Venice Film Festival 2024: Films from Mena region set to screen

This year's line-up includes Egypt's return to the festival after 12 years

The Golden Lion is the top prize at the Venice Film Festival, the oldest event of its kind in the world. AP

The line-up for this year's Venice Film Festival has been announced, with several films from or about the Mena region set to screen.

Founded in 1932, the Venice event is the oldest film festival in the world and 92 years on remains one of the “big five”, along with Cannes, Berlin, Toronto and Sundance.

This year is shaping up to be a return to form following a muted festival last year due to the Hollywood strikes.

There are no films from the Mena region in this year's main competition category, which will see Joker: Folie a Deux from director Todd Philips, The Room Next Door from director Pedro Almodóvar, and Maria from director Pablo Larrain all vying for the Golden Lion.

However, there are a number of regional selections in other categories, including two in competition. Aicha, the second feature from Tunisian filmmaker Mehdi Barsaoui, will premiere in the Horizons category.

Barsaoui wrote on Instagram: “Infinite gratitude to all of my cast of the film, my superb producers and my amazing team, without whom none of this would have been possible.”

Horizons is a parallel section to the main competition and is an official category that focuses on new trends in world cinema and promotes emerging filmmakers.

Tunisian filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania’s The Man Who Sold His Skin was previously selected in 2020 and subsequently nominated for an Academy Award in 2021.

Horizons Extra, a category that features more offbeat films, includes the first Egyptian film – Seeking Haven for Mr. Rambo – to screen in a competition at the festival in 12 years.

The last Egyptian film to screen was Ibrahim El Batout’s Winter of Discontent, which competed in the Horizons category in 2012.

Seeking Haven for Mr. Rambo is directed by Khaled Mansour and written by Mansour and Mohamed El-Hosseiny. Starring Essam Omar, Rakeen Saad and Sama Ibrahim, it tells the story of a thirty-something man who confronts his past fears while on a journey to save his dog named Rambo.

Also premiering in Horizons Extra will be Shahed (The Witness). It is the latest film from Iranian director Nader Saeivar. The movie stars Maryam Bobani, Nader Naderpour and Hana Kamkar.

Out of competition, the Lebanese documentary Wa Ada Maroun Ila Beirut (Maroun Returns to Beirut), from director Feyrouz Serhal, is set to screen in the Venice Classics – Documentaries about Film category.

Also screening is the documentary Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958 – 1989, from Swedish filmmaker Goran Hugo Olsson.

The film takes decades of footage from the Swedish public broadcaster SVT, weaving together the rise of the Israeli state with the Palestinian fight for freedom.

The Venice Film Festival is set to run from August 28 to September 7