By Amin Matalqa
Well, I have to say, Doha Tribeca Film Festival has been one incredibly impressive and inspiring film festival. The soul is focused on nurturing local filmmakers from Doha, but the context is within a global stage. Between Martin Scorsese, Robert De Niro, Mira Nair, Ben Kingsley and Adel Imam, there were new surprises everyday.
For me, there were two really special discoveries. One is Elia Suleiman's powerful Palestinian film The Time That Remains which is just a beautiful and powerful comedy about Elia and his father in Palestine, and the second is Amir Ghonem, a young talented Egyptian actor and up and coming filmmaker who played a hilarious Haggler in one of the shorts introducing the films at each screening. This guy is a new talent who will shine, and one day I'll come back and ask him to be in one of my films. He's brilliant.
DTFF surpassed my expectations. The spirit of Doha is beautiful. The culture and the people, lovely. I so look forward to coming back again in the future. One of my favorite festivals I've ever been to.