Latest news with #IFFR
The Guardian
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
‘They first come for great acts of culture': Cate Blanchett sets up grant for displaced film-makers
Authoritarian regimes 'first come for great acts of culture' when they start to curtail civil liberties, Cate Blanchett warned as she launched a new grant for displaced film-makers. The two-time Oscar winner and goodwill ambassador for the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), has teamed up with the international film festival Rotterdam's (IFFR) Hubert Bals Fund to set up the Displacement Film Fund, which will support displaced film-makers or those with experience in refugee storytelling. Its pilot version is bestowing a grant of €100,000 (£84,000) to five film-makers – Maryna Er Gorbach (Ukraine), Mo Harawe (Somalia, Austria), Hasan Kattan (Syria), Mohammad Rasoulof (Iran) and Shahrbanoo Sadat (Afghanistan) – whose short films will premiere at IFFR 2026. 'History has shown us that when authoritarian regimes start to curtail civil liberties, they first come for great acts of culture,' Blanchett told the Guardian on Friday. 'The metaphorical noses are always removed from statues. I think there's a cautionary tale to the way artists are silenced; it's often the thin end of a very thick wedge. And it's undeniable that this is happening globally now. Oppression comes in many forms, and it's touching all our lives to greater and lesser degrees.' In the US, Donald Trump has exerted control over which cultural pursuits the government backs, from taking the reins of the Kennedy Center to targeting 'improper ideology' at the Smithsonian Institution. In the UK, Arts Council England became mired in controversy last year when it warned that 'political statements' could break funding agreements after discussions with the government about artists speaking out over the Israel-Gaza war. A recent report by Freemuse said artistic freedom was more threatened globally than ever, citing a culture of 'censorship (including self-censorship), imprisonment, travel bans, misuse of defamation, harassment, blasphemy legislation, misuse of anti-terrorism legislation' and violence. Blanchett said the idea for a new fund was born after 'a group of us collected at the global refugee forum 18 months ago, and pledged to one another that we would find a way to highlight displaced perspectives and help them find a more mainstream audience'. It comes amid a global crisis, with 122.6 million people forcibly displaced owing to war, persecution or human rights abuses, according to the UN. This amounts to one in 67 people worldwide, with 71% of displacements occurring in low- and middle-income nations. 'Forced displacement around the world is one of the greatest challenges that we face as a species, yet it's often outside the mainstream cultural conversation. When I started working with UNHCR 10 years ago, the numbers of forcibly displaced people around the world were approaching 60 million. They're now over 120 and rising,' Blanchett said. 'I think it's very easy to be overwhelmed by those numbers and to disconnect from the individuals behind the numbers. Refugees are often stigmatised, demonised and ostracised. They are often used as political footballs. But during my travels with UNHCR, I've heard stories of resilience, and great humour, and have even found portals into my own experience. I found that I have much more in common with these people than the mainstream media would make me believe.' The Australian actor, who has appeared in dozens of critically acclaimed films, including Tár, Carol and Blue Jasmine – and who created the 2020 Australian series Stateless about unlawful detention in Australia – said it was important to find common themes in other people's stories and experiences. Film-making, she said, was a way to 'break down' the barriers between us. 'We're told that refugees are coming for our jobs or going to disrupt civil society. But in fact, these people have so much to offer. They're architects, lawyers, doctors, plumbers, they're people who are highly skilled, whose lives have been put on hold, but their humanity has not,' Blanchett said. Sign up to Film Weekly Take a front seat at the cinema with our weekly email filled with all the latest news and all the movie action that matters after newsletter promotion 'These issues get politicised overly quickly, so there was an urgency to reclaim a positive, constructive discourse around them.' Rasoulof fled Iran after the selection of his film The Seed of the Sacred Fig to take part in the main competition at Cannes last year. His new, untitled short is set after the death of an exiled writer as his family tries to fulfil his wish to be buried according to his will. The director said: 'When I first heard about this fund and its incentives, I felt comfort, seeing that there are people who have this care and concern for us. 'It reminded me of the very specific moment when I was fleeing my country, when I was a step away from crossing the border. I looked at my homeland for one last time, and thought about all the other people who had to leave their roots, their culture, behind, and fight for their freedom of expression.' Rasoulof said that, despite his experiences of 'captivity and interrogation', he didn't flee Iran for comfort or security. 'It's not about that. It's just about being able to go on working, being able to go on expressing myself. This is the case for many artists.'
