The production had to abandon plans to film in Palestine after the outbreak of the Israel–Hamas war.
Saleh Bakri and Adam Bakri are to star in All That’s Left Of You, the upcoming drama from Palestinian-American filmmaker Cherien Dabis.
Salah is known for Cannes award-winner The Blue Caftan and recent Toronto title The Teacher, which plays in Competition at this year’s Red Sea International Film Festival, while brother Adam made his feature debut in Hany Abu-Assad’s Oscar-nominated Omar, going on to star in Asif Kapadia’s Ali And Nino and award-winning Toronto 2022 title A Gaza Weekend.
Saleh Bakri and Adam Bakri are to star in All That’s Left Of You, the upcoming drama from Palestinian-American filmmaker Cherien Dabis.
Salah is known for Cannes award-winner The Blue Caftan and recent Toronto title The Teacher, which plays in Competition at this year’s Red Sea International Film Festival, while brother Adam made his feature debut in Hany Abu-Assad’s Oscar-nominated Omar, going on to star in Asif Kapadia’s Ali And Nino and award-winning Toronto 2022 title A Gaza Weekend.
- 12/4/2023
- by Mona Sheded
- ScreenDaily
Hayy Cinema at Art Jameel hosted a special event with Red Sea International Film Festival.
Hayy Cinema, Saudi Arabia’s first independent cinema venue, celebrated the one-year anniversary of its launch on Sunday, December 3, screening a restoration of Badrakhan’s 1941 Egyptian drama Victory Of Youth.
The cinema, which is situated at the Art Jameel arts complex in northern Jeddah, hosted the event in collaboration with Red Sea Film, welcoming local and international attendees from the festival.
The cinema has screened over 180 Saudi, regional and international films since its launch on December 6 last year. The most popular titles have been the films of Hirokazu Kore-eda,...
Hayy Cinema, Saudi Arabia’s first independent cinema venue, celebrated the one-year anniversary of its launch on Sunday, December 3, screening a restoration of Badrakhan’s 1941 Egyptian drama Victory Of Youth.
The cinema, which is situated at the Art Jameel arts complex in northern Jeddah, hosted the event in collaboration with Red Sea Film, welcoming local and international attendees from the festival.
The cinema has screened over 180 Saudi, regional and international films since its launch on December 6 last year. The most popular titles have been the films of Hirokazu Kore-eda,...
- 12/4/2023
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
İsmet Ekin Koç, a well-known Turkish actor and musician, was born on June 21, 1992. After leaving Antalya, he pursued Business Administration (English) at Istanbul Bilgi University and began studying online education sociology as well.
Koç made his acting debut in the movie Senden Bana Kalan, an adaptation of the Korean movie A Millionaire’s First Love. He played the lead role of “Özgür Arıca” and won an Ayhan Işık Special Award for his performance. He then appeared as the one-eyed soldier “Mehmed” in the British movie Ali and Nino, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and was based on Kurban Said’s novel (1937). Maria Valverde and Adam Bakri were the lead actors in the film.
Koç also starred in the film Bizim İçin: Şampiyon, which was based on the life story of jockey Halis Karataş. In addition, he produced and acted in the short film App.
Koç’s films Okul Tıraşı,...
Koç made his acting debut in the movie Senden Bana Kalan, an adaptation of the Korean movie A Millionaire’s First Love. He played the lead role of “Özgür Arıca” and won an Ayhan Işık Special Award for his performance. He then appeared as the one-eyed soldier “Mehmed” in the British movie Ali and Nino, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and was based on Kurban Said’s novel (1937). Maria Valverde and Adam Bakri were the lead actors in the film.
Koç also starred in the film Bizim İçin: Şampiyon, which was based on the life story of jockey Halis Karataş. In addition, he produced and acted in the short film App.
Koç’s films Okul Tıraşı,...
- 6/23/2023
- by Movies Martin Cid Magazine
- Martin Cid Magazine - Movies
This year’s first-round Primetime Emmy nominations ballot includes a total of 51 Best Limited Series hopefuls. This is down from 2022’s unusually high total of 61, yet still much higher than 2021’s 37, 2020’s 41, and 2019’s 35.
All 20,000 plus voting members of the TV academy have until June 26 to cast their 2023 Emmy Awards nominations ballots for programs. Unlike the Oscars, voters for the Emmys do not rank their choices and nominees are determined by a simple tally. After six years of not having to limit their choices in any categories, members’ selections can now not be greater than the number of eventual nominations for a given award, which, in this case, will be five.
Unlike comedy and drama series, which simply appear on the ballot by name, the limited series submissions include plot descriptions and cast lists. Which of the shows listed below do you think will land in the final lineup on...
All 20,000 plus voting members of the TV academy have until June 26 to cast their 2023 Emmy Awards nominations ballots for programs. Unlike the Oscars, voters for the Emmys do not rank their choices and nominees are determined by a simple tally. After six years of not having to limit their choices in any categories, members’ selections can now not be greater than the number of eventual nominations for a given award, which, in this case, will be five.
Unlike comedy and drama series, which simply appear on the ballot by name, the limited series submissions include plot descriptions and cast lists. Which of the shows listed below do you think will land in the final lineup on...
- 6/17/2023
- by Matthew Stewart
- Gold Derby
Adam Bakri (Hell’s Gate) leads the cast of Fox’s Accused season one episode 13, “Samir’s Story.” Directed by Sameh Zoabi from a script by Daniel Pearle and Arlo Gordon, episode 13 is set to air on Tuesday, April 25, 2023 at 9pm Et/Pt.
In addition to Adam Bakri as the episode’s title character, “Samir’s Story” stars Anne Bedian as Rita Khalil, Julia Golandani Telles as Alice Baylor, Matthew James Thomas as Tom Braddick, and Matthew Edison as Ada Simon Stacher. Daniel Maslany is Eli DeMille, Christopher Russell is Josh, and Victor Ertmanis is Branson.
“Samir’s Story” Plot: A limo driver’s infatuation with one of his riders leads him down a dark path.
Adam Bakri and Julia Golden Telles in the “Samir’s Story” episode of ‘Accused’ (Photo by Steve Wilkie © 2023 Fox Media LLC)
Accused Season 1 Description:
Accused is a collection of 15 intense, topical, and exquisitely human stories of crime and punishment.
In addition to Adam Bakri as the episode’s title character, “Samir’s Story” stars Anne Bedian as Rita Khalil, Julia Golandani Telles as Alice Baylor, Matthew James Thomas as Tom Braddick, and Matthew Edison as Ada Simon Stacher. Daniel Maslany is Eli DeMille, Christopher Russell is Josh, and Victor Ertmanis is Branson.
“Samir’s Story” Plot: A limo driver’s infatuation with one of his riders leads him down a dark path.
Adam Bakri and Julia Golden Telles in the “Samir’s Story” episode of ‘Accused’ (Photo by Steve Wilkie © 2023 Fox Media LLC)
Accused Season 1 Description:
Accused is a collection of 15 intense, topical, and exquisitely human stories of crime and punishment.
- 4/19/2023
- by Rebecca Murray
- Showbiz Junkies
Spring release planned on British-Palestinian filmmaker Basil Khalil’s culture-clash comedy-drama.
Cohen Media Group has acquired US rights to British-Palestinian filmmaker Basil Khalil’s TIFF Discovery premiere A Gaza Weekend.
‘A Gaza Weekend’: Toronto Review
Khalil’s made his feature directorial debut on the culture-clash comedy-drama about a couple stranded amid a deadly virus outbreak which has sealed off Israel and turned the Gaza Strip into the safest place in the region.
A British journalist and his Israeli girlfriend who want to flee Israel must place their faith in two Palestinian street merchants who promise a way out in exchange for cash.
Cohen Media Group has acquired US rights to British-Palestinian filmmaker Basil Khalil’s TIFF Discovery premiere A Gaza Weekend.
‘A Gaza Weekend’: Toronto Review
Khalil’s made his feature directorial debut on the culture-clash comedy-drama about a couple stranded amid a deadly virus outbreak which has sealed off Israel and turned the Gaza Strip into the safest place in the region.
A British journalist and his Israeli girlfriend who want to flee Israel must place their faith in two Palestinian street merchants who promise a way out in exchange for cash.
- 3/23/2023
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
Keria Knightley in Official Secrets
Official Secrets, 10.40pm, BBC1, Tuesday, March 21
Keira Knightley gives a compellingly stripped back and unfussy performance at the heart of Gavin Hood's drama, which tells the true story of British Intelligence whistleblower Katharine Gun. Hood keeps things tight on Gun as she faces tough moral choices after receiving an email that is looking to weight a Un vote towards going to war. Gun's choice to speak out carries real personal risk, not least because her husband Yasar (Adam Bakri) was an asylum seeker at the time. The film keeps up a smart pace as it digs into the aftermath of Gun's actions, showing a woman determined to do the right thing no matter what the cost.
Goat, 1.25am, Film4, Wednesday, March 22
The psychological underpinnings and drivers of frat house behaviour and hazing are explored in this tense drama that gave musician Nick Jonas a...
Official Secrets, 10.40pm, BBC1, Tuesday, March 21
Keira Knightley gives a compellingly stripped back and unfussy performance at the heart of Gavin Hood's drama, which tells the true story of British Intelligence whistleblower Katharine Gun. Hood keeps things tight on Gun as she faces tough moral choices after receiving an email that is looking to weight a Un vote towards going to war. Gun's choice to speak out carries real personal risk, not least because her husband Yasar (Adam Bakri) was an asylum seeker at the time. The film keeps up a smart pace as it digs into the aftermath of Gun's actions, showing a woman determined to do the right thing no matter what the cost.
