Gaza Mon Amour Wins NETPAC Award at the Toronto International Film Festival in Canada

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Described as 'A Heartwarming, Thought-provoking and Poetic Tale of Unspoken Emotions Portraying Daily Life.'

Gaza Mon Amour Wins NETPAC Award at the Toronto International Film Festival in Canada


21.09.2020 - Marking its first award, Palestinian feature film Gaza Mon Amour by twin brothers Tarzan and Arab Nasser won the NETPAC award at the 45th Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in Canada, which concluded its events yesterday, Sunday. The jury committee described the film as “a heartwarming, thought-provoking and poetic tale of unspoken emotions portraying daily life.”

After its world premiere at the Venice International Film Festival, Gaza Mon Amour received wide acclaim, whether it is by the audience who gave it a five-minute standing ovation, or the international media, including The Hollywood Reporter, Cineuropa, Screen Daily, and others, which described it using words like gem, and great and exceptional work. It is the only Arab film that screened at both the Venice International Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival this year, and the only Arab film that got selected at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Please click on the link below to follow the latest reviews of Gaza Mon Amour from international newspapers.

awardswatch.com/tiff-review-gaza-mon-amour-is-one-of-the-best-middle-eastern-films-of-the-year/

Gaza, today. Sixty-year-old fisherman Issa is secretly in love with Siham, a woman who works as a dressmaker at the market. Finally determined to propose, Issa discovers an ancient statue of Apollo in his fishing net, which he decides to hide at home. When local authorities discover the existence of this mysterious treasure, troubles start for Issa…Will he succeed to declare his love to Siham?

Directed by the Nasser brothers, Gaza Mon Amour features an all-star cast, including Salim Daw, Hiam Abbass, Maisa Abd Elhadi, Georges Iskandar, Hitham Al Omari, and Manal Awad. The film was officially selected at the 2019 Berlinale Co-Production Market.

The film is produced by the French company Les Films du Tambour (delegate producer), in a France-Germany-Portugal-Palestine-Qatar co-production with Riva Filmproduktion (Germany), ZDF/Das kleine Fernsehspiel in collaboration with ARTE (Germany), Ukbar Filmes (Portugal), Made in Palestine Project (Palestine), and Jordan Pioneers (Jordan). MAD Solutions handles the film’s distribution in the Arab world.

The film received the support of Eurimages, Centre National du Cinéma et de l'Image Animée (CNCI), Filmförderungsanstalt, Filmförderung Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein, L'Aide aux Cinémas du Monde – Centre National du Cinéma et de l’Image Animée – Institut Français, Instituto do Cinema e do Audiovisual, Altaris Partners, RTP - Rádio e Televisão de Portugal, and the Doha Film Institute, in association with Versatile, Dulac Distribution, and Alamode Film.

Twins Tarzan and Arab Nasser were born in Gaza, Palestine, in 1988. They studied Fine Arts at Al-Aqsa University and became passionate about cinema and paintings. They directed Condom Lead (15 min, 2013), which got selected in the Official Competition at the Cannes Film Festival 2013. Their first feature film, Dégradé (85 min, 2014), made its world premiere at Cannes’ Semaine de la Critique 2015, and also screened at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival. Gaza Mon Amour is their second feature-film.