Aicha, a Tunisian mother gifted with prophetic dreams, lives in the isolated north of Tunisia with her husband Brahim and young son Adam. The family lives in anguish after the departure of the eldest sons Mehdi and Amine to the violent embrace of war. Months later, Mehdi unexpectedly returns home with a pregnant wife in tow. Mehdi's arrival triggers old wounds and a darkness that threatens to consume the entire village.
Sarra Ben Hassen Annick Blanc Nadim Cheikhrouha Maria Gracia Turgeon Meryam Joobeur Vincent Dupuis Victor Lech Baptiste Leroy Ramsis Mahfoud Dyveke Bjørkly Graver Andrea Berentsen Ottmar Frida Mårtensson
Verket Produktion Tanit Films Midi La Nuit Téléfilm Canada Eye Eye Pictures 1888 Films Godolphin Films CNC Tribeca Film Institute DFI Red Sea Fund Arab Fund for Arts and Culture Instinct Bleu
屋簷下沒有煙硝, Mé el Aïn, Là d’où l’on vient, Maternidad, La Source, 我看見了邪惡, Komu patří můj život, Do kogo należę?
Germany
Berlinale
Hong Kong
Hong Kong International Film Festival
Taiwan
Taipei Film Festival
Mexico
Guanajuato International Film Festival
Australia
Melbourne International Film Festival
Indonesia
Jakarta World Cinema
UK
BFI London Film Festival
South Africa
Joburg Film Festival
Canada
France
Australia
Canada
France
Germany
Hong Kong
Indonesia
Mexico
South Africa
Taiwan
UK
Berlinale 2024 - Competition
While I think it is quite appropriate to tell this story from a completely subjective perspective, the cinematic methods are unfortunately all too obvious and tend towards manipulation. Constantly the big tragic close-ups, the use of spherical music, the meaningless nature shots. The narrative tends towards the cryptic but there is no mystery in the images. I understand why Chatrian put it into competition, though this is a no from me.
in the times of the genocide neglect, how unsurprisingly cynical from the part of the berlinale festival is to put in the main competition a film that so obnoxiously repeats western discourse and stereotypes on islam and tries to imprint them on the reality as 'objective'. it uses the word 'terrorist' with not a bare thought in mind and reiterates the cliche of two types of Arab women: the demonic niqabi or white-coded feminist with her head bald. it is not only disheartening. it's dangerous when the western islamophobia is on spike.
Human beings are, by nature, social animals that require a certain degree of interconnectivity in order to function. In a sense, all animals require social skills to the extent needed to procreate, but humans are among those precious few who, in that biological imperative, have developed a more existential longing to go along with that need for connectivity.
Why are we here? What purpose do we have in being together any longer than necessary? As such, the very concept of “belonging” takes on a dynamic meaning, encompassing as wide a range as nationalities, right down to spaces as intimate as the confines of one’s family home. In short, when one asks, “Who Do I Belong To?” the response will invariably shift depending on who’s asking.
Atmosphärisch dicht und ziemlich beklemmend. Sicherlich einige der besten Bilder des Wettbewerbs.
Too vague and fantastical for my liking. The parts that I could grasp and make sense of were really good. Wish the whole film could've been that.
This film from writer/director Maryam Jobeur would make a great double bill with Kaouther Ben Hania’s docudrama Four Daughters (2023), which was my top film at MIFF last year. Both films start off as a story about dysfunctional families and the reach of Islamic State but end up as complex pictures of motherhood and family.
In Ben Hania’s film, Olfa (Olfa Hamrouni) is a divorced Tunisian woman with four teenage daughters, two of whom have run away to join Islamic State. In Jobeur’s film, Aïcha (Salha Nasraoui) is a Tunisian woman whose sons, Amine (Chaker Merchergui) and Mehdi (Malek Merchergui) have joined Islamic State and gone to fight in Syria. Jobeur’s decision to write clairvoyant skills into Aïcher’s character ultimately sets…
Such tactile, immersive, hypnotic filmmaking. I almost felt as though I were in the world.
Notes from Berlinale 2024
Moving and heightened drama on war, PTSD, guilt, and extremism. The type of film that grows on you as it goes on, getting more moving and intense. For a debut, it is bold and confident, really great stuff!
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A harrowing topic and approach in parts that just becomes too unwieldy and even somewhat questionable as it goes along, though I may need a rewatch to fully surmise my feelings on it.
Who Do I Belong To is a film that doesn’t quite make up its mind; does it want to be a questioning family drama, or does it want to be an allegory? In the end it doesn’t matter because in trying to be both things, it doesn’t succeed in either.
I think a big part of what hinders Who Do I Belong To is the style that the film is told in; like All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt, it is primarily told through shallow focus close-ups. What drives me nuts about the way that it’s used here and Dirt Roads, it’s that it is being used as a lazy short-hand for being “cinematic.” It is not “cinematic,” it is a…
Radical subjectivism - Golden Bear, I guess