Goat, 1.25am, Film4, Wednesday, March 22
The psychological underpinnings and drivers of frat house behaviour and hazing are explored in this tense drama that gave musician Nick Jonas a...
- 3/20/2023
- by Amber Wilkinson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Fipresci Jury Award-winning “A Gaza Weekend” made a splash at Toronto International Film Festival last week. Public and press alike flocked towards theaters for this film’s premiere weekend; each screening was packed. The film’s release could not have been more timely. Written during the swine flu and released after the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic, British-Palestinian Basil Khalil pokes fun at plague paranoia in his narrative feature debut. In this punchy family-friendly comedy of the Gaza Strip, any and all traditional power hierarchies are out the window for the sake of survival.
A Gaza Weekend is screening at Red Sea International Film Festival
Like many films about Palestine, “A Gaza Weekend” follows the trajectory of a refugee couple – though this time, they’re from Israel. Englishman Michael (Stephen Mangan) and his Israeli partner Keren (Mouna Hawa) are desperate to leave the country after the outbreak...
A Gaza Weekend is screening at Red Sea International Film Festival
Like many films about Palestine, “A Gaza Weekend” follows the trajectory of a refugee couple – though this time, they’re from Israel. Englishman Michael (Stephen Mangan) and his Israeli partner Keren (Mouna Hawa) are desperate to leave the country after the outbreak...
- 12/3/2022
- by Grace Han
- AsianMoviePulse
Mena-based distributor and producer Front Row Filmed Entertainment has acquired Mena rights for British-Palestinian filmmaker Basil Khalil’s feature debut A Gaza Weekend, ahead of its regional premiere at the Red International Film Festival this December.
The acquisition marks the third collaboration between Khalil and Front Row, as the company previously distributed his 2015 Academy Award and Palme d’Or-nominated short Ave Maria, which debuted in Cannes in 2015 and has also recently boarded Nour Shams, a short film by Saudi filmmaker Faiza Ambah and produced by Khalil.
International sales on the film, which world premiered in Toronto in September, are handled by London-based sales and production company Protagonist Pictures. The feature is produced by U.K.-Emirati producer Amina Dasmal and executive produced by Robin C. Fox.
The comedy-drama is set in a world where Israel is sealed off after a deadly virus outbreak and Gaza has become the safest place in the region.
The acquisition marks the third collaboration between Khalil and Front Row, as the company previously distributed his 2015 Academy Award and Palme d’Or-nominated short Ave Maria, which debuted in Cannes in 2015 and has also recently boarded Nour Shams, a short film by Saudi filmmaker Faiza Ambah and produced by Khalil.
International sales on the film, which world premiered in Toronto in September, are handled by London-based sales and production company Protagonist Pictures. The feature is produced by U.K.-Emirati producer Amina Dasmal and executive produced by Robin C. Fox.
The comedy-drama is set in a world where Israel is sealed off after a deadly virus outbreak and Gaza has become the safest place in the region.
- 11/29/2022
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
Dubai-based distributor and producer Front Row Filmed Entertainment has acquired Middle East and North Africa (Mena) rights to British-Palestinian filmmaker Basil Khalil’s action-packed drama “A Gaza Weekend” ahead of its regional premiere at Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Film Festival.
Front Row, which is a prominent distributor of indie films in Mena region, picked up “Gaza Weekend” from London-based sales and production outfit Protagonist Pictures after it premiered positively at the Toronto International Film Festival in September.
Made by British-Emirati producer Amina Dasmal and Robin C. Fox, who executive produced, “Gaza Weekend” is set in a world where Israel is sealed off after a deadly virus outbreak and Gaza has become the safest spot in the region. British journalist (Stephen Mangan) and his Israeli girlfriend (Mouna Hawa) find themselves stuck on the wrong side of the border, needing the help of two Palestinian street merchants who promise them a...
Front Row, which is a prominent distributor of indie films in Mena region, picked up “Gaza Weekend” from London-based sales and production outfit Protagonist Pictures after it premiered positively at the Toronto International Film Festival in September.
Made by British-Emirati producer Amina Dasmal and Robin C. Fox, who executive produced, “Gaza Weekend” is set in a world where Israel is sealed off after a deadly virus outbreak and Gaza has become the safest spot in the region. British journalist (Stephen Mangan) and his Israeli girlfriend (Mouna Hawa) find themselves stuck on the wrong side of the border, needing the help of two Palestinian street merchants who promise them a...
- 11/29/2022
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
Oscar winner Keith Carradine (The Power of the Dog), Emmy nominee Jason Ritter (Raising Dion), Betsy Brandt (Breaking Bad) and Wrenn Schmidt (Nope) have joined the cast of Fox’s upcoming anthology series Accused, based on the International Emmy-winning British series. The project comes from 24 executive producers Howard Gordon and Alex Gansa and House creator/executive producer David Shore.
Developed by Gordon and co-produced by Fox Entertainment and Sony Pictures Television, Accused is based on the BBC’s BAFTA-winning crime anthology. It opens in a courtroom on the accused, with viewers knowing nothing about their crime or how they ended up on trial. Told from the defendant’s point of view through flashbacks, Accused depicts how an ordinary person gets caught up in an extraordinary situation, ultimately revealing how one wrong turn leads to another, until it’s too late to turn back.
The series premieres Sunday, January 22, 2023 at 9 p.
Developed by Gordon and co-produced by Fox Entertainment and Sony Pictures Television, Accused is based on the BBC’s BAFTA-winning crime anthology. It opens in a courtroom on the accused, with viewers knowing nothing about their crime or how they ended up on trial. Told from the defendant’s point of view through flashbacks, Accused depicts how an ordinary person gets caught up in an extraordinary situation, ultimately revealing how one wrong turn leads to another, until it’s too late to turn back.
The series premieres Sunday, January 22, 2023 at 9 p.
- 11/21/2022
- by Denise Petski
- Deadline Film + TV
Fipresci Jury Award-winning “A Gaza Weekend” made a splash at Toronto International Film Festival last week. Public and press alike flocked towards theaters for this film’s premiere weekend; each screening was packed. The film’s release could not have been more timely. Written during the swine flu and released after the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic, British-Palestinian Basil Khalil pokes fun at plague paranoia in his narrative feature debut. In this punchy family-friendly comedy of the Gaza Strip, any and all traditional power hierarchies are out the window for the sake of survival.
A Gaza Weekend is screening at Toronto International Film Festival
Like many films about Palestine, “A Gaza Weekend” follows the trajectory of a refugee couple – though this time, they’re from Israel. Englishman Michael (Stephen Mangan) and his Israeli partner Keren (Mouna Hawa) are desperate to leave the country after the outbreak of a new deadly Ars virus.
A Gaza Weekend is screening at Toronto International Film Festival
Like many films about Palestine, “A Gaza Weekend” follows the trajectory of a refugee couple – though this time, they’re from Israel. Englishman Michael (Stephen Mangan) and his Israeli partner Keren (Mouna Hawa) are desperate to leave the country after the outbreak of a new deadly Ars virus.
- 9/20/2022
- by Grace Han
- AsianMoviePulse
Click here to read the full article.
Films can be given life or put to death in Cannes. Many are born from meetings there. But very few are dreamed up in a rush on the beach while trying to impress an industry exec. A Gaza Weekend is a rare exception, beginning its unlikely journey at the 2009 edition of the festival, where Basil Khalil was casually asked by a sales agent what project he was working on next.
“And I had absolutely nothing,” he tells The Hollywood Reporter. Not wanting to admit his creative shortcomings, the British-Palestinian filmmaker quickly came up with a project off the top of his head. “Swine flu had been in the news at the time, so I just said, ‘Ok, so there’s a virus in Israel and the only safe place is Gaza.’ And that’s all I had.” And did it have a name?...
Films can be given life or put to death in Cannes. Many are born from meetings there. But very few are dreamed up in a rush on the beach while trying to impress an industry exec. A Gaza Weekend is a rare exception, beginning its unlikely journey at the 2009 edition of the festival, where Basil Khalil was casually asked by a sales agent what project he was working on next.
“And I had absolutely nothing,” he tells The Hollywood Reporter. Not wanting to admit his creative shortcomings, the British-Palestinian filmmaker quickly came up with a project off the top of his head. “Swine flu had been in the news at the time, so I just said, ‘Ok, so there’s a virus in Israel and the only safe place is Gaza.’ And that’s all I had.” And did it have a name?...
- 9/11/2022
- by Alex Ritman
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Director Basil Khalil and co-writer Daniel Ka-Chun Chan waste no time setting the tone for their Middle Eastern comedy A Gaza Weekend. Conceived over a decade ago, its purpose is to satirize the very real conflict between Palestinians and Israelis to its most absurd extremes while also finding the common ground of humanity hiding beneath—much like Khalil’s enjoyable, Oscar-nominated short Ave Maria. As such, watching a scientist carelessly mill about an Israeli infectious disease center is less about her obvious lack of protocol and more about the color of her skin. Why? Because it means the country, despite being ground zero for a deadly disease, can absolve itself by blaming an Arab.
And what’s the point of making Israel the epicenter for a cataclysmic pandemic if you don’t also render Gaza the safest place on Earth? The reason: Israel has blocked the area off with walls...
And what’s the point of making Israel the epicenter for a cataclysmic pandemic if you don’t also render Gaza the safest place on Earth? The reason: Israel has blocked the area off with walls...
- 9/10/2022
- by Jared Mobarak
- The Film Stage
Titles include ’Aftersun’, ’Enys Men’, ‘Birchanger Green’ and ‘A Gaza Weekend’.
Cannes premieres Aftersun, sold by Charades, and Enys Men, sold by Protagonist Pictures, are among the titles selected for year’s Great 8, the annual Cannes buyers’ showcase of UK films from emerging directors.
