Moroccan films are focus of Binyamina festival

Award-winning musician and singer Francoise Atlan, a Jewish singer who lives in Morocco and performs all over the world, will also attend the opening.

A MOROCCO FAN waves his national flag at a soccer match.  (photo credit: REUTERS)
A MOROCCO FAN waves his national flag at a soccer match.
(photo credit: REUTERS)
Moroccan culture is taking its rightful place in Israel and devotees of Moroccan heritage and customs will want to attend the third International Days of Cinema Festival, which will be held at the community center in Binyamina/ Givat Ada, which runs from July 23-25.
Izza Génini, an international producer/director who will attend a screening of her film, Nuba of Gold and Light, will be an opening-night guest. Her film is a documentary about the influences on and development of Andalusian music over the centuries, from Fez to Tangier and all the way to Seville and Paris. She was born in Casablanca to a Jewish family and has worked to bring French films to Francophone countries all over the world. Starting in the 1980s, she began making a series of documentaries on traditional Moroccan music.
Award-winning musician and singer Francoise Atlan, a Jewish singer who lives in Morocco and performs all over the world, will also attend the opening and will perform accompanied by an Andalusian ensemble. Atlan is considered one of the leading singers in the world of the Spanish romanticism school of music.
Another film that will be screened at the festival directed by Génini will be Return to Oulad Moumen. It is a documentary set in a village called Oulad Moumen in south Marrakesh, Morocco, where Habiba and Yossef Edery began their family in the 1920s. Génini, the youngest of the nine Edery children, organized a family reunion in 1992 to bring her family (now dispersed geographically and culturally) together in the place where is all began. Fifty members of the family came from Morocco, France, the US, Canada, Mexico, Italy and Israel to Oulad Moumen to learn of the dynasty’s origins. Génini documents the family reunion with archival photos, giving both a personal view of a Sephardi family and a historical picture of Jewish-Arabic-Berber coexistence in Oulad Moumen. The film is in French with Hebrew subtitles.
The Days of Cinema Festival will also feature documentary films from Israel and around the world on food, nature and travel and will offer lectures, performances, art workshops, a food market and a nature celebration for the whole family in the heart of Binyamina and Givat Ada. Entrance to all festival events is free.
To reserve a ticket to the opening event can be found here: https://ticks.co.il/event. php?i=i0ohDv6a081.
For more details and a list of the full activities at the Binyamina-Givat Ada Community Center, visit: http://www. matnasbga.org.il/index.php.