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Cate Blanchett, Afghan, Syrian Creators on Fund for Displaced Directors Backing 'Surprising Narratives'
Five filmmakers from Iran, Syria, Afghanistan, Somalia and Ukraine are the recipients of the inaugural Displacement Film Fund, a short film grant scheme recently unveiled by Cate Blanchett and the International Film Festival Rotterdam's (IFFR) Hubert Bals Fund, and the star was in Cannes on Friday to celebrate the recipients, who include Iranian auteur Mohammad Rasoulof (The Seed of the Sacred Fig), and raise awareness. The recently unveiled fund is designed to 'champion and fund the work of displaced filmmakers, or filmmakers with a proven track record in creating authentic storytelling on the experiences of displaced people.' More from The Hollywood Reporter 'A Private Life' Review: A Delightfully Paired Jodie Foster and Daniel Auteuil Escape Injury in a Messy but Pleasurable Genre Collision Prince William Launches 'Guardians' Docuseries on Rangers on BBC Earth Digital Platforms Cannes: Hasan Hadi's 'The President's Cake' Wins Directors' Fortnight Audience Award Blanchett was joined for the Cannes event by IFFR managing director Clare Stewart, grant recipients Maryna Er Gorbach, the Ukrainian director known for Klondike, and Somali-Austrian filmmaker Mo Harawe (The Village Next to Paradise), along with Rajendra Roy, chief curator of film at The Museum of Modern Art in New York. 'It's a pilot program to allow a more mainstream audience access to the work of the five recipients of the grant,' Blanchett shared as she took time in between a busy Cannes schedule to talk to THR on Friday via Zoom. 'Part of being here in Cannes is a call to arms to the rest of the industry to help to find mainstream platforms to get these voices out, because it's potentially an incredibly exciting form of storytelling for a wider audience.' Joining Blanchett in the Zoom conversation were Stewart, Syrian filmmaker Hasan Kattan (Last Men in Aleppo) and Afghan filmmaker Shahrbanoo Sadat, who fled to Germany and whose debut film Wolf and Sheep won the top award in the 2016 Directors' Fortnight program at Cannes. The two filmmakers weren't in attendance at Cannes. 'We're doing short films with full production funding because of that urgency, that desire to get films out there, to make a profile for the need of the industry to galvanize around this,' explained Stewart, echoing the notion of the fund as 'a call to action.' She also highlighted that Roy's presence is key given his role as 'co-chair of the international award at the Oscars, and they have just made a change to the regulations there to support refugee and displaced filmmakers to be able to participate more fully in the awards process.' Sadat shared with THR insight into her grant-receiving project with the working title Female Fitness of Kabul and the experience of earnings the grant. 'Inside a crumbling Kabul gym, its walls covered with oiled muscle men and doors open to women for only a few hours each day,' reads a synopsis of her film. 'Afghan housewives in scarves and long dresses reclaim not just their bodies, but also their spirits, their bonds, and their sense of self.' When she found out about the grant, 'I was like, 'This is amazing. I'm the most perfect candidate',' she recalled. 'This is my life. I was born in Iran to an Afghan refugee family, and the very first ID card that I ever received was a refugee card. It means I was born a refugee, even if it doesn't make sense. Until I was 11, I was living in Iran, and I was always called 'Afghan,' which is more of an insult. And then when we moved to Afghanistan, I was called Iranian there. I never really felt like I was in the right place.' Then she evacuated with her family to Germany. 'I didn't even know about the word 'displacement',' she shared. 'I thought this more and less how everyone feels. Of course, I connected displacement to land, but also to gender. I also connect displacement to women issues, because it's kind of like double exile, being a woman in a society that you're not really accepted in.' How does that feel? 'The more you try, the more you get rejected. And you don't even feel at home under your own skin,' Sadat explained. 'I was thinking about this idea for a very long time, and then I thought this is the perfect platform for me to explore this idea through this gym in Kabul.' Her film features 'a group of housewives who are going there, and they do fitness. And they experience this in a little gym in Kabul with all these posters of men with exaggerated muscles and oily bodies, and these women trying to fit themselves in. I thought it would be interesting to also look at displacement from another point of view.' Meanwhile, Kattan discussed his project with the working title Allies in Exile, for which he earned a Displacement Film Fund grant. 'Two Syrian filmmakers, bound by a 14-year friendship forged in war, document their shared exile in the U.K. asylum system – until one is granted refuge and the other returns to a changed Syria, reflecting the impossible choices refugees face today,' reads a synopsis for the film. 