The other six titles are all in post-production.
Now in its fifth edition, the 2022 Great 8 showcase is funded and run by the BFI and the British Council, in partnership with BBC Film and Film4.
Unseen footage from all of the titles will be introduced by their filmmakers and screened on May 12 exclusively to buyers and festival programmers during the online-only showcase,...
Cannes premieres Aftersun, sold by Charades, and Enys Men, sold by Protagonist Pictures, are among the titles selected for year’s Great 8, the annual Cannes buyers’ showcase of UK films from emerging directors.
The other six titles are all in post-production.
Now in its fifth edition, the 2022 Great 8 showcase is funded and run by the BFI and the British Council, in partnership with BBC Film and Film4.
Unseen footage from all of the titles will be introduced by their filmmakers and screened on May 12 exclusively to buyers and festival programmers during the online-only showcase,...
- 5/5/2022
- by Mona Tabbara
- ScreenDaily
The BFI and British Council have revealed the line-up for this year’s Great8 showcase, which allows international distributors and festival programmers to get an early look at eight releases from emerging U.K. filmmakers in the run-up to Cannes Marché.
Now in its fifth year, the showcase on May 12 will allow filmmakers to screen unseen footage from the films, which will be available to buy during the market, which runs from May 17-28.
Of the eight films selected for the showcase, one has also been selected for the official Directors’ Fortnight and another for the Critics’ Week line-up. The remaining six films are in post-production.
The Great8 showcase is funded and organized by the BFI and the British Council, in partnership with BBC Film and Film4. It has previously presented films including “I Am Not A Witch” and “Calm with Horses.”
Neil Peplow, the BFI’s Director of Industry and International Affairs,...
Now in its fifth year, the showcase on May 12 will allow filmmakers to screen unseen footage from the films, which will be available to buy during the market, which runs from May 17-28.
Of the eight films selected for the showcase, one has also been selected for the official Directors’ Fortnight and another for the Critics’ Week line-up. The remaining six films are in post-production.
The Great8 showcase is funded and organized by the BFI and the British Council, in partnership with BBC Film and Film4. It has previously presented films including “I Am Not A Witch” and “Calm with Horses.”
Neil Peplow, the BFI’s Director of Industry and International Affairs,...
- 5/4/2022
- by K.J. Yossman
- Variety Film + TV
Official Secrets Photo: Courtesy of Sundance Film Festival Official Secrets, 10pm, BBC2, Monday, April 18
Keira Knightley gives a compellingly stripped back and unfussy performance at the heart of Gavin Hood's drama, which tells the true story of British Intelligence whistleblower Katharine Gun. Hood keeps things tight on Gun as she faces tough moral choices after receiving an email that is looking to weight a Un vote towards war. Gun's choice to speak out carries real personal risk, not least because her husband Yasar (Adam Bakri) was an asylum seeker at the time. The film keeps up a smart pace as it digs into the aftermath of Gun's actions, showing a woman determined to do the right thing no matter what the cost.
Hot Fuzz, 1.35am, ITV2, Tuesday, April 19
A much more light-hearted view of the law is presented by Edgar Wright's equally pacy comedy, which continued the impressive...
Keira Knightley gives a compellingly stripped back and unfussy performance at the heart of Gavin Hood's drama, which tells the true story of British Intelligence whistleblower Katharine Gun. Hood keeps things tight on Gun as she faces tough moral choices after receiving an email that is looking to weight a Un vote towards war. Gun's choice to speak out carries real personal risk, not least because her husband Yasar (Adam Bakri) was an asylum seeker at the time. The film keeps up a smart pace as it digs into the aftermath of Gun's actions, showing a woman determined to do the right thing no matter what the cost.
Hot Fuzz, 1.35am, ITV2, Tuesday, April 19
A much more light-hearted view of the law is presented by Edgar Wright's equally pacy comedy, which continued the impressive...
- 4/18/2022
- by Amber Wilkinson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Official Secrets Photo: Courtesy of Sundance Film Festival Welcome to this week's Stay-At-Home Seven. If you're looking for more inspiration, we're shining our Streaming Spotlight on Palme d'Or winners this week, as Cannes kicks off tomorrow in France.
Official Secrets, Netflix
Kiera Knightly puts in a stripped back performance as real-life whistleblower Katharine Gun in Gavin Hood's film, which considers the personal risks Gun and her asylum seeker husband (Adam Bakri) took in the name of the truth. Hood goes at the complex material - surrounding a memo which basically urges the gathering of information by British intelligence services that could be used to blackmail smaller nations into voting for war in Iraq - at a brisk pace. In doing so he keeps the focus on the moral quandary Gun found herself while ratcheting up the tension via subplots involving a journalist (Matt Smith) working to confirm Gun's story...
Official Secrets, Netflix
Kiera Knightly puts in a stripped back performance as real-life whistleblower Katharine Gun in Gavin Hood's film, which considers the personal risks Gun and her asylum seeker husband (Adam Bakri) took in the name of the truth. Hood goes at the complex material - surrounding a memo which basically urges the gathering of information by British intelligence services that could be used to blackmail smaller nations into voting for war in Iraq - at a brisk pace. In doing so he keeps the focus on the moral quandary Gun found herself while ratcheting up the tension via subplots involving a journalist (Matt Smith) working to confirm Gun's story...
- 7/5/2021
- by Amber Wilkinson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Ben Geurens in ‘Locusts.’
Typifying the challenges facing the vast majority of Australian films, Heath Davis’ suspense-drama Locusts and Partho Sen-Gupta’s thriller Slam were released on a handful of screens last weekend.
Working with limited marketing budgets the distributors and producers relied primarily on reviews and publicity, and the weekend figures were commensurately modest.
Ben Geurens and Nathaniel Dean play estranged brothers who are the targets of an extortion racket in Locusts, which grossed $11,000 on 11 screens and $14,000 with previews.
Film Ink Presents is handling the theatrical release of the privately-financed film, which co-stars Jessica McNamee, Steve Le Marquand, Justin Rosniak, Andy McPhee, the late Damian Hill and Alan Dukes, while Jonathan Page’s Bonsai Films will sell the ancillary rights.
“It’s difficult for independent films to secure screens and marketing exposure,” Angus Watts, who produced and wrote Locusts, tells If. “We’re happy with the support from exhibitors...
Typifying the challenges facing the vast majority of Australian films, Heath Davis’ suspense-drama Locusts and Partho Sen-Gupta’s thriller Slam were released on a handful of screens last weekend.
Working with limited marketing budgets the distributors and producers relied primarily on reviews and publicity, and the weekend figures were commensurately modest.
Ben Geurens and Nathaniel Dean play estranged brothers who are the targets of an extortion racket in Locusts, which grossed $11,000 on 11 screens and $14,000 with previews.
Film Ink Presents is handling the theatrical release of the privately-financed film, which co-stars Jessica McNamee, Steve Le Marquand, Justin Rosniak, Andy McPhee, the late Damian Hill and Alan Dukes, while Jonathan Page’s Bonsai Films will sell the ancillary rights.
“It’s difficult for independent films to secure screens and marketing exposure,” Angus Watts, who produced and wrote Locusts, tells If. “We’re happy with the support from exhibitors...
- 10/21/2019
- by The IF Team
- IF.com.au
The disappearance of a fearless female Palestinian-Australian slam poet triggers suspense and powerful social and political commentary in “Slam,” an outstanding slow-burn thriller by expat Indian filmmaker Partho Sen-Gupta (“Sunrise”). Starring Palestinian actor Adam Bakri as the missing woman’s conflicted brother, and leading Aussie performer Rachael Blake as a troubled cop, Opening Down Under on Oct. 17 after generating plenty of buzz at Sydney and Melbourne film festivals earlier this year, “Slam” has valuable things to say about the times in which we live and deserves to be seen on a much wider stage.
“Slam” slams into action with Ameena Nasser (Danielle Horvat) staring into the camera. Wearing a headscarf and addressing her speech “to mother,” Ameena delivers a ferocious denunciation of colonization, patriarchy, intolerance and the misuse of power, all the while asserting her right and need as a woman to speak out. At first her delivery has the...
“Slam” slams into action with Ameena Nasser (Danielle Horvat) staring into the camera. Wearing a headscarf and addressing her speech “to mother,” Ameena delivers a ferocious denunciation of colonization, patriarchy, intolerance and the misuse of power, all the while asserting her right and need as a woman to speak out. At first her delivery has the...
- 10/17/2019
- by Richard Kuipers
- Variety Film + TV
Rebecca Lundgren, Joshua Sobel produce gritty Us-Philippines drama.
Production has wrapped after 17 days around Metro Manila in the Philippines on the politically charged thriller A Violet Night, which the producers are shopping at Busan.
Ron Morales is directing from his screenplay about a foreign journalist who risks her life to expose the truth when she becomes entangled with the Filipino government’s brutal anti-drug crusade.
Imprint Pictures and Harriet Pictures from the Us are producing the film with production services provided by Outpost Visual Frontier and Epic Media, both from the Philippines.
Rebecca Lundgren (Graceland) and Joshua Sobel serve as producers,...
Production has wrapped after 17 days around Metro Manila in the Philippines on the politically charged thriller A Violet Night, which the producers are shopping at Busan.
Ron Morales is directing from his screenplay about a foreign journalist who risks her life to expose the truth when she becomes entangled with the Filipino government’s brutal anti-drug crusade.
Imprint Pictures and Harriet Pictures from the Us are producing the film with production services provided by Outpost Visual Frontier and Epic Media, both from the Philippines.
Rebecca Lundgren (Graceland) and Joshua Sobel serve as producers,...
