Aicha by ELIJAH CHAMBERLAIN

Aicha (short film) ELIJAH CHAMBERLAIN JUN 13, 2025 Review: Aicha Coming in at a perfect 24 mins Aicha is a delicate, sorrowful short film that captures the aching distance between a mother and daughter and what happens when time runs out to close that gap. We find a 17-year-old girl, caught in the emotional void left by a mother who seems unable or unwilling to connect. But when tragedy strikes, the film shifts inward, exploring not just loss, but the quiet desperation to feel something in its wake. What makes Aicha so affecting is its restraint. The story unfolds with a calm, almost meditative pace, allowing us to feel the emotional weight of every unspoken word, every withheld gesture. After her daughter’s death, the mother turns to a mystic ceremony not out of faith, necessarily, but need. The ceremony is strange and intimate, rendered with a sense of quiet awe. It's less about the supernatural and more about the rawness of unresolved love. The cinematography is beautiful: static shots, muted color palettes, and lingering close-ups that rarely offer relief. The closing shot of the film is worth the watch alone. This one won’t be for everyone but I highly recommend you check it out!

Cosmic Balance by ANDREAS JOHNSEN in FFK Krakow

The young Indonesian musician Anggi was given away as an infant and grew up among musicians practicing the traditional music phenomenon Reak. Reak is practiced in West Java and is a spiritual cultural form where both musicians and audiences go into trance and are possessed by the spirits of their ancestors. Now a young man, Anggi is set to become the new leader of his Reak group. But suddenly his competitors begin to question his ability to lead, as he is not related by blood to the group’s previous leaders. And as if that was not enough to deal with, there’s also trouble with his future in-laws who won’t let him marry their daughter because he has neither a proper education nor a respectable job. In the midst of all this, the insecure and sensitive Anggi turns to Reak culture, hour-long trance sessions and helpful shamans. And suddenly he finds himself in Denmark where he will perform outside his village for the first time at Roskilde Festiva

Laureates of FFK film festival 2025

Fryderyk Lutyński, Aleksandra Chmielewska, Aleksander Pankowski vel Jankowski, Dominika Czajkowska-Ptak, and Jan Sanejko. The Young Talent Award was won by Mikołaj Gąsiewski, a Polish composer. In addition, the START program of the Foundation for Polish Science recognized Jakub Zakrzewski (Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Faculty of Chemistry), Sebastian Borówka (University of Warsaw, Center for New Technologies), and Stanisław Kurdziałek (Faculty of Physics, University of Warsaw). Finally, the Fulbright Graduate Student Award 2025-26 was awarded to Daniel Jensen (University College London), Agata Meszka (AGH University of Science and Technology in Kraków), and Igor Sadalski (Imperial College London).

Klezmer Hoise visit

Klezmer Hoise is a famous restaurant where filmmakers like Steven Sperberg,Alan Parker and actress Juliette Binoche have visited . Today, we have to honor to visit it along with Festival Director Krzysztof Gierat and other international filmmakers participating in his Krakow film festival 2025 . Moroccan short film "Aicha" directed by Sanaa El Alaoui ( سناء العلاوي in Arabic ) and produced by Piotr Kaczorowski's Native Line company will have it's world premiere at the Krakow Film Festival in Poland on 27th of May 2025 . This is the first time a Moroccan film has been featured at this prestigious film event, which is considered one of the festivals qualifying for Oscars. Aicha is also selected to South by Southwest London film festival on 4th and 7th of june 2025. Fryderyk Lutyński, Aleksandra Chmielewska, Aleksander Pankowski vel Jankowski, Dominika Czajkowska-Ptak, and Jan Sanejko. The Young Talent Award was won by Mikołaj Gąsiewski, a Polish composer. In addition, the START program of the Foundation for Polish Science recognized Jakub Zakrzewski (Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Faculty of Chemistry), Sebastian Borówka (University of Warsaw, Center for New Technologies), and Stanisław Kurdziałek (Faculty of Physics, University of Warsaw). Finally, the Fulbright Graduate Student Award 2025-26 was awarded to Daniel Jensen (University College London), Agata Meszka (AGH University of Science and Technology in Kraków), and Igor Sadalski (Imperial College London).

