By Ayoub Derraza
Rabat - The Moroccan Association of Informative Studies and Documentary Films organized the Europe Orient Documentary Film Festival’ from October 14 to 17 in Assilah.
Chaired by the Moroccan columnist and writer Mohamed Laaroussi, the judges of the contest chose three works from ten movies representing nine Arab and European countries, including Morocco, Spain, Poland, Great Britain, Switzerland, France, Palestine, Tunisia, and Lebanon.
The documentary film "The Shelter," directed by Swiss national Ferdinand Melgar, won the Festival’s top prize.
The film takes place inside a homeless shelter in the Swiss city of Lausanne, where it is difficult to find a vacant bed, as there is only room for only 100 people. In these difficult conditions, priority is given to women and children.
Meanwhile, "AGB Women Around The Clock" by Moroccan filmmaker Rajaa Seddiqui won the Aljazeera Documentary prize, in addition to the best director award.
Elizabeth Fernandez’s ‘Long-Distance Marathoners’ received the best screenplay award.
The Spanish documentary film observes several illegal African immigrants’ life in Barcelona. The immigrants, who are approaching adulthood, suffer from loss of protection granted by Spanish law for minors. A difficult situation forces them to look for employment contracts to prevent their deportation.
The festival’s judging committee gave the superiority award to the Lebanon Elhadi Zekak’s film ‘Mercedes’. The film goes through 60 years of contemporary history of Lebanon, from the point of view of her family and her black Mercedes 180.
Festival activities were not limited to adult filmmakers and intellectuals; activities of interest to children also had a significant presence in the festival, which concluded on Saturday evening.
The event organizers conducted a workshop for creative children in the field of documentary filmmaking. As a result, two documentary films that children helped make were produced and presented during the awards ceremony.
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