Two Moroccan film directors, Ali Essafi and Al Hadi Oulad Mohand, are participating in the official feature film competition of the Latin Arab International Film Festival “LatinArab” in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Two Moroccan Film Directors Compete At ‘LatinArab’ International Film Festival

Rabat – Two Moroccan film directors, Ali Essafi and Al Hadi Oulad Mohand, are participating in the official feature film competition of the Latin Arab International Film Festival “LatinArab” in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Filmmaker Essafi entered the competition with his 2020 film “Before the dying of the light,” while Oulad Mohand participated with “Life suits me well,” a Moroccan-French co-production of 2021.

After two years of postponement due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2022 “LatinArab” festival is now taking place in a hybrid format.

For the first time, the festival will also run simultaneously in Chile’s capital Santiago and the southeastern Brazilian city of Niteroi.

Scheduled to last from May 4 to 19, this year’s program features around 50 films produced in more than 30 countries. According to the organizers, the main aim is to promote cultural networks, especially in cinematographic production, to generate an intercultural dialogue between the Arab world and Latin America.

During the opening of the festival, attendees screened the 2020 film “Gaza mon amour” (French for Gaza my love), directed by Palestinian twin brothers and film directors Arab Nasser and Tarzan Nasser.

The program also includes the competition of Arab and Latin American short films and features for several honors and prizes. Screenings are held both virtually and in-person in Argentina, Chile, and Brazil.

The program features the out-of-competition screening of Tunisian director Nouri Bouzid’s film “The Scarecrows,” which is a Moroccan-Tunisian co-production.

As “LatinArab” celebrates its 10th edition this year, Christin Mouroux, the festival’s artistic director, said in an interview with the Times, “it was important for us and the public to return to theaters.”

Mouroux added, “We are also keeping the virtuality, which also allowed us to reach more audiences.”

The 2022 festival will be the first celebrated since the passing of its co-founder Edgardo “Pipo” Bachera El Khoury in March 2021.

Mouroux stressed, “We believe that we are making an edition that lives up to his figure, to what he was, and I think he would be very happy and proud.”

Organized by the Cine Fertil association, the LatinArab is the only festival that highlights Arab and Latin American cultures through artistic works and cinema.