When Rumi Meets Francis / Quando Rumi incontra Francesco

country, year
Italy, 2017

genre
docu-fiction

running time
53′

directed by
Mohamed Kenawi

language
Italian

subtitles
Slovenian

about the film
This is the story of Pejman Tadayon, an Iranian musician based in Italy who draws his immediate strength, knowledge and solutions to his problems from the work of historical personalities from the 13^th century: Islam’s Sufi poet Jalalu-Din Rumi and the Christian poet St. Francis of Assisi. In his discussions of their work with different people from the catholic and Islamic world he discovers what binds both religions together.

about the author
Egypt-born Mohamed Kenawi graduated in Italian language and literature from the University of Ain Chams (Cairo, Egypt). He then worked as a translator and writer before immigrating to Italy in 2000. In 2002 he graduated in directing and editing at the Scuola di Cinema in Rome. Later he worked as an assistant producer with Orbit (2003 to 2006); since 2006 he’s been making films with Domino Film.

festivals and awards
Europe-Orient Documentary Film Festival (Tangier, Morocco, 2017)

filmography
The Real Cost behind the Mask (2013), Denmark before and after the cartoons (2014), The Orient in their Arts (2015)