A German forwards in the future, one of the largest Festivals on the African continent. 17 years Christoph Terhechte was previously head of the forum of the Berlinale. A conversation on African cinema and the new Job.
Atmosphere: The film festival in Marrakech
17 years Berlinale, now 17. The output of the “Marrakech International Film Festival” – not an ordinary job change. Christoph Terhechte, 1961 in Münster who was born in the Era of Dieter Kosslick responsible for the “Forum of young cinema” at the Berlinale, the most important and largest section, in addition to the competition. Since a couple of months, he works as the artistic Director of the film festival in Marrakech, after a year’s break before a restart.
In Marrakech’s guests: Robert DeNiro and Martin Scorsese
From the 30.11. up to 8.12. be shown in the Moroccan city of films in competition and various side-sections, a tribute to Robert DeNiro is aligned, will also be present. As another prominent guest of honor Director Martin Scorsese is loaded. Yet, the Festival sees its center of gravity, especially in the presentation of the Arabic-speaking and African cinema. We have reached Christoph Terhechte, shortly before the start of the Festival in Marrakech.
Deutsche Welle: The jump of the Berlinale for the artistic Director of the festival, in Marrakech, of course, was a challenge. What attracted you to the new task?
Christoph Terhechte: I had been thinking, after 17 years of Berlinale-Forum already longer than Alternatives. I wanted to stay safe until Retirement in Berlin. The offer from Morocco has appealed to me also because I’ve compiled in 1999, a program with Moroccan films for the Forum.
And in 2017, I have curated with the Moroccan filmmaker Ali Essafi a retrospective of the more or less forgotten Moroccan Director Ahmed Bouanani (1938-2011). Two years ago, I researched about Bouanani, in Rabat, invented in the 1960s and ’70s, the Moroccan cinema in a completely new. I fell in love with the country of Morocco and its film culture.
Christoph Terhechte
What is the Moroccan cinema today?
I was in March in Tangier in the Jury of the national film festival, where 15 of the current Moroccan films were shown, and we actually had difficulties to forgive our prices, because there were so many exciting films. I was very impressed by the proportion of high-quality and original films from a country where only around 25 films are produced.
There are Directors such as Nabil Ayouch, the produce for many years, always bigger and more expensive movies. And there are on the other side of young debutants, also a very weird and wild cinema.
Eight years after the Arab Revolution, the question comes naturally: How politically the cinema in Morocco and in the Region? Can work the film-makers in Morocco?
Largely Yes. Of course, any power in his own country, things that are the sensibilities of this culture appropriately. Japanese movies take out at another place a little as, for example, Argentine or even German and also Moroccan. We are surprised at some of what is possible here, and other Places we think, here, you can’t go any further. Each cinema of the culture is arrested in it.
Speaking for a lot of excitement: the Film “Much Loved provided in Arabic”
It is not here, but not so that the people need to be encrypted to tell, because they fear the – censorship-at all! “Much Loved” by Nabil Ayouch (2016) on the subject of Prostitution and has caused quite a bit of turmoil. The Film could not be shown in Morocco, but the Moroccan cinema has not suffered as a result of this turmoil. On the contrary, The Film has brought to discussions.
Of course, you have to show at the Festival, many films from the Arabic-speaking world. As the local cinema? And as the of the continent of Africa?
We have from the Arabic-speaking films from Morocco, Tunisia, the Sudan, much of it from Egypt. The film South of the Sahara it has on the other hand, is extremely difficult. There are at the Festival but also films from there, for example, the Nigerian Film “Lionheart” by Genevieve Nnaji, the Director is also the main actress. This is a product of the so-called Nollywood (Nigerian film industry), is an innovation that sets Nollywood always be quickly and cheaply machined, and distributed cinema.
The Premiere of “Rafiki” in Cannes, now he is to be seen in Marrakech
Now, there is a new development, the films have a slightly higher Budget and a higher standard of quality – also in international comparison. With this Film, which is a real novelty, had for the first Time, a Nollywood Film Premiere at a major international film festival, in Toronto. “Lionheart” is now being distributed by Netflix. Because what is on the horizon and we are glad that we accompany this development.
Another Film Rafiki “from Kenya Wanuri Kahiu, was shown at the Filmfest in Cannes”. This is an extraordinary Film, because he comes from a country in which homosexuality is demonized. He tells a lesbian love story and at the same time a Romeo-and-Juliet-like story, because the two women who fall in love, are the daughters of political candidates that are in competition.
They also have a competition with 14 films, the Jury of the German actor Daniel Brühl, is headed by US Director James Gray. We look at the cinema of North Africa, which is also represented in the competition. What is the competition in Marrakech for a claim?
“Akasha”: story of a love triangle between a South Sudanese soldier, his girlfriend and an AK-47
The competition is exclusively films from the first and second game. There are better-known Directors are to part with their first Film a big success.
We show the Moroccan Film “Une Urgence Ordinaire” (“Urgent”), by Mohcine Besri and there are three more films from the Arab region. “Akasha” by Hajooj Kuka, deals with the civil war in Sudan, but in a very playful and original way – not a war film, but a Film that deals with the everyday life in the civil war and also shows what absurd situations arise from it.
Then we have the Egyptian Film “La Ahdun Hunak” (“The Giraffe”) of Ahmed Magdy, the sensitive topic of abortion is, and in the course of a night, in which a young man tries to find the money for the abortion of his girlfriend to pull that together. For an intimate, new Egyptian cinema, which has nothing to do with the well-known melodrama from Egypt. A cinema that tries to Egyptian reality and everyday life in a very direct way. In other festival we have a series of Egyptian films, all of which are for a new cinema in the Arab region, especially in Egypt.
“Regard-moi” deals with the difficult return to the African homelands of the protagonists
Furthermore, we have the Tunisian Film “Regard-moi” (“Look at me”) by Nejib Belkadhi in the competition. Takes up a Topos that often occurs in films from the Region: the returnees from Europe. People who, for whatever reasons, return to their roots in North Africa. In this case, it is a living in Paris the man who has to deal with suddenly to be a neglected child in Tunisia. The child is autistic, the man is trying to have a relationship with the child. This is very touching, but at the same time very analytical and sober told.
Finally, the question to you personally – what is the difference between working at a German Festival such as the Berlinale to work for a Festival like the one in Marrakech?
The biggest difference is that I can rely on, unlike in Berlin, and no routines. The Festival did not take place in 2017, and a part of the team is new. We define a large Segment of the festival, which is of course an exciting challenge. Also, I was able to build in Berlin to a faithful cinephiles audience. The audience in Marrakech, for us, win is one of the most important tasks that we face.
In the past few weeks, I went from faculty to faculty, I explained our program in front of the film club of the Museum’s Yves Saint Laurent and primary school teachers in the cinema Colisée in order to motivate spectators to the Festival. More than 3000 children from public schools in Marrakech and the surroundings are seen here for the first Time in her life, a movie in the cinema! The encounters I have had on this Tour, are also for me a great Motivation.
The interview was conducted by Jochen Kürten