'Last year was so difficult for me because I ended up here in the U.K. as an asylum seeker, and I was inside the asylum process, every day facing the system from inside and feeling the disappointment,' Kattan told THR. 'I started from the zero point again. And through this experience and the revolution in Syria, documenting everything, telling a story feels like it's the only way that we can scream or express our feelings.' He added: 'When I heard about and saw this grant and fund, I thought, 'Oh my God, this is really, really what I need.' Because I was having no hope to make this film, because finding money in this time and my situation – how do I express this? When you live this experience, you lose any hope around you. You start to feel hopeless. When I saw this grant, it was a big hope for me to bring light to this project, to this film, because I see it as helping me in my personal perspective and reflecting the situation of the asylum seeker.' Concluded Kattan: 'It's not just about fleeing war, it's not about the journey. It's about the daily struggle and the human struggle in daily life. I hope I can make this project, this film, [create] a wide conversation about asylum seekers and refugees.' Rasoulof was awarded his grant for a so far unnamed project with this plot description: 'After the death of an exiled writer, his family tries to fulfill his wish to be buried according to his will – but honoring his request leads to unexpected complications.' Harawe's project with the working title Whispers of a Burning Scent is pitched this way: 'On the day of a pivotal court hearing, a quiet man faces the unraveling of his marriage and the judgment of his stepchildren, while searching for solace in what once gave his life meaning.' Er Gorbach's Silk Road, also a working title, is described as 'a timely Ukraine–Europe road movie about a young Ukrainian woman whose family has been torn apart by war: while her children live in Europe, she and her husband remain in Kyiv, working in a children's hospital as the war goes on.' The Displacement Film Fund pilot program is offering grants of €100,000 ($104,000) each to the five displaced filmmakers to make original shorts. Blanchett headed up the selection committee, joined by Wicked star Cynthia Erivo, documentarians Jonas Poher Rasmussen (Flee) and Waad Al-Kateab (For Sama), director Agnieszka Holland (Green Border), Rotterdam festival director Vanja Kaludjercic, activist and refugee Aisha Khurram, and Amin Nawabi [alias], the LGBTQ+ asylum seeker who was Rasmussen's inspiration for the Oscar-nominated Flee. 'The numbers of people outside their their country of origin around the world has just ballooned and continues to grow,' Blanchett told THR. 'I'm a global Goodwill Ambassador for UNHCR, and when I started working with them 10 years ago, the numbers were around 60 million, and it's now over 120 million. And while people are displaced, they don't stop being mothers, brothers, uncles, cousins, nor do they stop being filmmakers and artists. And given that it's one of the great challenges that we're facing as a species, it's always bewildered me why these incredible stories, heartbreaking sometimes, yes, but inspiring and having more points of connection to people's lives who are not displaced, why they don't get told more frequently. So that was part of the DNA of the idea.' She lauded 'a real coalition of the willing' for making the fund happen quickly. The five short films will have their world premieres at IFFR next year but Blanchett and Stewart 'and others who are coalescing around the fund are also very committed to indeed [figuring out] what the lives of the films will be' beyond that, the Stewart said. 'That's what we are here to sort out,' Blanchett concluded. And the star highlighted that the stories told by displaced creatives will be able to surprise audiences. 'There are so many surprising narratives that emerge, often heartbreaking, but also full of resilience and transformation,' Blanchett said. 'Part of the DNA of the fund in its pilot stage is to sort of reject and challenge the stereotypes and the categorizations that swirl around the discourse about what it means to be displaced. These might be genre-driven or romantic or surprising stories that really speak to the breadth of that experience and entertain an audience. And then they happen to find out that the filmmaker is displaced or that there's much more connective tissue between their experience and their own.' Concluded Blanchett: 'It's a wonderful beginning, in that way, to really allow the audience to go through some sort of revelatory transformation as much as perhaps the filmmakers getting a chance to pick up the pieces of their amazing careers that they had to leave behind when they left their countries.' 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Yahoo
08-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Indonesian Director Mouly Surya Talks Independence Epic ‘This City Is A Battlefield' & Shooting With Jessica Alba In ‘Trigger Warning' — Rotterdam
