Director Rabah Ameur-Zaimech Visits Tokyo for Special Retrospective at the Refuge Film Festival
Director Rabah Ameur-Zaimech will
be in Tokyo for a special three-film
retrospective at the UNHCR’s Third Annual Refugee Film Festival, including the Japan
premiere of Dernier Maquis.
Dernier Maquis, a selection this year
for Cannes’ prestigious Director’s
Fortnight, is the story of a Muslim entrepreneur whose choice of imam for his
parking garage- turned-mosque leads to controversy and misadventure. Bled
Number One, for which Mr. Ameur-Zaimech received the Prix de la Jeunesse in
the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes
in 2006, examines in semi-documentary form the complexities of Franco-Algerian
relations and life in Algeria
through a protagonist who has been deported back to the land of his
father. Wesh, Wesh, What’s happening?, winner of the Wolfgang Staudte at
the Berlin International Film Festival, depicts
the Algerian diaspora living in France’s
troubled areas.
Mr.
Ameur-Zaimech was born in Algeria
in 1966 before moving to the suburbs of Paris
at the age of two. He earned a degree in
human sciences before founding Sarrazink Productions in 1999 and realizing his
first film project, Wesh, Wesh, What’s
happening?, in 2002.
The retrospective,
presented in collaboration with L’Institut Franco-Japonais de Tokyo, will
include six screenings, as well as Q&A sessions with the director.
Mr. Ameur-Zaimech will be
available for interviews at the L’Institut Franco-Japonais de Tokyo in the
afternoon of the 21st. Requests are
subject to his discretion. As space is
limited, we encourage those interested to inform us ASAP.
For more information, please contact Refugee Film Festival
Director Kiril Konin at 080 3436 0050, konin@unhcr.org.
Click on the
following links for synopses and screening times:
/2008/en/film/2008/308.html
/2008/en/film/2008/309.html
/2008/en/film/2008/310.html
