Algérie Presse Service (APS) - Feb. 21, 2013
"Zabana", a movie by Algerian director Saïd Ould Khelifa, and "Fidaï", a documentary film by French-Algerian director Damien Ounouri, will be shown at the Minnesota 8th Twin Cities Arab Film Festival scheduled for next March 14-17, festival officials said.

One of the festival organizers, Mohannad Ghawanmeh, said that "Algeria will be the focal point of this 8th edition of the festival, which celebrates the fiftieth anniversary of Algeria's independence by highlighting its revolutionary past."

Noting the selection of the two Algerian movies, which he called "excellent", Mr. Ghawanmeh said the festival's programming of those two movies intends to "show that the revolts taking place in some Arab countries did not start with the so-called "Arab Spring" but found their roots in the Algerian revolution, which has in fact inspired them."

"Zabana" will represent Algeria at the 85th Oscars, whose award ceremony is scheduled for next Sunday, and will then be entered for competition for the Golden Yennenga, the highest distinction awarded by the Ouagadougou Pan-African Film Festival (Fespaco) taking place in the Burkinabe capital on Feb. 23-March 4.

The Twin Cities Arab Film Festival is organized by the Mizna Foundation, an Arab-American non-profit cultural organization created in 1998 to promote cultural activities to benefit Arab-Americans.

The association also seeks to celebrate diversity of the Arab community living in the Twin Cities area (Minneapolis-St. Paul) in the state of Minnesota.