- 10/7/2019
- ScreenDaily
Keira Knightley as “Katharine Gun” in Gavin Hood’s Official Secrets. Photo credit: Nick Wall. Courtesy of IFC Films. An IFC Films Release.
Keira Knightley takes a break from period costumes to star in the true-story based political thriller Official Secrets, about a British intelligence specialist turns whistle-blower in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq.
South African writer/director Gavin Hood has built a reputation for thoughtful dramas focused on timely topics with ethical complexities, starting with the Oscar-winning Tsotsi. Hood has also directed action films like X_MEN Origins: Wolverine but he has recently offered up drama with serious subjects but featuring big enough stars to get the subject wide audience attention. In the Helen Mirren-starring Eye In The Sky, Hood spotlighted the complex human and ethical issues underlying drone strikes. This time Hood focuses on the case of a British intelligence analyst who decided the public...
Keira Knightley takes a break from period costumes to star in the true-story based political thriller Official Secrets, about a British intelligence specialist turns whistle-blower in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq.
South African writer/director Gavin Hood has built a reputation for thoughtful dramas focused on timely topics with ethical complexities, starting with the Oscar-winning Tsotsi. Hood has also directed action films like X_MEN Origins: Wolverine but he has recently offered up drama with serious subjects but featuring big enough stars to get the subject wide audience attention. In the Helen Mirren-starring Eye In The Sky, Hood spotlighted the complex human and ethical issues underlying drone strikes. This time Hood focuses on the case of a British intelligence analyst who decided the public...
- 9/13/2019
- by Cate Marquis
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Official Secrets centers on British whistleblower Katharine Gun’s (Keira Knightley) decision to leak an Nsa memo requesting agents collect juicy information on United Nations Security Council members in an attempt to generate support for an Iraq war. As a member of Government Communications Headquarters (Gchq), Gun placed herself and husband (Adam Bakri) in jeopardy by [...]
The post Filmmaker Gavin Hood Brings Acting To The Forefront With ‘Official Secrets’ appeared first on Hollywood Outbreak.
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- 9/2/2019
- by Hollywood Outbreak
- HollywoodOutbreak.com
If movies were simply judged by their educational and historical merits, “Official Secrets” would be a slam dunk. Based on real events, the drama about a British translator who leaked a top secret Nsa memo during the 2003 lead-up to the Iraq war fancies itself the next “Spotlight” or “The Post,” but its workmanlike translation is more fitting for social studies classrooms than awards conversations. Keira Knightley delivers a routine performance in a central role that is more expository than explosive, and the dramatic action builds around her character more like it would a glorified coat rack than a compelling heroine.
Based on the true story of British Intelligence whistleblower Katharine Gun (Knightley), “Official Secrets” begins with Katharine facing trial for treason in 2004 before cutting back to one year prior. While working as a Mandarin translator at Britain’s Government Communications Headquarters (G.C.H.Q.), Katharine is shocked to receive...
Based on the true story of British Intelligence whistleblower Katharine Gun (Knightley), “Official Secrets” begins with Katharine facing trial for treason in 2004 before cutting back to one year prior. While working as a Mandarin translator at Britain’s Government Communications Headquarters (G.C.H.Q.), Katharine is shocked to receive...
- 8/30/2019
- by Jude Dry
- Indiewire
Filmmaker Gavin Hood is at his best when he gets political. The less said about his superhero outing X-Men Origins: Wolverine, the better, while Ender’s Game underwhelmed. However, after his breakthrough Tsotsi, efforts like Rendition, though especially Eye in the Sky and now Official Secrets, show how engaged he is when he’s passionate about a cause. Here, telling the true story of a British whistleblower in the lead up to the 2003 Iraq War, he’s found a terrific vehicle for his talents. The film is angry, urgent, and effortlessly well made. Hitting theaters this week, it’s a mature and serious work that’s well worth your time. The movie is a political thriller, based on the true story of Katharine Gun (Keira Knightley), a member of British Intelligence who leaked classified documents in an attempt to stop the 2003 invasion of Iraq. A longtime effective and loyal intelligence office,...
- 8/29/2019
- by Joey Magidson
- Hollywoodnews.com
Official Secrets is not kinetic cinema. Instead, it dumps a ton of data on audiences in telling the true story of Katharine Gun (Keira Knightley), the British whistleblower who leaked classified documents meant to pressure the U.N. Security Council into supporting the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq. But even when director Gavin Hood’s political thriller fails to thrill, there’s no doubting the continuing relevance of the topic on the table. Gun, an intelligence operative at Gchq (Government Communications Headquarters), a British surveillance agency tasked with ferreting out terrorist activity,...
- 8/28/2019
- by Peter Travers
- Rollingstone.com
High-minded and sturdy, if never as galvanizing as it should be, Gavin Hood’s whistleblower drama “Official Secrets” follows a string of similarly themed, recent-history docudramas in trying to frame a noble fight as worth waging no matter the repercussions.
And in the real-life case of British intelligence analyst Katharine Gun, played with trademark poise and fierce smarts by Keira Knightley, a consequential impulse to go rogue and do right by millions of citizens in England and Iraq in the pre-invasion buildup put her squarely in the crosshairs of her country’s need to punish those willing to expose the darker workings in the drumbeat to war.
If you don’t know anything about Gun’s actions and subsequent ordeal — highly likely since war happened anyway, and regrettably so since this incident should have helped prevent it — “Official Secrets,” serves as an efficiently told primer. It’s a historical sidebar...
And in the real-life case of British intelligence analyst Katharine Gun, played with trademark poise and fierce smarts by Keira Knightley, a consequential impulse to go rogue and do right by millions of citizens in England and Iraq in the pre-invasion buildup put her squarely in the crosshairs of her country’s need to punish those willing to expose the darker workings in the drumbeat to war.
If you don’t know anything about Gun’s actions and subsequent ordeal — highly likely since war happened anyway, and regrettably so since this incident should have helped prevent it — “Official Secrets,” serves as an efficiently told primer. It’s a historical sidebar...
- 8/27/2019
- by Robert Abele
- The Wrap
"Official Secrets" is the new Brit-American co-pro feature, directed by Gavin Hood ("X-Men Origins: Wolverine"), starring Keira Knightley, Matt Smith ("Doctor Who") , Matthew Goode, Adam Bakri, Indira Varma and Ralph Fiennes ("Schindler's List"), opening August 30, 2019:
"..based on true events, the story follows 'Katharine Gun' (Knightley) who leaks a secret memo exposing an illegal spying operation by covert, 'deep state' operators in the Us Government..."
Main cast includes Keira Knightley as 'Katharine Gun', Matt Smith as 'Martin Bright', Matthew Goode as 'Peter Beaumont', Rhys Ifans as 'Ed Vulliamy', Adam Bakri as 'Yasar Gun', Indira Varma as 'Shami Chakrabarti and Ralph Fiennes as 'Ben Emmerson'.
Click the images to enlarge and Sneak Peek "Official Secrets"...
"..based on true events, the story follows 'Katharine Gun' (Knightley) who leaks a secret memo exposing an illegal spying operation by covert, 'deep state' operators in the Us Government..."
Main cast includes Keira Knightley as 'Katharine Gun', Matt Smith as 'Martin Bright', Matthew Goode as 'Peter Beaumont', Rhys Ifans as 'Ed Vulliamy', Adam Bakri as 'Yasar Gun', Indira Varma as 'Shami Chakrabarti and Ralph Fiennes as 'Ben Emmerson'.
Click the images to enlarge and Sneak Peek "Official Secrets"...
- 8/7/2019
- by Unknown
- SneakPeek
"If we do not go public, we would be conceding that no one can ever tell the people when their government is lying." IFC Films has unveiled another new Us trailer for the legal drama Official Secrets, telling the true story of a whistleblower who discovers a top secret plot within the government for war. We posted the UK for this just a few weeks ago. This premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, and also played at the San Francisco, Newport Beach, and Seattle Film Festivals. Keira Knightley stars as Katharine Gun, a woman who works as a civilian translator at the Gchq (Government Communications Headquarters intelligence office) in the UK. She risks her own freedom and her marriage and her life making sure the truth gets to the public. Also starring Adam Bakri as her husband, plus Matt Smith, Matthew Goode, Ralph Fiennes, Indira Varma, Conleth Hill, Tamsin Greig,...
- 6/26/2019
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
"I do not collect information so that the government can lie to the British people." Entertainment One UK has debuted the first trailer for the indie drama Official Secrets, telling the true story of a whistleblower who discovers a top secret manipulative plot within the government pushing for war. This premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, and also played at the San Francisco, Newport Beach, and Seattle Film Festivals. Keira Knightley stars as Katharine Gun, a woman who works as a civilian translator at the Gchq (the Government Communications Headquarters intelligence office) in the UK. She risks her own freedom and her marriage and everything else by leaking the truth to the public. The cast includes Adam Bakri as her husband Yasar, plus Matt Smith, Matthew Goode, Ralph Fiennes, Indira Varma, Conleth Hill, Tamsin Greig, Monica Dolan, Katherine Kelly, and Rhys Ifans. This very powerful, riveting political thriller should be...
- 6/12/2019
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
‘Judy & Punch’. (Photo: Ben King)
Two Aussie films, Mirrah Foulkes’ Judy & Punch and Ben Lawrence’s Hearts and Bones, will be among the 12 features in official competition at this year’s Sydney Film Festival (Sff).
