Kindil el Bahr Wins Two Awards at the Luxor African Film Festival

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Best Artistic Achievement and Audience Award for Best Short Narrative

Kindil el Bahr Wins Two Awards at the Luxor African Film Festival


After landing its Egyptian premiere at the 6th Luxor African Film Festival (LAFF), Algerian short film Kindil el Bahr by director Damien Ounouri has won the Audience Award for Best Short Narrative and Best Artistic Achievement in the Long Narrative competition of the festival.

The Luxor African Film Festival (LAFF) is organized by the Independent Shabab Foundation (ISF), which is a non-profit entity that is registered at the Ministry of Social Solidarity and active since 2006 in several fields. The festival is regarded as one of the foundation's most important projects. First debuted in 2012, the Luxor African Film Festival aims for supporting and encouraging African films production and the partnership between continent countries, through the consolidation of the humanitarian and political ties between the peoples of Africa in general and among African artists in particular.

Dealing with violence against women, Kindil el Bahr follows, Nfissa, a young mother who during a beach daytrip with her family is drowned by a group of young men while swimming offshore. Nobody seems to witness her disappearing. Anxiety and fear grow among the family, especially as, on the same beach, bathers mysteriously start to die. The film stars Adila Bendimerad, Nabil Asli, Aziz Boukerouni, and
Souad Sebki.

Directed by Damien Ounouri, who also co-wrote the film with Adila Bendimerad, Kindil el Bahr is a co-production between El Hadi Bouabdallah, Talal Al-Muhanna, Karim and Amin Bengana, Nathalie Fedrizzi, and Amine Mentseur, while the distribution of the film in the Arab world is handled by MAD Solutions.

Kindil el Bahr has received many awards screening at more than 17 international festivals like the Cannes International Film Festival, MedFilm Festival in Italy, where it won the two awards: Special Jury Award and Best Film- Rossellini Jury of Roberto Rossellini Institute, in addition to an Honorable Mention, and the Oran Arab Film Festival in Algeria where it received the Jury Prize.