This is the first chance to see the feature length of the short film, Ana + Yek (2024, 85’, Zohra Benhammou & Romy Mana) created as part of the Halaqat project alongside the Goethe-Institut, Bozar, Atelier Graphoui and Cinemaximiliaan in 2022.

WHAT: Premiere of feature length version of Ana + Yek

DATE: SUNDAY 13TH  OCTOBER

TIME: 20:00 (meet at Cinemaximiliaan at 17:00)

VO: NL, Moroccan, FR; ST-OND: NL

Email interns@cinemaximiliaan.org if you would like a ticket and/or to travel together from Brussels.

SYNOPSIS

Dilay wants to celebrate that twin sisters Sanaa and Zohra moved in with each other, unaware that they just started Ramadan. The three have a laugh about it. From the start, Ana + yek (Moroccan Arabic for “me + you”) captures the two worlds in the lives of these Belgian-Moroccan young women: their mother’s Western culture and their father’s Islamic one. 

Together with co-director Romy Mana, Zohra Benhammou filmed over several years how her sister Sanaa, in search of herself, found faith. “Suddenly you were there. With different clothes and a headscarf.” The rift between the once inseparable twins is palpable, but a mutual longing for connection is what truly drives this documentary. Deeply personal and at the same time very relatable for those who are themselves searching for a place in a divided world.

FILMMAKER BIOGRAPHIES

Romy Mana (1994) and Zohra Benhammou (1994) are a filmmaker duo who live and work in Brussels. They both graduated in different fields. Romy has a Master in Fine Arts. Zohra studied communication and journalism.

Romy and Zohra share a love for film, personal histories and an interest in the complexity of the different social and cultural realities which can inhabit and define bodies in modern society. A shared interest evolved in writing and making films together.