Also up for the festival’s $60,000 Sydney Film Prize are Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s Never Look Away, which was nominated for two Oscars; recent Cannes selections such as Pedro Almodóvar’s Pain and Glory, Bong Joon-Ho’s Parasite, and Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles’ Bacurau; Sundance World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award winner Monos, from directors Alejandro Landes and Alexis Dos; Joanna Hogg’s Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner The Souvenir; Nadav Lapid’s Golden Bear winner Synonymes, as well as Sacha Polak’s Dirty God, Teona Strugar Mitevska’s God Exists, Her Name is Petrunya, and Kiwi director Hamish Bennett’s Bellbird.
Sydney Film Festival launched the full program for its 66th...
Two Aussie films, Mirrah Foulkes’ Judy & Punch and Ben Lawrence’s Hearts and Bones, will be among the 12 features in official competition at this year’s Sydney Film Festival (Sff).
Also up for the festival’s $60,000 Sydney Film Prize are Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s Never Look Away, which was nominated for two Oscars; recent Cannes selections such as Pedro Almodóvar’s Pain and Glory, Bong Joon-Ho’s Parasite, and Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles’ Bacurau; Sundance World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award winner Monos, from directors Alejandro Landes and Alexis Dos; Joanna Hogg’s Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner The Souvenir; Nadav Lapid’s Golden Bear winner Synonymes, as well as Sacha Polak’s Dirty God, Teona Strugar Mitevska’s God Exists, Her Name is Petrunya, and Kiwi director Hamish Bennett’s Bellbird.
Sydney Film Festival launched the full program for its 66th...
- 5/8/2019
- by jkeast
- IF.com.au
As the UK’s Brexit political thriller plays out in real time, IFC Films has set a release date for director Gavin Hood’s take on another one from 15 years ago. Official Secrets, the story of Iraq-invasion whistleblower Katharine Gun, will hit select theaters on August 23.
The film, which premiered at Sundance in January, stars Keira Knightley as Gun. Charged with breaking the Official Secrets Act in Britain, and facing imprisonment, she reaches out to Ben Emmerson (Ralph Fiennes), one of the top lawyers in the country, to take her case and defend her actions. With her life, freedom and marriage threatened, Gun risks everything by leaking a classified email to the press in the hope that this simple act could help halt an unjust war.
The pic also stars Matthew Goode, Adam Bakri and Matt Smith as journalist Martin Bright, who first publicly broke the news about the memo.
The film, which premiered at Sundance in January, stars Keira Knightley as Gun. Charged with breaking the Official Secrets Act in Britain, and facing imprisonment, she reaches out to Ben Emmerson (Ralph Fiennes), one of the top lawyers in the country, to take her case and defend her actions. With her life, freedom and marriage threatened, Gun risks everything by leaking a classified email to the press in the hope that this simple act could help halt an unjust war.
The pic also stars Matthew Goode, Adam Bakri and Matt Smith as journalist Martin Bright, who first publicly broke the news about the memo.
- 4/2/2019
- by Erik Pedersen
- Deadline Film + TV
In January 2003, British government employee Katherine Gun was emailed a memo that requested she, and those she worked with at the Gchq (Government Communications Headquarters), listen in on the Un offices of six nations: Angola, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Chile, Guinea, and Pakistan. These countries held the crucial swing votes on the approval of the invasion of Iraq. Regarding this ask as illegal, Gun leaked the email to a friend with connections to The Observer. The information goes public and Gun’s life changes forever as the government charges her under the Official Secrets Act of 1989.
Directed by Gavin Hood and starring Keira Knightley as Gun, Official Secrets digs into this story with plenty of aplomb if not enough urgency. Such a languid pace at which this movie operates! Running at nearly two hours, the script, spends an admirable amount of time in its first act developing Gun as a character. Unfortunately,...
Directed by Gavin Hood and starring Keira Knightley as Gun, Official Secrets digs into this story with plenty of aplomb if not enough urgency. Such a languid pace at which this movie operates! Running at nearly two hours, the script, spends an admirable amount of time in its first act developing Gun as a character. Unfortunately,...
- 2/5/2019
- by Dan Mecca
- The Film Stage
IFC Films has acquired global rights to the Keira Knightley and Ralph Fiennes film “Official Secrets” out of the 2019 Sundance Film Festival.
Directed by South African filmmaker, screenwriter, producer and actor Gavin Hood, “Official Secrets” tells the true story of British secret-service officer Katharine Gun, who during the immediate run-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq leaked a top-secret National Security Agency memo.
The memo exposed an illegal U.S. and U.K. spying operation against members of the United Nations Security Council and proposed blackmailing smaller, undecided member states into voting for war.
Also Read: Amazon Swoops in for the Rights to Shia Labeouf's 'Honey Boy'
The film is based on the book “The Spy Who Tried to Stop a War: Katharine Gun and the Secret Plot to Sanction the Iraq Invasion,” by Marcia and Thomas Mitchell.
In addition to Knightley and Fiennes, “Official Secrets” also stars Matt Smith,...
Directed by South African filmmaker, screenwriter, producer and actor Gavin Hood, “Official Secrets” tells the true story of British secret-service officer Katharine Gun, who during the immediate run-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq leaked a top-secret National Security Agency memo.
The memo exposed an illegal U.S. and U.K. spying operation against members of the United Nations Security Council and proposed blackmailing smaller, undecided member states into voting for war.
Also Read: Amazon Swoops in for the Rights to Shia Labeouf's 'Honey Boy'
The film is based on the book “The Spy Who Tried to Stop a War: Katharine Gun and the Secret Plot to Sanction the Iraq Invasion,” by Marcia and Thomas Mitchell.
In addition to Knightley and Fiennes, “Official Secrets” also stars Matt Smith,...
- 2/2/2019
- by Trey Williams
- The Wrap
IFC Films has landed U.S. rights to Gavin Hood's whistleblower drama Official Secrets. The price was just under $2 million.
Keira Knightley stars in the true story of British secret-service officer and whistleblower Katharine Gun, who leaked information to the press about an illegal Nsa spy operation designed to push the Un Security Council into sanctioning the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Matt Smith, Matthew Goode, Rhys Ifans, Adam Bakri and Ralph Fiennes round out the cast.
The film, which made its world premiere at the Eccles Theatre on Monday, entered the market with a great deal of anticipation given ...
Keira Knightley stars in the true story of British secret-service officer and whistleblower Katharine Gun, who leaked information to the press about an illegal Nsa spy operation designed to push the Un Security Council into sanctioning the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Matt Smith, Matthew Goode, Rhys Ifans, Adam Bakri and Ralph Fiennes round out the cast.
The film, which made its world premiere at the Eccles Theatre on Monday, entered the market with a great deal of anticipation given ...
IFC Films has landed U.S. rights to Gavin Hood's whistleblower drama Official Secrets. The price was just under $2 million.
Keira Knightley stars in the true story of British secret-service officer and whistleblower Katharine Gun, who leaked information to the press about an illegal Nsa spy operation designed to push the Un Security Council into sanctioning the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Matt Smith, Matthew Goode, Rhys Ifans, Adam Bakri and Ralph Fiennes round out the cast.
The film, which made its world premiere at the Eccles Theatre on Monday, entered the market with a great deal of anticipation given ...
Keira Knightley stars in the true story of British secret-service officer and whistleblower Katharine Gun, who leaked information to the press about an illegal Nsa spy operation designed to push the Un Security Council into sanctioning the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Matt Smith, Matthew Goode, Rhys Ifans, Adam Bakri and Ralph Fiennes round out the cast.
The film, which made its world premiere at the Eccles Theatre on Monday, entered the market with a great deal of anticipation given ...
As Hollywood re-litigates Dick Cheney’s influence on the launch of the Iraq War with “Vice,” here’s Gavin Hood’s addendum from across the Atlantic about a forgotten story that could have prevented the disaster. “Official Secrets” traces the 2004 criminal trial of Katharine Gun (Keira Knightley), a 28-year-old Mandarin translator for Britain’s secretive Government Communications Headquarters, aka Gchq, who was arrested for leaking a memo from the United States’ National Security Agency requesting U.K. intelligence to spy on five Un Security Council members — “Angola, Cameroon, Chile, Bulgaria and Guinea” — so the Bush Administration could pressure them into voting for a Un mandate that would justify the war against Saddam Hussein.
Before the memo hit her inbox, Gun was already the kind of girl who relaxed by heckling Tony Blair on TV when he prattled on about the search for Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction. “Just because you’re Prime Minster,...
Before the memo hit her inbox, Gun was already the kind of girl who relaxed by heckling Tony Blair on TV when he prattled on about the search for Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction. “Just because you’re Prime Minster,...
- 1/29/2019
- by Amy Nicholson
- Variety Film + TV
Slam Photo: Courtesy of Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival Slam
After once more venting her feminist, anti-colonialist, anti-racist anger onstage in an elegantly constructed tirade of words, Syrian-Australian slam poet Ameena Nasser (Danielle Horvat) vanishes. As he searches for the missing younger sister from whom he has long been estranged, "Ricky" (Adam Bakri) - an Anglicisiation of his birth name Tarik - must negotiate not just a hostile media and police harassment, but also an awkward no-man's-land between his native culture and his adopted nation, even as he is still haunted by the childhood trauma that drove him to migrate, and assimilate, to Australia in the first place. Meanwhile, coming with ghosts of her own, police officer Joanne Hendricks (Rachael Blake) finds her missing persons investigation into Ameena leading her to doubt the prevalent tenets and ideologies of her male superiors - and of her country.
All this unfolds against...
