She is 16 and a young mother who lives alone in Cairo with her child after her husband left for work to a distant city feeling all the discomfort towards the environment that surrounds her. It is called “Khadiga” and it is the winning film of the sixteenth edition of SorsiCorti, the international short film festival that this year filled the Cantieri Culturali. The jury of experts, made up of Corrado Fortuna, Mohammad Reza Moradi, Claudia Puglisi and Angelo Sigurellaha, chose the Egyptian film produced in 2021 as the best film.
In just over twenty minutes, the film by director Morad Mostafa enters the female universe of Arab countries. “With very few words and images much more than eloquent, Khadiga takes us into the profound silence that characterizes the existence of some women who have no rights, no voice or space – explains the jury – outside the often oppressive families. A universe in which men almost do not appear and seem not to exist outside of their social role in which mothers, daughters, sisters, are unable to look into each other’s eyes and tell each other the truth. There is no rhetoric and no attempt to explain the tragic nature of such a dramatic choice as the one made by the talented protagonist. Still, her emotions hit us like a punch in the stomach and in her final cry we experience all our anger and frustration about her. We find courageous, in times like these, the choice to tell this unspeakable story. To turn on the spotlight and voice the unheard pain of so many women ”.
The award for best documentary goes to Maythem Ridha’s “Ali and his miracle sheep”. The Iraqi short tells the story of a mute nine-year-old boy who accompanies his sheep, Kirmeta, to the sacrifice, on a tiring journey through his land destroyed by years of war. “Ali is a film based on the story of a child who does not speak – motivates the jury – since his father was killed and beheaded by Isis. The child has a noteworthy interpretative ability, he could very well be a character in a Pasolini film. A journey that becomes a metaphor for life. A film that explores culture and tradition, superstition and the sacred, with particular attention to ambient sound and traditional songs reinterpreted by the figure of an elderly woman who is the bearer of spirituality, mysticism and prayer. There is a care in the narration, in the images, in the gestures, which does not leave indifferent ”.
The Belarusian short film by Henadzi Buto “Too big drawing” won the best direction. In just five minutes the drawing expands beyond the paper to trace the real world. “The thing that struck us most about this shot is precisely the wonderful capacity for synthesis that can be put into action in a short film – explains the jury this time – which has ideas of genius, in its simplicity, contextually to a depth which tells in a few minutes life, a dream, a desire, existence in a tip of a pencil, full of colors and seasons, of imaginary smiles and tears. In a nutshell, the ability to know how to tell a lot with little and without, in simplicity, falling into the obvious, until the end “.
Best experimental short is “Scars”. Produced in 2020 in Canada, live action and animation intertwine in this short and poetic, intimate and universal documentary by Alex Anna that tells the story of him. In fact, his scars come to life to tell a new story of self-harm. “Scars tells of an increasingly widespread phenomenon among adolescents – the jury specify – that of cutting. It is a form of self-harm in which pouring pain into the body helps the mind to get rid of it. What struck us is the delicacy with which this complex subject is treated. The scars become drawings and are colored transfiguring not only the pain of those who inflict them, but our own taboo regarding the suffering of others and blood. The idea is supported by a good technical knowledge and the choice to use the language of video-art with post-production interventions, in an almost video clip dimension. The choice of an empty, aseptic space in which this body exists is also excellent. Almost as if to oppose the offense of blood to an act that, immersed in an unreal white, invokes purity and purifies us ”.
The audience prize remains in Italy, and more precisely in Sicily, thanks to the short film by Areta Gambaro. The spectators in the room applauded “Do you want to change your mental form?”, The animated documentary produced in 2021 in which hand-made drawings on glossy sheets were colored and modified on the computer. The short was awarded ex-aequo with “Too big drawing”, already awarded as best director. Lastly, best leading actor is Andrea Maggiulli from the film “Colonie”.
A film on the female universe of Arab countries wins SorsiCorti, an audience award to a Sicilian