Fresh off shooting Trigger Warning in the U.S., starring Jessica Alba, Indonesian filmmaker Mouly Surya quickly launched into completing her fifth feature film, independence epic This City is a Battlefield, which stars Chicco Jerikho, Ariel Tatum and Jerome Kurnia. This City is a Battlefield will serve as the closing film for the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) on the evening of February 8. More from Deadline Veteran Japanese Filmmaker Takashi Miike: "A New Wave In Japan Is Coming" - Rotterdam Jurassic World Immersive Attraction Unveiled In Bangkok For Q2 2025 Indonesian Streamer Vidio Unveils Originals Slate, Including 'Bad Guys' Adaptation & 'Santri Pilihan Bunda 2' The prolific writer-director has also finished shooting her next film, Tukar Takdir, based on an anthology of short stories. This City is a Battlefield was adapted off a 1952 novel titled 'A Road with No End' by Mochtar Lubis, which had been sitting on Surya's bookshelf untouched for a while. 'I happened to read it by chance,' said Surya. 'I had just read a few pages of it, I could not forget the images that it brought to my mind. The prose is written in such a way that you can definitely imagine it. I was totally mesmerised and I said to my producer that this was a very interesting book and I wanted to adapt it into a film.' This City is a Battlefield follows Isa (played by Jerikho), who juggles different roles: as a school teacher, a talented violinist as well as a resistance fighter. Tatum plays the role of Isa's wife, Fatimah, who is tenacious and also competent with a piano. Isa is soon tasked with carrying out an assassination alongside fellow rebel Hazil (played by Kurnia). However, Hazil increasingly becomes attracted to Fatimah. Embarking on her first period film Surya said that she met with a lot of historians during the film's development stage. However, Surya emphasized that her goal with This City is a Battlefield was never to make a documentary. Working in a fictional space gave her more creative freedom to draw from different sources and inspirations. 'With a film, people expect reality, but I think that the perspective is reality. I shot in real locations so there are just things that are out of our control,' said Surya. 'Making a period film was a daunting task,' said Surya. 'The beginning is the hardest, because you will look at pictures and older movies — and history is funny, right? Victors get to write history, so it's a perspective. When you look at history, at the facts and pictures, there's a tone in how films about that time are usually filmed in Indonesia. 'What I worried about the most was to find my own tone and voice, and then I always said, we're not making a documentary. It's fiction, it's a story, and that should be the most important thing. So I have to come up with some impressions, like how do I want Jakarta in 1946 to look like? I remember the first time I went to Amsterdam — and if you've been to Jakarta, we have a bit of canals as well — in Amsterdam I saw how the canals were like, and they left a big impression on me, like this is what they planned for Jakarta before [the Dutch] were kicked out,' added Surya. 'It's what they planned for the city, to make it a port city. My late uncle and my late father were born around that colonial era, in the 1920s and 1930s, and I still remember that they would speak Indonesian and Dutch, just like right now, everybody's speaking in Indonesian and English. That was an interesting tidbit that I wanted to inject in the film because you're not just being colonized as a country economically, it's about culture as well.' Working on in the U.S. Marking her first foray in Hollywood, Surya directed action thriller Trigger Warning, starring Jessica Alba as a Special Forces officer who takes over the running of her father's bar after he dies. The film also featured Mark Webber, Tone Bell and Jake Weary. Surya said that directing in a different country was not as much of a challenge for her — instead, she found that the biggest areas of growth as a filmmaker was in adapting to different cultural and professional contexts in the U.S., which also invigorated her with a new approach towards filmmaking. 'With directing, it's the same thing — if you're doing a student film, it's just a smaller pool, or whether you have a trailer or not, which doesn't matter, like it doesn't really affect the work,' said Surya. 'But the experience in America, for me, I was very impressed with the competitiveness and the human resources that they have — the abundance of great actors. 'Also, coming from Indonesia, I'm definitely an outspoken person here, but in America, I was considered pretty reserved. America is a very different animal, so that was quite an experience. The pressure is definitely different and I did grow up a lot as a filmmaker there. I don't think I would have had the mental capacity to do a period film in Indonesia without doing that first,' added Surya. 'I realized also how I've been self-censoring myself in Indonesia, because when I write, if I know that a certain scene is so expensive that it can't be done, I unconsciously shy away from it and try to make things more simple,' said Surya. 