that time a festival of maghrebian cinema was created but it was only one edition and it was never possible to make it again, probably because it reminds people of the fail of the project. And this is a criticism that the regime did never allow: only positive things should be stressed, negative ones had to be hidden.
It is no more critical to talk about the maghrebian dimension for two reason at least: on the one hand, those who used to block are never more in power, and on the other hand, the actual regime in Tunisia needs to show the margin of liberty it gives to civil society.
As far as it works
In this context we witness the re-birth of a maghrebian film festival in Tunisia thanks to the energy of a young group surrounding a young filmmaker, Anis Lassoued.
Profiting from the general atmosphere of freedom, the organizers seem to move up a gear by anticipating a come back to the initial regional plan of united Maghreb. From that point of view they stick to a deep feeling of the maghrebian populations.
As for the program it is made of three important sections. One is the official competition for short and feature maghrebian films. The other two non-competitive sections give an idea about the challenge of the festival.
A section is dedicated to the connection between Europe and the Maghreb. It focuses on films made in the frame of the immigration, which plays a big controversial role in the identity of these populations.
The third section is not less controversial. It is dedicated to the amazigh cinema: Amazigh is the name of the original identity of the people in the Maghreb, called also Berbers.
Generally these two aspects are subject of very vehement debates in Tunisia because they oppose the arab dominating identity. Tunisia stands right in between the two geographic and cultural poles: Maghreb (West) and Mashrek (East).
All about bounderies
The more you go to the west the more the Berber culture and language are stronger. In Morocco, around 80% of the population speaks amazigh, mostly in the region of the Rif (Atlas mountain). In Algeria, a big population in the region of the Kabylie and in the desert speaks Berber. In Tunisia only few isolated villages speak the old language.
Arab nationalists accuse those who point at this aspect of being brain washed by the western colonizer whose “complot” is to divide the Arab World. For a long time it was not easy to evocate this subjects on the name of the national unity.
When recently an association was created to rehabilitate the Berber language and the cultural heritage of Berbers in Tunisia, there was a big controversy on social media.
The Berber identity was always occulted and a lot of them feel frustrated. Some people would be even more radical and call for a cultural genocide because of the disappearance of the language.
This is perhaps the key-role of any revolution: to call for a reset of all clocks. And the cinema is again one of the main actors this cultural reset.
Wether it is worth it or not, this is a different ball game
See also : http://www.africareview.com/Arts+and+Culture/-/979194/1233018/-/c82155z/-/index.html