Festival International de Cinéma et Mémoire Commune

The Center for Common Memory for Democracy and Peace will organize from October 23 to 28, 2023 the 12th edition of the International Festival of "Cinema and Common Memory" in Nador on the theme "Remigration and Memory".

1- The films in the official competition (documentaries) must be related to the memory of immigrants (Africans, Europeans, Latin Americans, Asians...) who have decided to return to their countries of origin, whatever the reasons for this return. .

2- The themes of the documentaries must deal with the motivations, conditions and consequences of this return:

2.1- Motivations
▪ Returning to the country after years of work or study abroad (retired immigrants, graduates);
▪ Go back to work, invest, start economic and cultural projects, etc.;
▪ Reconnect with the origins, roots, identity, culture, traditions... of the ancestors (nostalgia for the country);
▪ Recovery of usurped and occupied lands...;
▪ Return after the end of wars, occupation, political or ethnic conflicts, etc.;
▪ Return after the end of wars, occupation, political or ethnic conflicts;
▪ Return after the lifting of border bans (political refugees);
▪ Return to the country simply to die and be buried there;
Etc.

2.2-The conditions
▪ Voluntary return;
▪ Forced return (fleeing from xenophobia, racism, the identity movement, far-right conspiracy theories, etc.);
▪ Permanent or momentary return;
▪ Individual or family return;
▪ etc.

3.3- The consequences
- What is the relationship of the "returnees" with the places where they lived and with the people they knew before their immigration, which in some cases goes back several decades (parents' house, playgrounds, friends from the childhood, neighborhoods and old neighbors...)?
- What is your contribution at a political, economic, cultural, sports and social level?
- How do they (re)integrate into their societies of origin after years of total or partial absence?
- What is the result of the confrontation between your past and your present?
- What is the psychological impact of this voluntary or forced return?
- How do you experience the duality of uprooting and abandonment from host countries where you have founded families, accumulated experiences, memories, joys, disappointments...?

Remigration, which at first glance appears to be a simple migration in space, in the opposite direction, that is, towards the place of origin, has a much deeper meaning. Individuals or groups who make this decision return loaded with experiences acquired in the host countries and with moving memories, individual or collective, the extent of which can only be revealed by an in-depth study of their memories.

1.- Short film (Free theme- with priority for films linked to the theme of the edition and the Festival, Remigration and Memory)
2.- Fiction feature film (Free theme- with priority for films linked to the theme of the edition and the Festival, "Remigration and Memory")
3.- Documentary (under the theme "Remigration and Memory")