Top African-American film star Danny Glover will attend the opening of the 3rd African Film Festival (18-24 March, 2014) to present his latest film “The Children’s Republic” that will open the festival. Also attending, among top African and international guests, Flora Gomes, the Guinea-Bissau director of the acclaimed film. Both Glover and Gomes will be given special tribute for their rich career at the opening night along with Egyptian star Mahmoud Abdel-Aziz.
Glover has confirmed his attendance with his spouse to enjoy a stay in the historical city of Luxor.
“The Children’s Republic” takes place in an African small spot hard to find on a map, when men are ruled by a political and economic system that they pick by random draw. Bribery and looting are common laws that exhaust people. One day, they decide to run away from their country, scared by the wars they triggered themselves, sickened by the disasters they set off but, above all, leaving their children behind. The young ones will have to take over the country and try to succeed where the adults failed by creating "The Children's Republic".
Flora Gomes Flora Gomes who was born 1949 in Cadique, Guinea-Bissau left his country in 1972 to study cinema at the Cuban Institute of Art and Cinematography under the guidance of Santiago Álvarez. Gomes then continued his studies at the Senegalese Journal for Motion Picture News under the direction of Paulin Soumanou Vieyra before co-directing two films with Sergio Pina and working as an assistant with Chris Marker and Anita Fernandez. Upon returning to a liberated Guinea-Bissau, Gomes filmed his country's independence ceremony on 24 September 1974. Having first directed historical documentaries, Gomes filmed his first narrative film Mortu Nega (1990) that was particularly well received in France, which in later years enabled him to attract funding for the production of his following films like include My Voice (2002) and As Duas Faces da Guerra co-directed with Diana Andringa (2007). Gomes was distinguished in France with the title of Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres in the year 2000.
Luxor African Film Festival was founded by Independent Shabab Foundation with the support of the Egyptian Ministries of Culture, Tourism, Foreign Affairs, Youth and Investment in addition to the Egyptian Film Syndicate, the Luxor Governorate and the National Bank of Egypt.