PODCAST| Matt Micucci interviews Mats Grorud, director of the film The Tower.
Director Mats Grorud talks about his film, The Tower, which he presented at the 40th edition of the Cairo International Film Festival in Egypt. This animation film tells the story of an 11-year-old girl born and raised in a Palestinian refugee camp and looks at the historical context of the camp via flashbacks and the little girl’s family history. Grorud tells us that the film was based on his personal experience and stories that he heard whilst living in such a camp for a whole year. He also talks about why he was drawn to animation filmmaking and what he thinks animation can express, particularly when representing such delicate topics, as well as the universal power of The Tower.
The Tower: In contemporary Beirut, Lebanon, Wardi, an eleven-year-old Palestinian girl, lives with her whole family 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.