A CIDADE DOS MORTOS
THE CITY OF THE DEAD
by SÉRGIO TRÉFAUT | 2009, 62’, documentary | prod: Faux (Portugal) and Atico Siete (Spain)
The City of the Dead in Cairo is the largest necropolis in the world. A million people live inside the cemetery. We can find everything there: bakeries, cafes, schools, puppet theatres. Although the City of the Dead extends for more than ten kilometers, it is nevertheless a village where mothers scheme to find the best match for their daughters, boys chase girls, and neighbours fight every day.
CREDITS
Direction Sérgio Tréfaut
Editing Pedro Marques
Narration Ashraf Fakhouri
Photography Nancy Abdel-Fattah, Inês Gonçalves, Carlo Lo Giudice
Sound Sameh Gamal
Producers Sérgio Tréfaut and José Sanchez-Montes
Production Faux (Portugal) and Atico Siete (Spain)
Financing support Ministério da Cultura, Instituto do Cinema e do Audiovisual, RTP, Junta de Andalucia, Canal Sur, YLE e Programa MEDIA da União Europeia
Dissemination support Câmara Municipal de Lisboa, Tante 1, Antena 3, MOP, Público, Le Monde Diplomatique – edição portuguesa
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FESTIVALS AND AWARDS
AWARDS
BEST MOVIE AWARD – DOCUMENTA MADRID 2010
FESTIVALS
IDFA – International Documentary Film Festival of Amsterdam – Amesterdam
FIPA – Festival International des Programmes Audiovisuels – Biarritz
THESSALONIKI – International Documentary Film Festival
IT’S ALL TRUE – International Documentary Film Festival – Brazil
DOCAVIV – The Tel Aviv International Documentary Film Festival
DOCÀTUNIS – Festival de Documentaire de Tunis
KRAKOW – International Documentary Film Festival
INDIELISBOA – Lisbon International Film Festival
DOCKANEMA – Maputo Documentary Film Festival
ANUU ABORO – Festival du Cinéma des Peuples – New Caledonia
CNEX Documentary Film Festival Taiwan
DIFF – Dubai International Film Festival
VALOR VISUAL – XI Cine de Pamplona A
Cielo Abierto, Festival Internacional de Cine – Bolivia
Freiburg Film Forum Germany
Extremadoc, Cáceres – Spain
Karama Human Rights Film Festival – Jordan
TWO MONTHS IN PORTUGUESE CINEMAS
SCREENED IN MORE THAN 30 COUNTRIES
REVIEWS
“Sérgio Tréfaut has an exceptional ability to see other cultures; to observe them and show them in such a way that anyone watching his films has a near personal experience of the worlds he visits… The material of which the lenses of his camera objectives are made is a remarkable cosmopolitan humanism. It is a privilege to be able to watch this kind of cinema.”
“Magnificient.”
“A cemetery teeming with life. Where the living sleep with the dead. And eat, and date, and have children, and grow up and watch television.”
“Something approaching a sort of fantasist neo-realism: that scene where the circus arrives at the cemetery could have come straight out of Fellini’s “La Strada”