Shince and Fernando in a still from ‘This Is Not Cricket’ by Jacopo de Bertoldi
I found my love for cricket within an Italian filmmaker’s documentary that has little to do with the game and much more with humanity’s place within it. Well, the film is called ‘This Is Not Cricket’ after all, and the filmmaker is wonderfully fresh voice in documentary, Jacopo de Bertoldi. A man with whom every conversation turns into an explanation of life.
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Mariam Al Ferjani in a still from Kaouther Ben Hania's 'Beauty and the Dogs'
Films featuring strong women are what I crave. But I won’t buy that typical Hollywood fare, which sells the perfect package of a buff heroine dressed in a shiny costume doing stunts as the perfect woman’s film. Nope. I need a real-life wonder woman to fulfill my cravings.
In Tunisian filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania’s latest ‘Beauty and the Dogs’, which world premiered at the Festival de Cannes in their Un Certain Regard section, I found her.
Within the role of Mariam (played to absolute perfection by first-time actress Mariam Al Ferjani), your typical run of the mill modern university girl wanting to have fun on a night out at a club event we learn she helped to organize, I discovered a heroine that transcends the Arab world — Mariam’s story takes place in Tunisia — and jumped off the screen straight into my subconscious. And remained there, juggling with my thoughts, until now.
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