The programme La Cinémathèque idéale des banlieues du monde offers an unprecedented look at the “banlieues” – the forgotten and often misrepresented suburbs of the world. Aiming to fill both a political and artistic gap, this initiative highlights films that reveal the uniqueness and diversity of cinematic approaches too often grouped under the single label of “suburb.” Through challenging, poetic, and politically engaged works, the program foregrounds the aesthetic and narrative richness of this sector of cinema, which frequently remains invisible to critics and institutions. Conceived by filmmaker Alice Diop, the project is supported by Ateliers Médicis and the Centre Pompidou.
Following its premiere at the 2024 edition of the festival, Porto/Post/Doc now invites filmmaker Lina Soualem, in 2025, to curate a new selection of films to be presented.
“These two films have deeply marked me as a filmmaker: they have inspired me to make films. I saw “A World Not Ours” by Mahdi Fleifel back in 2013 in a festival in Buenos Aires, Argentina, at the age of 23, as I lived and worked there as a programmer. At that time, I didn’t think I would, or could, make films yet. But the day I saw this film, something really got to me: I realised for the first time, as a Palestinian, as an Arab, that it was possible to tell our stories of loss, displacement, separation, colonisation - in our language, through our own eyes, using humour, while reinventing the cinematic language, freely. Through telling the story of his family in a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon, Mahdi Fleifel reclaimed his story as a Palestinian and conveyed it to the world. Telling your own story means taking control over the narrative so that you are not reduced to what others say about you.
That’s also what Rachid Djaidani, Sudanese Algerian, does in “Rengaine” (“Hold Back”), a spirited and humorous tale about intolerance. It’s a fearless and very inventive Paris-set twist on Romeo and Juliet starring a North-African muslim woman wanting to marry a black christian man. Rachid Djaidani wrote and filmed it on his own, “guerrilla style”, over the course of nine years. This film is a testament to faith: faith in a singularity, faith in an aesthetic vision, faith in an ability to complete something that seems undoable. A bold, poetic film that allows us, as sons and daughters of immigrants and ex-colonised beings, to dream big and be surrounded by poetry.”
Lina Soualem
LA CINÉMATHÈQUE IDÉALE DES BANLIEUES DU MONDE
A World Not Ours, Mahdi Fleifel
DOC, 2012, DNK, LBN, GBR, 93’
Trailer
Hold Back, Rachid Djaidani
FIC, 2012, FRA, 75’
Trailer
Operation supported by the Ministère de l'Europe et des Affaires étrangères and the Institut Français as part of the international promotion strategy for cultural and creative industries through the PICC program.
