After Love, Aleem Khan’s first feature film, is part of the 59th selection of the 2020 Semaine de la Critique. During its world premiere at the French Cinematheque, the film has received the Gan Foundation Award for Distribution, given to the French Distributor Rezo Films. Afterwards, Aleem’s film has been selected in various festivals such as the BFI London Film Festival, the Tokyo International Film Festival, the Festa del Cinéma di Roma, the Festival Internacional de Cine in Morelia, the Telluride Film Festival, the Thessaloniki Film Festival (Best Actress award for Joanna Scanlan), The Molodist film festival in Kiev (Jury Prize) or the Taipei Film Festival. Produced by The Bureau, the film has been released in British theaters on June 4th by BFI Distribution and is out now in French theaters, distributed by Rezo Films.
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Synopsis
Set in the port town of Dover in the South-East of England, Mary Hussain suddenly finds herself a widow following the unexpected death of her husband. A day after the burial, she discovers he has a secret just twenty-one miles across the English Channel in Calais.
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« Dover and Calais stand some 90 km apart. Either side facing each other, like a mirror, each staring at each other for eternity. Different languages, different cultures, different histories and yet, it merely takes one hour to cross all the boundaries that stand between them. Aleem Khan’s first film is built on these two spaces; the writer and director of After Love tells a moving, heartfelt tale of many loves. »
« After Love is another example of the British Doosra cinema movement, in which a new generation of filmmakers has put a new spin on culture clash stories. These new works question and shed light on the problematic stereotyping that has emerged over the first century of cinema, and in wider European culture in general, when dealing with issues of assimilation. »
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Interview of Aleem Khan
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British trailer