After once more venting her feminist, anti-colonialist, anti-racist anger onstage in an elegantly constructed tirade of words, Syrian-Australian slam poet Ameena Nasser (Danielle Horvat) vanishes. As he searches for the missing younger sister from whom he has long been estranged, "Ricky" (Adam Bakri) - an Anglicisiation of his birth name Tarik - must negotiate not just a hostile media and police harassment, but also an awkward no-man's-land between his native culture and his adopted nation, even as he is still haunted by the childhood trauma that drove him to migrate, and assimilate, to Australia in the first place. Meanwhile, coming with ghosts of her own, police officer Joanne Hendricks (Rachael Blake) finds her missing persons investigation into Ameena leading her to doubt the prevalent tenets and ideologies of her male superiors - and of her country.
All this unfolds against...
- 11/28/2018
- by Anton Bitel
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Game of Thrones stars Indira Varma and Conleth Hill and Episodes' Tamsin Greig have joined the cast of Gavin Hood's spy thriller Official Secrets, which kicked off production this week. The trio will join Kiera Knightley, Matt Smith, Ralph Fiennes and Matthew Goode in the thriller for Entertainment One (eOne), which tells the story of British intelligence whistle-blower, Katharine Gunn. Palestinian-Israeli actor Adam Bakri, who starred in Oscar-nominated feature Omar…...
- 3/15/2018
- Deadline
Partho Sen-Gupta..
Screen Australia, Screenwest and France.s Cnc Cinémas du Monde have all backed Slam, the latest film from writer-director Partho Sen-Gupta (Sunrise, Let The Wind Blow)..
To be shot in Western Sydney later this year, Slam follows the disappearance of a young Muslim woman in a climate of mistrust and xenophobia.
Cast will include Adam Bakri (Omar), Rachael Blake (Sleeping Beauty, Lantana) and Abbey Aziz (Let it Be Love). Post-production will be completed in Western Australia and France.
"I wrote Slam with urgency and anger in reaction to the world around me nose-diving into hatred and fratricide,. said Sen-Gupta..
.But I am very pleased that what has resulted is a poetic appeal to reason, a socially motivated thriller that transcends language and nationality. I am very excited to work with such a talented international cast and crew who were touched by the human story and will collaborate with...
Screen Australia, Screenwest and France.s Cnc Cinémas du Monde have all backed Slam, the latest film from writer-director Partho Sen-Gupta (Sunrise, Let The Wind Blow)..
To be shot in Western Sydney later this year, Slam follows the disappearance of a young Muslim woman in a climate of mistrust and xenophobia.
Cast will include Adam Bakri (Omar), Rachael Blake (Sleeping Beauty, Lantana) and Abbey Aziz (Let it Be Love). Post-production will be completed in Western Australia and France.
"I wrote Slam with urgency and anger in reaction to the world around me nose-diving into hatred and fratricide,. said Sen-Gupta..
.But I am very pleased that what has resulted is a poetic appeal to reason, a socially motivated thriller that transcends language and nationality. I am very excited to work with such a talented international cast and crew who were touched by the human story and will collaborate with...
- 5/23/2017
- by Inside Film Correspondent
- IF.com.au
Exclusive: Adam Bakri to lead Australian-French co-pro.
Partho Sen-Gupta’s Australian-French co-production Slam has completed financing after securing support from Screen Australia, Screenwest and France’s Cnc Cinémas du Monde.
The Sydney-set thriller is scheduled to start shooting in late 2017 with post-production in Western Australia and France. It marks the first Australian production to receive funding from Cnc. Bonsai Films will distribute in Australia with Doc & Film International handling international sales.
Starring Adam Bakri (Omar), Rachael Blake (Sleeping Beauty) and Abbey Aziz (Let It Be Love), the film follows the disappearance of a young Muslim woman in Sydney in a climate of mistrust and xenophobia.
Australian production houses Invisible Republic, headed by Michael Wrenn, and George and Nille & Co, headed by Tenille Kennedy, are co-producing the film with Marc Irmer’s Paris-based Dolce Vita Films.
“Partho Sen-Gupta has the ability to take a dark subject matter and make an incredibly beautiful film as we saw with his...
Partho Sen-Gupta’s Australian-French co-production Slam has completed financing after securing support from Screen Australia, Screenwest and France’s Cnc Cinémas du Monde.
The Sydney-set thriller is scheduled to start shooting in late 2017 with post-production in Western Australia and France. It marks the first Australian production to receive funding from Cnc. Bonsai Films will distribute in Australia with Doc & Film International handling international sales.
Starring Adam Bakri (Omar), Rachael Blake (Sleeping Beauty) and Abbey Aziz (Let It Be Love), the film follows the disappearance of a young Muslim woman in Sydney in a climate of mistrust and xenophobia.
Australian production houses Invisible Republic, headed by Michael Wrenn, and George and Nille & Co, headed by Tenille Kennedy, are co-producing the film with Marc Irmer’s Paris-based Dolce Vita Films.
“Partho Sen-Gupta has the ability to take a dark subject matter and make an incredibly beautiful film as we saw with his...
- 5/21/2017
- by lizshackleton@gmail.com (Liz Shackleton)
- ScreenDaily
Dubai/Exclusive: Palestinian actor Adam Bakri (Omar) has been cast in Sydney-based director Partho Sen-Gupta’s upcoming drama Slam, alongside Australian actress Rachael Blake.
The story follows a young Australian of Palestinian origin whose peaceful life is shattered when his sister disappears and local media claim she has run away to join Isis.
Michael Wrenn’s Australian production outfit Invisible Republic is producing the film with Australia’s Charles Billeh and Marc Irmer of Paris-based Dolce Vita Films on board as co-producers. Screen Australia supported development of the English-language project.
Billeh is attending Dubai Film Market to find a minority co-producer from the region for the film, which is scheduled to shoot in Sydney next year.
Born in India and now based in Sydney, Sen-Gupta previously directed award-winning Hindi-language dramas Let The Wind Blow (2004) and Sunrise (2014).
The story follows a young Australian of Palestinian origin whose peaceful life is shattered when his sister disappears and local media claim she has run away to join Isis.
Michael Wrenn’s Australian production outfit Invisible Republic is producing the film with Australia’s Charles Billeh and Marc Irmer of Paris-based Dolce Vita Films on board as co-producers. Screen Australia supported development of the English-language project.
Billeh is attending Dubai Film Market to find a minority co-producer from the region for the film, which is scheduled to shoot in Sydney next year.
Born in India and now based in Sydney, Sen-Gupta previously directed award-winning Hindi-language dramas Let The Wind Blow (2004) and Sunrise (2014).
- 12/12/2016
- by lizshackleton@gmail.com (Liz Shackleton)
- ScreenDaily
Best known for his acclaimed, hit documentaries Amy and Senna (at least here in the United States), director Asif Kapadia actually began his career with narrative dramas. He returned to his roots this year at Sundance with Ali & Nino, a sweeping period epic set in around World War I. Picked up by IFC Films for a release this week, the first trailer has now arrived.
We said in our review, “There is nary a film genre more tried and true than the war-time romance. From Casablanca to Doctor Zhivago to The English Patient, the structure allows for a micro conflict injected into a macro scenario. From a script by Christopher Hampton (Dangerous Liasons, Atonement), adapted from the novel under the pseudonym Kurban Said, and directed by Asif Kapadia (Senna, Amy), Ali and Nino strives for the status of epic but falls considerably short.”
Starring María Valverde, Mandy Patinkin, Adam Bakri,...
We said in our review, “There is nary a film genre more tried and true than the war-time romance. From Casablanca to Doctor Zhivago to The English Patient, the structure allows for a micro conflict injected into a macro scenario. From a script by Christopher Hampton (Dangerous Liasons, Atonement), adapted from the novel under the pseudonym Kurban Said, and directed by Asif Kapadia (Senna, Amy), Ali and Nino strives for the status of epic but falls considerably short.”
Starring María Valverde, Mandy Patinkin, Adam Bakri,...
- 11/15/2016
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
★★★☆☆ Ali and Nino marks an unexpected return to fiction filmmaking for Asif Kapadia. A tale of impossible love set against the backdrop of the First World War and the subsequent independence movement in Azerbaijan, Kapadia's adaptation of Kurban Said's pseudonymous classic is a film of tremendous beauty but very little heart. The film's titular lovers are a sophisticated Azerbaijani boy named Ali (Adam Bakri) who "loves the simplicity of the desert" and Nino (María Valverde), a young Christian from Georgia. Their decision to marry is impaired by familial objections, cultural differences and the outbreak of the Great War.
- 7/22/2016
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
Period romance debuted at Sundance.
IFC Films has acquired North American rights to Asif Kapadia’s Ali & Nino following its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in January. The deal was secured through worldwide sales agent Im Global, which is selling international rights at the Cannes Marche next week, and CAA.
The love story is an adaptation of Kurban Said’s 1937 bestseller and stars Adam Bakri (Omar) and Maria Valverde (Exodus: Gods and Kings) as a Muslim Azerbaijani boy and Christian Georgian girl in Baku from 1918 to 1920. The cast includes Mandy Patinkin (Homeland) and Connie Nielsen (Gladiator, Wonder Woman).
Kapadia, who won the documentary Oscar earlier this year with Amy Winehouse biopic Amy, directed from a screenplay by Christopher Hampton (Dangerous Liaisons).
Producer is Kris Thykier (Trash, Woman in Gold) and executive producer is Leyla Aliyeva.
IFC Films has acquired North American rights to Asif Kapadia’s Ali & Nino following its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in January. The deal was secured through worldwide sales agent Im Global, which is selling international rights at the Cannes Marche next week, and CAA.
The love story is an adaptation of Kurban Said’s 1937 bestseller and stars Adam Bakri (Omar) and Maria Valverde (Exodus: Gods and Kings) as a Muslim Azerbaijani boy and Christian Georgian girl in Baku from 1918 to 1920. The cast includes Mandy Patinkin (Homeland) and Connie Nielsen (Gladiator, Wonder Woman).
