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NAMUR 2016

The Namur International Francophone Film Festival unveils its programme

by 

- Safe bets, firm favourites and revelations, from Quebec to Cambodia via Belgium and Romania, are all on the cards for the 31st edition of the festival

The Namur International Francophone Film Festival unveils its programme
Diamond Island by Davy Chou

The Namur International Francophone Film Festival will be held from 30 September to 6 October in the Walloon capital. For this year’s 31st edition, the Festival will once again give audiences the chance to discover some of the gems, surprises and safe bets of francophone film.

Far from limiting itself to French film, the francophone film world stretches from Cambodia (Diamond Island [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
by Davy Chou, which won the SACD Prize in Critics’ Week at this year’s Cannes Film Festival) to Canada (most notably Boris sans Béatrice by Denis Côté), via Tunisia (Zaïneb Hates the Snow [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
, the latest film by Kaouther Ben Hania), and Senegal (Wùlu [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
by Daouda Coulibaly, which was unveiled at Toronto last week). Of course, there are French-speaking communities in a number of French-speaking countries in Europe, from the most obvious (France, Belgium, Switzerland), to the most unexpected, like Romania. Indeed, Romania has featured prominently in the Festival’s programme for ten years or so now, and will be represented this year in competition by Two Lottery Tickets [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Paul Negoescu
film profile
]
by Paul Negoescu and Illegitimate [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Adrian Sitaru
film profile
]
by Adrian Sitaru.

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The FIFF is an opportunity to follow promising filmmakers, such as Rachid Djaidani, who rose to prominence in 2012 at Cannes with Hold Back [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Rachid Djaïdani
film profile
]
, and is back this year with Four Days in France [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Rachid Djaïdani
film profile
]
, or to see what more well-established filmmakers have to offer. This year competition contenders most notably include Arnaud des Pallières (Orphan [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Arnaud des Pallières
film profile
]
), Stéphane Brizé (A Woman’s Life [+see also:
film review
trailer
Q&A: Stéphane Brizé
film profile
]
), and Marion Hänsel (Upstream [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Marion Hänsel
film profile
]
).

But the Festival also promotes a lot of debut works, with 13 in competition this year, including A Taste of Ink [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Morgan Simon
film profile
]
by Morgan Simon, and Willy 1er [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
 by Ludovic Boukherma, Zoran Boukherma, Marielle Gauthier and Hugo P. Thomas. It’s also an occasion to take stock of French-speaking Belgian productions. The competitive section for best debut feature features two feature films, Sonar [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jean-Philippe Martin
film profile
]
by Jean-Philippe Martin and Even Lovers Get the Blues [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
by Laurent Micheli, and the official competition includes A Wedding [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Stephan Streker
film profile
]
, the latest film by Stephan Streker, also acclaimed at Toronto.

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(Translated from French)

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