Aicha by Sanaa El Alaoui selected in SXSW Festival london

The Moroccan short film "Aicha" directed by Sanaa El Alaoui ( سناء العلاوي in Arabic ) and produced by Piotr Kaczorowski's Native Line company will have it's world premiere at the Krakow Film Festival in Poland on 27th of May 2025 . This is the first time a Moroccan film has been featured at this prestigious film event, which is considered one of the festivals qualifying for Oscars. Aicha is also selected to South by Southwest London film festival on 4th and 7th of june 2025. Moroccan director Sanaa EL Alaoui returns to the cinematic scene with her new film, "Aisha," which addresses sensitive issues considered taboo in Moroccan society, such as self-harm and rape, through the heartbreaking story of a mother and her daughter. In detail, director Sanaa El Alaoui offers a critical artistic perspective in her film, "Aisha," which represents a reversal of traditions that cast women in a specific stereotype. She will not only narrate the story, but will also reframe the relationship between cinema and the self as she continues her cinematic experience, which relies on placing sensitive topics under the camera lens, according to what she revealed in a statement to the newspaper "Madar 21." In an interview with the newspaper, Sanaa revealed that her film "Aisha" tells the story of a 17-year-old girl who has a tepid relationship with her mother. Her life is suddenly transformed after a tragic incident. The mother seeks to confront her reality by joining a Sufi Gnawa ritual in an attempt to improve her daughter's situation. The film's director believes that "Aisha" is not just a film; it represents a rebellion against the challenges facing the film industry in Morocco and sends a message of hope to anyone who aspires to achieve their dreams despite the difficulties, especially since the filming conditions were not easy and witnessed many setbacks. Sanaa revealed that "one of the most difficult challenges we faced while making this film was employing techniques that required equipment not available in Morocco. We had to import the camera and Super 8 tape from Europe to Morocco, which was fraught with administrative complications. We had to submit special requests at airports to ensure the tapes wouldn't pass through the scanners, as this could damage them." She added, "There were concerns, especially in the event that the tape was confiscated by airport authorities or lost during travel, such as on a flight." She added, "We later transported it to Poland for development and digital scanning, as specialized laboratories for this type of work are not available in Morocco." El Alaoui says that this experience was exhausting and stressful, but ultimately worth it, as she was satisfied with the final result. She noted that she used numerous visual techniques in this work, employing 96 percent live-action scenes, 4 percent animation, some Super 8 footage, and documentary elements. Sanaa El Alaoui is a Moroccan director and screenwriter. She graduated from Etvos Loránd University in Budapest, where her thesis on "The Art of the Long Take" received the Best Research Award. She also continued her studies at Oxford University, examining the development of Moroccan cinema from the colonial to post-colonial eras. Sanaa made her directorial debut with the short documentary "Icarus," which won several international and local awards, including the Bronze Award at the Queen Palm Film Festival in California and awards at the Oued Noun, Guercif, and Casablanca Film Festivals.

Aicha by Sanaa El Alaoui ( Kharboucha ) in Krakow

"Aisha" Represents Morocco in Krakow The Moroccan short film "Aicha" directed by Sanaa El Alaoui ( سناء العلاوي in Arabic ) and produced by Piotr Kaczorowski's Native Line company will have it's world premiere at the Krakow Film Festival in Poland on 27th of May 2025 . This is the first time a Moroccan film has been featured at this prestigious film event, which is considered one of the festivals qualifying for Oscars. According to information obtained by Hespress, this 25-minute film was independently produced in Morocco, with a budget of approximately $60,000. It addresses thorny social issues through a dramatic plot that combines documentation and fiction, with the bold use of diverse cinematic techniques, from live filming (96 percent) to animation (4 percent), to Super 8 analog camera shots and documentary elements. "Aicha" tells the story of a 17-year-old teenage girl (starring Manal Bennani) who struggles with a tepid relationship with her mother (starring Hind Dafer) before her life takes a tragic turn. The film culminates in the mother's journey as she joins a Gnaoui Sufi ritual in search of salvation and to restore the lost bond with her daughter, an experience that intersects the boundaries of reality and the supernatural. The film represents an attempt to reframe cinema from a more intimate and courageous perspective. It was inspired in part by the painful story of the late Amina Filali, who committed suicide in 2012 after being forced to marry her rapist, an incident that shocked Moroccan public opinion and later contributed to the amendment of Article 475 of the Penal Code. The film's director explained that the work is not told in a linear fashion, not out of a search for abstract experimentation, but rather because form serves content, believing that "psychological trauma disrupts our perception of time and reshapes our awareness of ourselves." The person responsible for translating Sanaa's artistic vision to the language of camera - including the 2:30 min long take in the beginning of the film - is a graduate of Łódź Film School, cinematographer Oskar Jan Król. At Krakow film festival, the director will introduce her short film Aicha along with techicians and artists such as Tomek Popakul, a polish animation artist; Allal El Alaoui - production manager; and first AD - Hicham Goulal. The director also chose to combine fiction and documentary, emphasizing that she does not believe in a clear separation between the two, noting that the Sufi rituals depicted in the film were depicted realistically, with the real participation of its practitioners, and without acting. She continued that one of the most prominent visual moments in the film is a symbolic scene on a beach in which a veiled woman appears exchanging silent glances with the heroine, in an artistic projection that intersects with a famous scene from Ingmar Bergman’s “The Seventh Seal,” where the meanings of death, faith, and the search for the self are revealed. This scene embodies the heroine’s internal conflict and highlights the tensions between popular religion and Sufism as a mirror of the contradictions of Moroccan society.

Aicha trailer by Sanae El Alaoui

A 17-year-old girl struggles with an emotionally distant mother as her life takes a tragic turn. The mother joins a mystic ceremony to face her grief and the lost bond with her daughter. Piotr KATARVOSKY has produced a short film called Aicha . Piotr is fascinated by cinema because of his wife Sanaa El Alaoui. His actual job is medicaland in fact he works in warsaw as a doctor . He has known his wife in Budapest and created a strong relationship with her .He plans to produce more movies either in Poland and also in Morocco where he has created a film company called Native line .