Category: culture and media

Tunisia’s mythical Ecovillage will once again host Fairground Festival as it descends on Sousse for its second edition, 13-15 July. Enriching the experience from all sides, the 2017 edition will feature increases in virtually every aspect of the festival, particularly within the realms of art and music. Visual and sound art will be offered in the open air, while DJs lay the soundtrack to a completely immersive experience, filled with activities, workshops and events. Of course, some of the world best DJs will be on hand to guide festivities. Amongst…

Hollywood movie Wonder Woman has been banned in Tunisia due to the leading actress’ Israeli heritage. The film was pulled before the first screenings on June 8 after a lawsuit called Gail Gadot a ‘champion Zionist.’ Tunisia joins Lebanon and Algeria in banning the film due to Gadot’s Israeli heritage and past links to the country’s military. The Tunisian Association of Young Lawyers put forward the lawsuit. The Tunisian courthouse has halted release of the film while it examines the lawsuit, reports the Jerusalem Post. Following the decision, screenings of the…

The sculpture ‘Mare Nostrum’ by Italian architect Girolamo Palmizi has been installed on the quayside between Nabeul and Hammamet. The work is intended to be a symbolic bridge between Tunisia and Sicily and is twinned with a work by the same artist on the northern shore of the Mediterranean in Biscione between the Sicilian coastal towns of Marsala and Mazara del Vallo, where it won the 2015 international prize “Oasi d’arte – Art’s Oasis”. Palmizi recently led a ceramics workshop for students from the school of arts and crafts in…

Italy’s Rome Lazio Film Commission, the Spain Film Commission, France’s Ile-de-France, the film commissions of Andalucia and Tangiers and the Carthage Film Festival have joined forces to set up the Euro-Mediterranean Audiovisual Center in a pact that aims to foster stronger film industry ties among Mediterranean countries. The pact, inked in Cannes, was spearheaded by Lazio Film Commission president Luciano Sovena who has long been building cinematic collaboration between Italy and North African territories. “Having Spain and France come on board is a game changer,” Sovena said, noting that France…

n January 2017, the Arab Cinema Center (ACC) in Egypt announced it would launch the Critics Awards at the highly respected Cannes Film Festival. The proceedings, which took place this week, were the end-result of the deliberations of a 24-member strong jury process of film critics, representing 15 countries, nine of them Arab. This is the first time a pan-Arab award—and one exclusively for Arab cinema, no less—has been given-out at a platform this prestigious. To qualify, films had to debut at international film festivals outside the Arab world, be…