ATIQ RAHIMI
Atiq Rahimi is a novelist and filmmaker. His first feature, EARTH AND ASHES, co-authored with Iranian filmmaker Kambuzia Partovi, was presented in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival where it was awarded the “Prix du Regard vers l’Avenir”. SYNGUÉ SABOUR: THE PATIENCE STONE, his first novel written directly in French, won the Prix Goncourt on November 10, 2008. In 2011, he adapted it into a screenplay with French author and screenwriter Jean-Claude Carrière. The movie, which he also directed, world-premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and went on to enjoy widespread public acclaim when it was released on February 20, 2013. Notably, it showcased actress Golshifteh Farahani who received a César nomination for her performance. OUR LADY OF THE NILE is Atiq Rahimi’s third feature film.

Director's statement
"I found my place within the story after my first trip to Rwanda. As soon as I found, within its culture, something I’ve been obsessed with ever since I started writing books and making movies: the relationship between the sacred and violence. The ideas set forth in philosopher René Girard’s Violence and the Sacred have stayed with me since my college years. And that is exactly what OUR LADY OF THE NILE is about. The story unfolds in the 1970s, in a Catholic boarding school for girls who are seemingly carefree and yet find themselves thrust at the center of an irreversible mechanism of violence, all in the name of their origins. In the seventies, Rwanda, much like Afghanistan, is under absolute rule. It isn’t the people who decide, for better or for worse, their political system. It’s the elite, the technocrats and the leaders. The genocide against the Tutsi of 1994 didn’t arise all of a sudden or without premeditation. Its roots can be found in 1959, when the monarchy was overthrown by the Hutu clan. And then later, in 1973, when the manhunt on the elite and intellectual class began, in preparation for what would be known as the “popular Genocide”. OUR LADY OF THE NILE takes place during that preparatory phase".