Kapadia, who won the documentary Oscar earlier this year with Amy Winehouse biopic Amy, directed from a screenplay by Christopher Hampton (Dangerous Liaisons).
Producer is Kris Thykier (Trash, Woman in Gold) and executive producer is Leyla Aliyeva.
- 5/6/2016
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
IFC Films has fallen hard for Oscar winner Asif Kapadia’s epic love story, Ali & Nino, with the company taking North American rights. This follows the film’s January premiere at Sundance. Im Global and CAA handled the sale. The adaptation of the best-selling novel by Kurban Said was scripted by Oscar winner Christopher Hampton. Maria Valverde, Adam Bakri, Mandy Patinkin and Connie Nielsen star in the Azerbaijan-set story about two star-crossed lovers in the melting pot of…...
- 5/6/2016
- Deadline
"Designed to inspire, and it works!" These were the first words out of my friend Ian's mouth as we exited "The Idol," Hany Abu-Assad's newest film. Three days later I was still feeling its effect and recommending it to people here at the Toronto Film Festival whenever we discussed the films we had been seeing.
This Palestine/ UK/ Qatar/ Netherlands production was inspired by the true story of Mohammed Assaf, a Palestinian who grew up in Gaza and whose voice became the voice of the nation when he won the Arab Idol contest in 2013.
International sales by Seville (eOne’s arthouse branch) were made before Tiff to some 20 territories including Benelux (September Films is the former Wild Bunch Benelux), France (TF1), Germany (Koch), Japan (New Select), Hong Kong (Edko), Hungary (Mtva), Australia (Umbrella), Latin America (California Filmes), Portugal (Outsider Films), South Africa (Times Media) Switzerland (Praesens), China (Beijing Xiangjiang YiHua Films), India (PVR), Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore (Red Pictures), Taiwan (Spring International), Former Yugoslavia (Discovery Films), Romania (Independenta), South Korea (Kaon Contents & Media) and Airlines (Captive). eOne will directly release the film in Spain. Mbc will distribute throughout the Middle East, including in Palestine and North Africa. Adopt Films just picked up U.S. rights.
This is a feel-good movie which gives a human voice to the Palestinian dilemma without being political or religious. It’s pure heart.
“The Idol” was coproduced by Image Nation of Abu Dhabi, Enjaaz -- a Dubai Film Market initiative -- Doha Film institute with support from the Netherlands Film Fund. Mbc also coproduced and is handling the film’s release in the Middle East and North Africa. September was the Dutch coproducer and is handling it in Benelux.
Speaking in Toronto with Hany Abu-Assad, he agreed, this film was designed carefully. And at its world premiere here in Toronto, he was so nervous. When the laughter from the audience happened at exactly the right moment, he knew the film worked the way he had envisaged. “They laughed and cried at the same time,” he said. He did not know even though the editing if the emotion will carry it. “You don’t know until you show it. When I knew that people laughed with the kids then I knew I had succeeded. The little laugh when the kids were chased told me it worked.”
“From the small laugh to another point here, and another here, a domino effect starts.”
The original script was written by Sameh Zoabi whose earlier film, "Man Without a Cell Phone" won the Montpellier Mediterranean Film Festival Award for Sameh as Best Director. Hany gave the finished script to his (and my own) friend, colleague and script consultant, Annemarie Jacir, whose own film, "When I Saw You" premiered in Toronto in 2012 and won many awards including the Audience Prize at L.A. Film Festival in 2013 and at Amiens and the Netpac Award at the Berlin Film Festival in 2013. “She gave me some notes and worked on some of the dialogue."
I remarked how much I liked the joke about the distance between Gaza and Egypt being the same as the distance between Cuba and Florida and told him about a parallel joke made in the Cuban film “Barrio Cuba” when the Havana people call those coming from the east (Santiago de Cuba) “Palestinians”.
Aside from having a top-notch script, the entire film design was also successful because he worked with the same Dp Ehab Assal, Editor Eyas Salmon who was also editor of Tiff’s “Dégradé”, Production Designer and Art Director Nael Kanj and the Location Manager who all worked on his last film, the Academy Award nominated “Omar”. They have grown with him are now top quality artists and technicians who can work on both local and international productions.
“During ‘Omar’ we talked a lot about how the film would work, the concept, the core, the score, but on this film we spoke less. We knew each other better and it was much easier to shoot knowing each other’s strengths and weaknesses. And it was joyful and almost telepathic. We hoped this approach behind the camera would also inform the on-screen experience,” said Hany who also insisted on shooting on location in both Beirut and Cairo for the exterior scenes set in those cities so that the film would look and feel real.
The key to this film has always been authenticity both in front of and behind the camera. That is why “The Idol” is one of the first, if not the first, international production to shoot on location in Gaza, despite the logistical difficulties to get a film crew in and out safely. Set in the devastated landscapes of a Gaza still reeling from the month-long bombardment in 2014, Abu-Assad and his crew were still able to find great moments of beauty and surprise. The Gaza Parkour Team, for example, supply their amazing acrobatic display in the most surprising way in one moment, proving that art can thrive in even the most challenging of situations.
For more on "The Idol" read the pre Toronto reportage.
That desire for authenticity is also why Hany insisted on finding and employing real kids from Gaza to act in the film. The crew did a Gaza-wide search, holding casting sessions and rehearsals in schools across the area. Ultimately, the production was blessed to find four amazing Gazan children to star in the film, all first time actors, and all incredible natural performers.
The first half of the film takes place in a war-torn Gaza city which for
Mohammed Assaf, his sister Nour and their best friends Ahmad and Omar is a playground where they freely ride their bikes, play music, football and dare to dream big. Their band might play on second hand, beaten up instruments but their ambitions are sky-high. Their ambition is to play at the world famous Cairo Opera Hall.
The world around Mohammed shatters. Through it all, however, he retains the hope that his voice will somehow deliver him from the pain that surrounds him and bring joy to others. He sings at weddings, he drives a taxi to pay for his university studies. Even as the siege around Gaza intensifies, the prison around them ever more forbidding, Mohammed knows he has a rare gift, the ability to make people smile and forget their anxieties about day to day living.
On TV one evening he watches as the auditions for Arab Idol, the most popular show in the Arab world, take place in Cairo. The borders are closed. There is no way out. Somehow, he finds a way and makes it in front of the judges in Egypt. From there, destiny awaits, a chance to change his life and give a voiceless people the greatest feeling of all: the freedom to love, live and feel free.
However success in the weekly competitions bring on anxieties of a new kind, to be the one responsible for being the voice of his people, Palestine takes on more importance than his personal reasons for surviving and succeeding.
This film plays well to children and adults equally. The boy becomes a man, played by Tawfeek Barhom who played in last year's "Dancing Arabs" and switches gears to his escape to Egypt and his competing in the Arab Idol talent contest. At the very end, Tawfeek’s character becomes the real star, Mohammed Assaf. His voice was always used, even when Tawfeek was supposedly singing.
“I always ask myself why I want to make a movie and spend almost two years of my life working very hard to complete that movie. In the case of ‘The Idol’, the answer was clear and simple. The story of this young man, Muhammad Assaf, is such an incredible story that even somebody like me who, just three weeks earlier had won the Jury Prize of Certain Regard at the Cannes Film Festival, was more excited for Assaf to win Arab Idol than for myself. I was caught on camera between thousands of people gathered in the square in Nazareth to hear the final results for Arab Idol; I was jumping in excitement like a little kid, and I have not had this kind of excitement for a very long time. When Ali Jaafar offered for me to direct Muhammad Assaf’s story, my arms were covered in goosebumps. I knew immediately that I would do everything to make this story a movie.”
“I see ‘The Idol’ as the story of fighting and the will to survive under extreme circumstances. It’s a story of hope and success, where a brother and a sister were able to make from their disadvantages an advantage, and from the impossible possible, who come from nowhere to overcome all odds, beating poverty, oppression, and occupation. They have the ability to convert ugliness to beauty, which, in the end, is the power behind all art and the fuel to nurture hope.”
“The film was designed as a movie with no cultural barriers. You could be Chinese, American or Palestinian and you can appreciate the film. The very old and the very young can all understand the journey. It crosses religious lines. I meant to take a very specific story into a broader context.”
“The story of Mohammed Assaf is a once in a lifetime event, an opportunity to put a human face on a people who have all too often been marginalized and misrepresented. “
“At a time of unprecedented upheaval in the Arab world, with revolutions, civil wars, strife and extremism, Mohammed’s journey from humble wedding singer in Gaza, to the region’s hottest young star played out before our eyes weekly. Every Friday and Saturday night, for a few minutes, viewers could release themselves from the daily struggles and remember how to smile again.”
“Mohammed Assaf represents the spirit and symbol of what might be; of dreams coming true; of the impossible becoming, for a precious moment at least, entirely possible.”
“The children in the first audience loved it.”
“The girl is now with her family as refugees. They escaped and are seeking asylum in Europe. The three boys were in Toronto and one wanted to stay.
I’m happy I gave four Gazan kids the chance to see beyond the ghetto. They have special talent and their exposure now allows the world to come to them. Audiences love these children so much that they have offered to pay for their education. There was even an offer to adopt one. With paid-for education their futures are now more hopeful,” Hany said.
“The girl is so talented. She never acted before but she understood and loved the logic of shooting, of decoupage. ‘Is this a wide shot?’ she would ask. She spent three days asking about the lenses. On the second day an actor off camera forgot his lines. She continued to talk as if he were talking, as if he were acting. She came out of war. Two of her uncles were killed in the war. When you loose your fear of death you are enormously naked, exposed and you become more sensitized. She could become a great actress.”
“I’m glad I could do something for these four children”.
