Meryam Joobeur’s drama Who Do I Belong To won the $25,000 WIFF Prize in Canadian Film at the Windsor International Film Festival (WIFF).
The film is an expansion of the themes in her 2018 Academy Award-nominated short Brotherhood and marks Joobeur’s feature debut. One of 10 nominees for the prize, the winner was announced at a private reception Sunday (Oct. 27) with representatives of the nominated films and the jury in attendance.
Who Do I Belong To focuses on a family in rural Tunisia who are challenged when their son returns home with a dark secret. The film had its world premiere earlier this year at the Berlin International Film Festival as one of 20 films selected for the Competition program.
The Arabic-language feature is produced by Joobeur; Annick Blanc and Maria Gracia Turgeon from Montreal prodco Midi la Nuit; Sara Ben Hassen from Tunisia’s Instinct Bleu; and Nadim Cheikhrouha from Tanit Films in France. Paris-based Luxbox has international sales rights to the film.
The 2024 WIFF Prize in Canadian Film panel included actor and director Don McKellar; Srimati Sen, Sony Pictures Entertainment’s executive director of promotions; director Aisling Chin-Yee; actor and director Joey Klein; and Inside Out Toronto 2SLGBTQ+ Film Festival’s co-head and artistic director Andrew Murphy.
“This debut feature is a bold stylistic film that tells its story through layers of poetic imagery that culminate with a visceral impact,” said McKellar in a statement in the panel’s selection.
The 2023 winner of the WIFF prize was Ariane Louis-Seize’s Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person.
WIFF runs until Nov. 3.
Image courtesy of Tanit Films, Midi La Nuit and Instinct Bleu