Rachid Hami’s FOR MY COUNTRY to hold its Arab world premiere at CIFF in the presence of director, leading actor
13 November 2022
Rachid Hami’s feature film FOR MY COUNTRY is scheduled to hold its Arab world premiere at the 44th Cairo International Film Festival within days in the presence of its director and leading actor, Karim Leklou.
The film is scheduled to screen twice – once on Monday, November 14th at the Small Theater at 3:00 pm, which will be followed by a Q&A with the director, and once more on Tuesday, November 15th at the Ewart Hall of Tahrir Cultural Center at 3:00 pm.
The film follows the story of Ismael as he fights for justice for his Algerian-born brother Aissa, who died while training at a French military academy.
FOR MY COUNTRY held its world premiere at the Venice International Film Festival, where it was nominated for the Venice Orizzonti Award for Best Film. It was also featured at the Stockholm International Film Festival, where it was nominated for the Bronze Horse for Best Film.
The film was critically acclaimed, with Anna Smith from Deadline magazine describing it as “an emotive set-up told in an unsentimental fashion.”
Moreover, Amber Wilkinson from Screen Daily noted that “the director’s strength lies in his depiction of the domestic, and the way he integrates the family’s faith into the film, helping root his story in a firm reality.”
FOR MY COUNTRY – which was co-written by Ollivier Pourriol – stars a group of award-winning actors, including Lubna Azabal, Hugo Becker, Shaïn Boumedine, and Karim Leklou.
The film is a French Taiwanese co-production, with mk2 Films managing international sales, Memento Distribution responsible for distribution within France, and MAD Solutions handling distribution in the Arab World.
Born in 1985, Hami is a French writer and actor who fled the Algerian civil war with his mother and brothers in search of a better future in France. He began his career as an actor with the film GAMES OF LOVE AND CHANCE by Abdellatif Kechiche.
Throughout his career, he has directed and wrote films, including three-award winning feature films.
Following his 2005 short film NO EFFECT WITHOUT CAUSE, he directed the medium-length film CHOOSING LOVE in 2007. Then, in 2017, he made his first feature film, ORCHESTRA CLASS (LA MÉLODIE), which premiered at the Venice International Film Festival.