French
and Francophone Film Festival
October 18– November 15, 2007
This
year marks the Tournées Film Festival's second visit
to the University of Arizona. A program of the French American
Cultural Exchange, the festival is designed to help bring contemporary
French cinema to American colleges and universities.
Professor LeHir helped bring the Tournées festival to
the University of Arizona, and organized this year's features.
Each
screening is to be followed by a discussion led by a faculty
member.
The
Tournées Festival is made possible with the support
of:
The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Centre National de
la Cinématographie, The Florence Gould Foundation,
The Grand Marnier Foundation, Highbrow Entertainment, agnès
b, Fonds Culturel franco-américain.
Sponsors at the University of Arizona:
Alliance Française of Tucson, Association of Graduate
Students in French, Center for Judaic Studies, Center for
Middle Eastern Studies, College of Humanities, Office of International
Affairs.
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LE
GRAND VOYAGE, October 18, 2007
A few weeks before his high school final exam,
Réda, a young man who lives in the south of France, is
chosen to drive his aging father to Mecca for the traditional
pilgrimage. From the start, the journey promises to be difficult,
as Réda and his father have nothing in common. They are
separated by culture, language and religion. Réda is
a modern young man who does not speak Arabic and cares little
about his father’s deep sense of religion.
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LES
AMITIES MALEFIQUES, October 25, 2007
Eloi, a reserved but passionate literature student and son of
a well-known writer, befriends André, a brilliant and
charismatic student willing to stand up for true literature
and criticizing vehemently his peers for their desire to write
and published. Mesmerized by André’s impressive
intelligence, Eloi and his friends, Alexandre and Edouard, let
André become their mentor.
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LE
PLAFOND DE VERRE, November 1, 2007
“The
Glass Ceiling” is an American sociological expression
referring to the invisible, impalpable barrier that prevents
women from reaching the same level as men in their careers.
Using this metaphor, Yamina Benguigui examines the integration
of immigrants in the workplace. For her, the comparison between
immigrants and women is relevant because they face the same
challenges: the issue is not necessarily about finding work,
but about being hired for positions of responsibility that correspond
to their educational backgrounds.
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DARATT,
November 8, 2007
When
the long and devastating civil war in Chad ends, survivors are
hoping that justice will be served against those who were involved
in the genocide. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission, however,
chooses not to condemn them. Young Atim, whose father was murdered
before his birth during the conflict, is given a gun by his
blind grandfather and ordered to avenge his family. Determined
to take revenge, Atim looks for Nassara, his father’s
torturer.
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LA
PETITE JERUSALEM, November 15, 2007
La
Petite Jerusalem is the nickname of Sarcelles, a low-income
housing neighborhood near Paris. Among the high number of Jewish
immigrants who live there, a Tunisian family of eight shares
a cramped apartment: Laura (a French-born, 18-year-old student),
her sister Mathilde, their mother, Mathilde’s husband
Ariel, and the couple’s four children. Independent and
strong-willed, Laura refuses Ariel’s orthodoxy and her
mother’s superstition. Instead, she throws herself into
the study of Kant which leads her to take evening walks. On
one such walk, she meets an Algerian-Muslim immigrant named
Djamel.
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