'One of the things that I found in [my third film] Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts, was that I wanted more complexity in the film and I think Americans don't shy away from that at all and push through it, even though there are limitations, because there's no such thing as an unlimited budget. So when I went back home, I said that I'm going to push some of the boundaries and resources a little bit more.' Casting for Surya admitted that casting for This City is a Battlefield was a long and tedious process. She first came across Kurnia in This Earth of Mankind, where he played a supporting role as a Dutch-Indonesian character. 'He had around 10 minutes of dialogue and he was speaking Dutch all the way through and I had never seen him before,' said Surya. 'He was a new actor back then. I was very impressed, and because I had just read the novel, I felt like I saw a glimpse of Hazil.' Tatum sent in an audition tape, while Jerikho became attached to the film at a later stage. 'I would say that Chicco was quite a unique choice for the role,' said Surya. 'I've known Chicco for a while as an actor. We have never really worked with him, but we have always been trying to find a good role for him. Isa was quite a bit of an opposite character that he usually plays. Chicco usually plays the popular guy. I always said during the shoot that if this was a high school movie, Chicco will be the quarterback, but Isa is actually the president of the student council.' Finally, Surya highlighted how This City is a Battlefield will have a fitting world premiere as IFFR's closing film. 'Rotterdam has always supported us from the very beginning,' said Surya. 'One of our biggest co-productions is with the Netherlands, because we have three Dutch actors who traveled to Indonesia to be in the film. Half of the DNA of the film is Dutch and so being the closing film was very fitting.' Best of Deadline 2025 TV Cancellations: Photo Gallery 'The Apprentice' Oscar Nominees Sebastian Stan & Jeremy Strong On Why It's 'More Of A Horror Movie' With "Monstrous Egos" 'Prime Target' Release Guide: When Are New Episodes Available On Apple TV+?
Yahoo
31-01-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Rotterdam Festival Head Says ‘The Seed of the Sacred Fig' Actor Soheila Golestani Is ‘Victim of Oppression' Following Travel Ban
Soheila Golestani, the Iranian actor who stars in Mohammad Rasoulof's Oscar-nominated drama 'The Seed of the Sacred Fig,' has been banned from leaving Iran to serve on the Tiger Competition jury at this year's International Film Festival Rotterdam. Festival director Vanja Kaludjercic spoke against the travel ban on Friday, saying the festival team is 'saddened but not surprised' that the actor has been forbidden from leaving Iran. 'Having seen Mohammad's journey with this vital project is to have witnessed time and again the real consequences of speaking truth to power,' continued Kaludjercic, referring to Rasoulof's film, which won the Jury Special Prize at Cannes. 'Mohammad joins us [at Rotterdam film festival] both to share his film and also participate on a panel about cinema in the face of a rise of authoritarianism — and Soheila's experience underscores how real and urgent these issues are.' More from Variety Indian Director Nishanth Kalidindi Explores Artists' Double Lives in Rotterdam-Bound 'Theatre' Indian Folk Horror 'Bokshi' Lands at Alief Ahead of Rotterdam Premiere, Clip Unveiled (EXCLUSIVE) Michiel ten Horn's Rotterdam Opener 'Fabula' Offers a Darkly Humorous Look at Redemption: 'It's Like 'A Christmas Carol'' She added: 'We stand with her in solidarity and hope that she is supported by the global film community at this time — as she is the victim of oppression and a backlash for speaking out that many artists know all too well.' Variety understands that Rasoulof is still scheduled to appear at the festival, not only in support of 'The Seed of the Sacred Fig' but as a special guest and speaker at a Tiger Talk titled 'Cinema and the Rise of Authoritarianism' held in partnership with the International Coalition for Filmmakers at Risk, of which IFFR is a founding member together with IDFA and the European Film Academy. Other speakers include Albertina Carri, Pier Giorgio Bellocchio and Erhan Örs. The talk is scheduled for Feb. 3. Golestani was to have served on the Tiger Competition jury alongside British director Peter Strickland, Indonesian producer and filmmaker Yuki Aditya, Hong Kong singer and actress Winnie Lau, and German artist and filmmaker Andrea Luka Zimmerman. Rasoulof fled his home country of Iran for Germany last year after being sentenced to eight years in prison by the country's authorities, who pressured him to pull 'The Seed of the Sacred Fig' from the Cannes Film Festival and harassed the film's producers and actors. The filmmaker is still wanted by authorities. As for Golestani, the charges aren't yet clear. Variety learned the actor is currently accused of propaganda against the Iranian regime and promoting immorality through her role in Rasoulof's latest. The court case has been held but no verdict has been issued yet. Golestani has also not yet released an official statement. Best of Variety New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week What's Coming to Netflix in February 2025 What's Coming to Disney+ in February 2025
