(ANSAmed) - ROME - It is the courage of the young directors, as true travellers who experience diversity as a value, which provides the link between the films appearing in the 15th Medfilm Festival, running in Rome from November 7 to 15. Among these is the author of Israel's answer to 'Brokeback Mountain', ''Eyes Wide Open'', filmed in semi-secrecy by Haim Tabakman in Jeruslem's orthodox Mea Shearim quarter - previewing one of the themes of this year's review, that of homophobia. But other thematic focuses include the voyage as a search for the past and for one's own identity and the strenght of women. Keeping faith with its objective of using cinema as a vehicle to promote dialogue across the two shores of the Mediterranean, prizing cultural diversity as a source of creativity and innovation, this edition of Medfilm festival has chosen Morocco and France as its guests of honour. And it will be the French-Moroccan writer Tahar Ben Jelloun to receive the Koine' Prize, while the career award goes to director Claire Denis and that for new talent to Moroccan actress Sanaa Aaloui and artist Francesco Cuomo. The festival, which will follow a serpentine route between Rome's Auditorium Conciliazione, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Nuovo Cinema Aquila and Villa Medici, will offer 132 films including full-length films, shorts and documentaries from 36 countries, with 24 national previews. ''After Rome, we'll be in Istanbul from December 4 to 10 for the second edition of the Italian Film Festival, said Ginella Vocca, the Chair of MedFilm -. Furthermore, next year MedFilm will probably be part of the official festivities for Istanbul as European Cultural Capital, 2010''. The review opens with ''Le Grand Voyage'' by Moroccan Ismael Ferroukhi, winner of the Lion for the Future at the Venice Film Festival in 2004, an intense tale of a voyage to Mecca - travelling by car across Europe, the Balkans, Turkey and Syria - taken by an old immigrant to France, and of his difficult relationship with his son. One theme, that of immigration and of roots, that is a natural presence in the festival. Amongst the other films on the bill is ''London River'' by Rachid Bouchareb, on the 2005 bomb attacks in London, and ''Good Morning Aman'' by Claudio Noce with Valerio Mastandrea, while the series of strong female characters includes ''La journee de la jupe'' with an extraordinary Isabelle Adjani and ''Amours Voiles'' by Moroccan Aziz Salmy. Also in competition are ''Melodrama Habibi'' by Lebanon's Hany Tamba, a tender and ironic story of a has-been singer; ''Wrong Rosary'' by Turkey's Mahmut Fazil Coskun, about a muezzin who falls in love with a Catholic nurse; ''Andres'' by Spain's Roberto Caston, set among Basque farmers, and ''Athanasia'' by Greece's Panov Karkanevatos. There is also special area dedicated to filmmakers from the Balkans, war-veterans re-working their past. New features of this edition are the alliance with the Roberto Rossellini Foundation to re-launch Italian cinema in the Mediterranean and a collaboration with the European Parliament and with its Lux Award. he festival (which numbers among its sponsors the European Commission, the Italian Ministries of Culture, of Economic Development, of Foreign Affairs and of Justice as well as the Lazio Region and Rome City Council) has as its symbol this year an image created by Francesco Cuomo: ''It's of a monkey: the metaphor of the freedom of the human being, depicted in a fusion of races and colours''. (ANSAmed).