A year of Italian Cinema in Tunis
3^rd/12^th March - The Best of Youth
from April to December - 6 Rendez-vous with Italian Cinema

In 2008 MedFilm brings Italian cinema to Tunis. The idea came about thanks to the strong ties created, during the 13^th edition of the MedFilm Festival in Rome, with some of the most important film representatives of Tunisian cinema. Tunisia was the Guest of Honor in last year's festival with a large delegation and many films screened. The Institute of Italian Culture in Tunis was also an enthusiastic supporter of the current cultural initiative.

In March there was a special premier and a retrospective of 6 debut films and the initiative will go on throughout the month of December with a further 6 rendezvous for a grand total of 13 films being screened dedicated to Italian cinema.
Between March 3^rd and 12^th, 6 debut films taken from the Filmitalia retrospective "The Best of Youth" will be shown. The following films were presented in Tunis: Paolo Sorrentino's L'uomo in più (One man up- 2001), Marco Ponti's Santa Maradona (2001), V. Marra's Tornando a casa (2001), Francesco Munzi's Saimir (2005), Daniele Vicari's Velocità Massima (2002), and Saverio Costanzo's Private (2004).

The week dedicated to Italian cinema was inaugurated with the premier of Mimmo Calopresti's film L'Abbuffata (The Feast) distributed by the Istituto Luce and presented in Tunis by actors Paolo Briguglia and Donatella Finocchiaro.

Furthermore, thanks to the support of the Italian Institute of Culture in Tunis, from April to December there will be a series of screenings every second Wednesday of the month: this initiative will bring our cinema to the southern shores of the Mediterranean in a country, such as Tunisia, which is expanding its cultural horizons and which looks to Italian cinema with great interest.

The next screenings will be:
Wednesday 9 April: L'aria salata by Alessandro Angelini
Wednesday 14 May: Non pensarci by Gianni Zanasi
Wednesday 11 June: Dopo mezzanotte by Davide Ferrario


Rendez-vous with Italian Cinema in Algiers
2^nd edition, 27 June/1 July

Rendezvous with Italian Cinema in Algiers is a result of our organization's ongoing commitment to bring Italian films to Algeria. 2005 was the year in which the first "Week of Italian Cinema in Algiers" took place.
In 2007, it was thus decided to schedule an annual event to bring Italian films to the Algerian capital. Its aim is to guarantee an ongoing presence of Italian cinema in Algeria and to draw a larger audience every year.
The 2nd edition of the Rendezvous foresees the screening 5 features, among the most recent and representative Italian releases of the last year, and a selection of short films, which offer a cross-section of the cultural and social identity of our society.


Italian Film Festival of Istanbul
1^st edition, 30 November/5 December

MedFilm has been promoting bilateral cultural and twinning activities with Turkey since 2005. Thanks to the strong ties created over the last few years, in 2008 Italian cinema will reach Istanbul. MedFilm's most recent initiative is an event which will take place on an annual basis. There will be a showcase of 25 Italian films with Turkish subtitles and a broad delegation of artistic, commercial and institutional representatives. The event, entirely dedicated to Italian cinema and destined to become an annual rendezvous for film professionals, will promote distribution of Italian films in Turkey and increase co-operation among the two countries.