Middle East films nominated at 92nd Oscars

Monitoring Desk

DUBAI: Films hailing from the region, or about the Middle East, have been nominated in the Live Action Short category and the Documentary Feature category at the 2020 Academy Awards, set to take place on Feb. 9.

“Nefta Football Club,” a 2018 Live Action short film directed by French director Yves Piat and Damien Meghrebi, was nominated alongside “Brotherhood” by Meryam Joobeur and Maria Gracia Turgeon.

In “Brotherhood,” a hardened Tunisian shepherd’s son returns home after a long journey with a new wife, only to find tension rising between father and son in this short film by Tunisian director Joobeur.

“Nefta Football Club” focuses on children playing football in a Tunisian village, just as characters Abdallah and Mohammed come across a donkey with headphones on his ears and bags full of a white powder on his back.

Meanwhile, “The Cave” by Syrian director Feras Fayyad  and “For Sama” by Syrian auteur Waad Al-Kateab also scored nominations in the Documentary Feature category.

“For Sama” focusses on Al-Khateab, a filmmaker living in Aleppo as she goes about her life from the start of the uprising through to the brutal siege of the city by Bashar Al-Assad’s forces and their allies.

For its part, “The Cave” tells the story of Amani Ballor, who amidst the civil war became the first woman to manage a hospital in the history of the country.

Courtesy: (arabnews)