غ-ن- سياسة -الخميس 25 كانون الثاني 2019 – لاسن تفتتح مهرجان السينما الاوروبية

يناير 25, 2019 1,093 زيارة

لاسن تتحدث مرسيا وعيقلته واوغاسبيان

غ-ن -افتتحت سفيرة الاتحاد الاوروبي كريستينا لاسن المهرجان ال24 للسينما الاوروبية في حضور ممثل الرئيس الحريري الوزير جان اوغاسبيان وسفير رومانيا في لبنان فيكتور مرسيا وعقيلته, وقد تحدث في الافتتاح اوغاسبيان ومرسيا وكذلك لاسن التي افتتحت كلمتها باللغة العربية وقالت :

مساء الخير وأهلا وسهلا فيكم بسنة جديدة من مهرجان السينما الأوروبية.

25 سنة عمر المهرجان بلبنان، وكل سنة في شي جديد، هل سنة رح يكون في اسبوعين من الأفلام من أوروبا.ثم تحدثت بالانكليزية :

افتتحت سفيرة الاتحاد الاوروبي كريستينا لاسن المهرد ال24 للسينما الاوروبية في حضور ممثل الرئيس الحريري الوزير ان اوغاسبيان وسفير رومانيا في لبنان فيكتور مرسيا وعقيلته, وقد تحدث في الافتتاح اوغاسبيا ومرسيا وكذلك لاسن التي افتتحت كلمتها باللغة العربية وقالت :

مساء الخير وأهلا وسهلا فيكم بسنة جديدة من مهرجان السينما الأوروبية.

We are particularly excited to launch this year’s European Film Festival as 2018 marks the Festival’s “Silver” anniversary in Lebanon! 25 years together, that’s quite a journey! For more than two decades hundreds of films have been screened in this festival. Thousands of people have joined us and our audience has been an active part of this quarter of a century cultural collaboration between the European Union and Lebanon.

Since the festival was first launched 25 years ago, the world has changed a lot: The European Union has grown and expanded with many new Member States thereby strengthening our creativity as a continent and increasing our cultural diversity. We open tonight with a film from Romania who joined the European Union in 2007 and since the 1^st of January holds the Presidency of the European Union.

Lebanon has also changed profoundly since the first Festival just after the end of the civil war, when Beirut’s cultural scene was revitalizing and opened the space for the creative revolution we have seen in Lebanon ever since.

Our relations with Lebanon have also grown and intensified immensely over the past 25 years. We consider ourselves Lebanon’s best friend and we work more and more closely in areas which are of concern to both Europe and Lebanon such as security, human rights, job creation and the environment.

This festival is important to us not only as a cultural initiative, but as with all arts, it is also as a platform to challenge ourselves, provoke discussions and new ways of looking at things and ultimately being a vehicle for our freedom of expression. This has been the case for the past 25 years and we hope that it will also be the case this year.

The program this year includes 35 long feature films from Europe. Many are prize-winning movies screened at major international festivals. As always, the films touch on a variety of contemporary questions relevant for both Lebanon and Europe. Some of them deal with challenging and hotly debated topics such as migration, gender, disability, LGBT, unemployment, and drug abuse. Others take us back in time to revisit conflicts and tragic moments of European history such as the Cold War. This allows us to remember how far we have come and to appreciate the peace and stability we enjoy in our countries, made possible due to our 70 years of cooperation and integration based on a commitment to the rule of law and human rights.

This year we also continue the tradition of student awards. Thanks to the EU Member States, a number of emerging young film makers graduating from the Lebanese audio-visual schools will get a chance to travel to Europe and participate in international film festivals.

To mark the 25^th anniversary and celebrate the longtime collaboration between Europe and Lebanon we have a few special events on the program this year. You will see that the festival includes three films co-produced between Lebanon and European countries. All of these films were shot and produced in post-war Beirut. They have not been screened since their release in the 1990’s and we are very happy to bring them back in our “silver” anniversary year as a sign of our friendship with Lebanon.

In addition to the films, we hope you will also enjoy the Film Festival Anniversary Celebration at Station Beirut on 30^th January where we launch an exhibition of 8 Lebanese illustrators’ interpretation of memorable European films and have a nice party as well. Finally, I hope you will not miss the Cine-concert on the closing night of the festival in Beirut on 4^th February!

I want to thank all of our partners in organizing the festival, especially:

The Ministry of Culture for its patronage of this festival year after year,
Metropolis Cinema, our yearlong partner in this festival,
The Sofil Centre management,
L’Institut Français du Liban for their support once again to make the festival reach all over Lebanon,
And of course most of all our EU Member States who worked closely with us and Metropolis Cinema to bring you the rich and diverse programme we hope you will enjoy these coming weeks.

We have been pleased to see the festival become a key annual event in the cultural life of the city of Beirut. There are “fans” of the festival who have remained very faithful to us and new friends have joined us along the way. Whether it’s your first time at the festival or you have been with us for many years, I want to express a heartfelt ‘Merci Ktiir’ for your support to this joint European-Lebanese collaboration.

I hope you have a great time at the festival! Kill sene wa ente bkhreir!

I now welcome Minister Oghassabian, representing the Minister of Culture for some remarks.

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Grenadine Magazine

غ-ن- سياسة -الخميس 25 كانون الثاني 2019 – لاسن تفتتح مهرجان السينما الاوروبية

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