The Tower

The Tower

59th TIFF: Greek Premiere

Wardi, an 11-year-old Palestinian girl, lives with her whole family in Beirut, in the refugee camp where she was born. Her beloved great-grandfather Sidi was one of the first people to settle in the camp after being chased from his home back in 1948. The day Sidi gives her the key to his old house back in Galilee, she fears he may have lost hope of someday going home. As she searches for Sidi’s lost hope around the camp, she will collect her family’s testimonies, from one generation to the next. A wonderful animation film about the roots of memory that tie us to a place and the wings of imagination that fly us away, which draws on the personal experience of the director who worked as a teacher in this camp.

Screening Schedule

No physical screenings scheduled.


Direction: Mats Grorud
Script: Mats Grorud,Trygve Allister Diesen, Ståle Stein Berg, Robin Jensen
Cinematography: Sara Sponga, Nadine Buss
Editing: Silje Nordseth, Carsten Meinich, Anders Bergland, Margrete Vinnem
Sound: Cloudberry ab, Christian Holm, Erik Bjerknes
Music: Nathanaël Bergese
Production: Tenk.tv, Les Contes Modernes, Cinenic Film
Producers: Frode Søbstad, Patrice Nezan, Laurent Versini, Annika Hellström
Art Direction: Rui Tenreiro
Camera: Stéphane Gauthron
Format: DCP
Color: Color
Production Country: Norway, Sweden, France
Production Year: 2018
Duration: 80'
Contact: Jour 2 Fête, sales@jour2fete.com

Mats Grorud

Mats Grorud is a film director and animator from Norway. He has directed two short films and has worked as an animator on several feature films, documentaries and music videos. During his childhood, his mother worked as a nurse in refugee camps in Lebanon. In the 1990s, Mats studied at the American University of Beirut, Lebanon, while working as an English and Animation teacher in the Burj el-Barjaneh refugee camp. Based on the testimonies of refugees and his experience, he wrote the script for his first feature film, The Tower .

Filmography

2008 Min Bestemor Beijing | My Grandmother Beijing (short)
2010 Santa Klaus (short)
2018 The Tower