in writing | development

Afar [ Far From Afar ]

Feature fiction by Tahar Kessi

© Tahar Kessi

Senza Fine

Feature documentary by Iván Castiñeiras Gallego

© Iván Castiñeiras

Port de Bouc | Port Soudan

Feature documentary Franssou Prenant

© Franssou Prenant

Monozande | Wastelands

Feature fiction film by Tahar Kessi and Kamel Khélif
Adapted from the graphic novel Monozande by Kamel Khélif

The sun has set. It is night, Césarine. The last glimmers disappear behind the hills that encircle the camp. Everything is lost in darkness, inside me and outside me. A pain grips my heart. My mind is no longer in this place. I, too, want to be beneath the sky, among the stars hiding behind the clouds.

I look northward, where sometimes I dream and lose myself far from here - I am not ashamed of it - in great cities of Europe, America and Australia. Deep within me remains the memory of this landscape, so familiar with its hills, trees and flowers, that I feel I have known it for thousands of years. And if someone on a street corner or a square could read my eyes, they would be stunned to know my story.

Kamel Khélif — in Monozande, Le Tripode, 2024.

Reconstructing Memories [ Chemins Battus ]

Feature documentary by Iván Castiñeiras Gallego

© Iván Castiñeiras

The Seven Cat Lives of Madame Bérange

Medium-length film, dystopian comedy-thriller, by Tahar Kessi, co-written with Thomas Gosselin

Birds of Passage
[ منطق الطیر | مقامات‌ الطیور ]

Feature documentary by Soukaina Sentissi, co-written with Tahar Kessi

Adapted from The Conference of the Birds by Farid al-Din Attar

Illustration by Habib-Allah Savaji, created between 1589 and 1610

"إذا كنت أيها القلب طالباً ، فكن للطريق سالكاً . وتذود بالحذر ولتمعن النظر أمامك وخلفك . وارقب من وصلوا إلى الاعتاب العلية من السالكين ؛ فجميعهم سلكوا الطريق متعاقيين . وفي كل ذرة فى الطريق عقبة , وخلف كل ذرة طريق جديد إليه ؛ فكيف يمكنك معرفة أى طريق. و أي طريق إلى تلك الأعتاب يوصلك ؟ فقد أصبح خفياً ذلك الزمان الذى تبْحث عنه عياناً ؛ كما أصبح عياناً ذاك الزمان الذى تبحث عنه خفياً . هكذا تبحث عن عيان فيتحول إلى خفاء ، وتبحث عن خفاء فيتحول إلى عيان . وإن تبحث في كليهما فلن تجد له نظيراً ، حيث يكون خارجاً عن نطاق هذا وذاك ، فلتكف عن البحث ؛فما فقدت شيئاً ، وكف عن الحديث فكل ما تقوله لي إلا ثرثرة ..."

O heart, if you are seeking, set out upon the path. Arm yourself with caution and look closely before you and behind you. Watch those travellers who have reached the high thresholds: all of them walked this path one after another. In every speck of dust on the path lies an obstacle, and behind every speck of dust opens a new path leading there.

How will you know which path is yours, and which path will bring you to those thresholds? The time you sought in plain sight has become hidden, and the time you pursued in secret has become manifest. Thus what you seek in daylight turns to secrecy, and what you pursue in secrecy becomes light. And if you seek them both, you will find no equal to them, for they are beyond this and that. So stop searching: you have lost nothing.

Stop speaking: everything else is mere chatter.

Translated excerpts from The Conference of the Birds by Farid al-Din Attar.

Random.Access.Memory [RAM]

Feature documentary/fiction by Pierre Agoutin

© Pierre Agoutin

Daoud, the Missing Letter

Short documentary -archives- by Nora Daoud

© Nora Daoud

Wild Lights

Feature documentary by Soukaina Sentissi

© Soukaina Sentissi