The Filmmaker
Hany Abu-Assad is one of the world’s most distinctive filmmakers. The two-time Academy Award-nominated director – “Paradise Now” (2006) and “Omar” (2013)- has won countless other awards including the Berlin International Film Festival’s prestigious Blue Angel award, Best Foreign Language Film at the Golden Globes and the Special Jury Prize in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard.
He was born in Nazareth, Palestine in 1961. After having studied and worked as an airplane engineer in The Netherlands for several years, Abu-Assad entered the world of cinema as a producer and produced the feature film “Curfew”, directed by Rashid Masharawi, in 1994.
In 1998 he directed his first film, “The Fourteenth Chick”, from a script by writer Arnon Grunberg, followed by his documentary “Nazareth 2000”, his second feature film “Rana’s Wedding” and his second documentary “Ford Transit”.
In 2006 his film “Paradise Now” about two Palestinian men preparing for a suicide attack in Tel Aviv, was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. The film won the Golden Globe for Best Foreign language film in 2006.
In 2011 Abu-Assad finished working on “The Courier”, a Hollywood movie starring Jeffery Dean Morgan, Til Schweiger and Mickey Rourke.
Most recently, Abu-Assad’s “Omar”, which featured star-making performances from Adam Bakri and Leem Lubany, garnered the director his second Academy Award nomination for the edge-of-your seat thriller. The film won several worldwide prizes including the Jury Prize of Certain Regard at the Cannes Film Festival.
This Palestine/ UK/ Qatar/ Netherlands production was inspired by the true story of Mohammed Assaf, a Palestinian who grew up in Gaza and whose voice became the voice of the nation when he won the Arab Idol contest in 2013.
International sales by Seville (eOne’s arthouse branch) were made before Tiff to some 20 territories including Benelux (September Films is the former Wild Bunch Benelux), France (TF1), Germany (Koch), Japan (New Select), Hong Kong (Edko), Hungary (Mtva), Australia (Umbrella), Latin America (California Filmes), Portugal (Outsider Films), South Africa (Times Media) Switzerland (Praesens), China (Beijing Xiangjiang YiHua Films), India (PVR), Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore (Red Pictures), Taiwan (Spring International), Former Yugoslavia (Discovery Films), Romania (Independenta), South Korea (Kaon Contents & Media) and Airlines (Captive). eOne will directly release the film in Spain. Mbc will distribute throughout the Middle East, including in Palestine and North Africa. Adopt Films just picked up U.S. rights.
This is a feel-good movie which gives a human voice to the Palestinian dilemma without being political or religious. It’s pure heart.
“The Idol” was coproduced by Image Nation of Abu Dhabi, Enjaaz -- a Dubai Film Market initiative -- Doha Film institute with support from the Netherlands Film Fund. Mbc also coproduced and is handling the film’s release in the Middle East and North Africa. September was the Dutch coproducer and is handling it in Benelux.
Speaking in Toronto with Hany Abu-Assad, he agreed, this film was designed carefully. And at its world premiere here in Toronto, he was so nervous. When the laughter from the audience happened at exactly the right moment, he knew the film worked the way he had envisaged. “They laughed and cried at the same time,” he said. He did not know even though the editing if the emotion will carry it. “You don’t know until you show it. When I knew that people laughed with the kids then I knew I had succeeded. The little laugh when the kids were chased told me it worked.”
“From the small laugh to another point here, and another here, a domino effect starts.”
The original script was written by Sameh Zoabi whose earlier film, "Man Without a Cell Phone" won the Montpellier Mediterranean Film Festival Award for Sameh as Best Director. Hany gave the finished script to his (and my own) friend, colleague and script consultant, Annemarie Jacir, whose own film, "When I Saw You" premiered in Toronto in 2012 and won many awards including the Audience Prize at L.A. Film Festival in 2013 and at Amiens and the Netpac Award at the Berlin Film Festival in 2013. “She gave me some notes and worked on some of the dialogue."
I remarked how much I liked the joke about the distance between Gaza and Egypt being the same as the distance between Cuba and Florida and told him about a parallel joke made in the Cuban film “Barrio Cuba” when the Havana people call those coming from the east (Santiago de Cuba) “Palestinians”.
Aside from having a top-notch script, the entire film design was also successful because he worked with the same Dp Ehab Assal, Editor Eyas Salmon who was also editor of Tiff’s “Dégradé”, Production Designer and Art Director Nael Kanj and the Location Manager who all worked on his last film, the Academy Award nominated “Omar”. They have grown with him are now top quality artists and technicians who can work on both local and international productions.
“During ‘Omar’ we talked a lot about how the film would work, the concept, the core, the score, but on this film we spoke less. We knew each other better and it was much easier to shoot knowing each other’s strengths and weaknesses. And it was joyful and almost telepathic. We hoped this approach behind the camera would also inform the on-screen experience,” said Hany who also insisted on shooting on location in both Beirut and Cairo for the exterior scenes set in those cities so that the film would look and feel real.
The key to this film has always been authenticity both in front of and behind the camera. That is why “The Idol” is one of the first, if not the first, international production to shoot on location in Gaza, despite the logistical difficulties to get a film crew in and out safely. Set in the devastated landscapes of a Gaza still reeling from the month-long bombardment in 2014, Abu-Assad and his crew were still able to find great moments of beauty and surprise. The Gaza Parkour Team, for example, supply their amazing acrobatic display in the most surprising way in one moment, proving that art can thrive in even the most challenging of situations.
For more on "The Idol" read the pre Toronto reportage.
That desire for authenticity is also why Hany insisted on finding and employing real kids from Gaza to act in the film. The crew did a Gaza-wide search, holding casting sessions and rehearsals in schools across the area. Ultimately, the production was blessed to find four amazing Gazan children to star in the film, all first time actors, and all incredible natural performers.
The first half of the film takes place in a war-torn Gaza city which for
Mohammed Assaf, his sister Nour and their best friends Ahmad and Omar is a playground where they freely ride their bikes, play music, football and dare to dream big. Their band might play on second hand, beaten up instruments but their ambitions are sky-high. Their ambition is to play at the world famous Cairo Opera Hall.
The world around Mohammed shatters. Through it all, however, he retains the hope that his voice will somehow deliver him from the pain that surrounds him and bring joy to others. He sings at weddings, he drives a taxi to pay for his university studies. Even as the siege around Gaza intensifies, the prison around them ever more forbidding, Mohammed knows he has a rare gift, the ability to make people smile and forget their anxieties about day to day living.
On TV one evening he watches as the auditions for Arab Idol, the most popular show in the Arab world, take place in Cairo. The borders are closed. There is no way out. Somehow, he finds a way and makes it in front of the judges in Egypt. From there, destiny awaits, a chance to change his life and give a voiceless people the greatest feeling of all: the freedom to love, live and feel free.
However success in the weekly competitions bring on anxieties of a new kind, to be the one responsible for being the voice of his people, Palestine takes on more importance than his personal reasons for surviving and succeeding.
This film plays well to children and adults equally. The boy becomes a man, played by Tawfeek Barhom who played in last year's "Dancing Arabs" and switches gears to his escape to Egypt and his competing in the Arab Idol talent contest. At the very end, Tawfeek’s character becomes the real star, Mohammed Assaf. His voice was always used, even when Tawfeek was supposedly singing.
“I always ask myself why I want to make a movie and spend almost two years of my life working very hard to complete that movie. In the case of ‘The Idol’, the answer was clear and simple. The story of this young man, Muhammad Assaf, is such an incredible story that even somebody like me who, just three weeks earlier had won the Jury Prize of Certain Regard at the Cannes Film Festival, was more excited for Assaf to win Arab Idol than for myself. I was caught on camera between thousands of people gathered in the square in Nazareth to hear the final results for Arab Idol; I was jumping in excitement like a little kid, and I have not had this kind of excitement for a very long time. When Ali Jaafar offered for me to direct Muhammad Assaf’s story, my arms were covered in goosebumps. I knew immediately that I would do everything to make this story a movie.”
“I see ‘The Idol’ as the story of fighting and the will to survive under extreme circumstances. It’s a story of hope and success, where a brother and a sister were able to make from their disadvantages an advantage, and from the impossible possible, who come from nowhere to overcome all odds, beating poverty, oppression, and occupation. They have the ability to convert ugliness to beauty, which, in the end, is the power behind all art and the fuel to nurture hope.”
“The film was designed as a movie with no cultural barriers. You could be Chinese, American or Palestinian and you can appreciate the film. The very old and the very young can all understand the journey. It crosses religious lines. I meant to take a very specific story into a broader context.”
“The story of Mohammed Assaf is a once in a lifetime event, an opportunity to put a human face on a people who have all too often been marginalized and misrepresented. “
“At a time of unprecedented upheaval in the Arab world, with revolutions, civil wars, strife and extremism, Mohammed’s journey from humble wedding singer in Gaza, to the region’s hottest young star played out before our eyes weekly. Every Friday and Saturday night, for a few minutes, viewers could release themselves from the daily struggles and remember how to smile again.”
“Mohammed Assaf represents the spirit and symbol of what might be; of dreams coming true; of the impossible becoming, for a precious moment at least, entirely possible.”
“The children in the first audience loved it.”
“The girl is now with her family as refugees. They escaped and are seeking asylum in Europe. The three boys were in Toronto and one wanted to stay.
I’m happy I gave four Gazan kids the chance to see beyond the ghetto. They have special talent and their exposure now allows the world to come to them. Audiences love these children so much that they have offered to pay for their education. There was even an offer to adopt one. With paid-for education their futures are now more hopeful,” Hany said.
“The girl is so talented. She never acted before but she understood and loved the logic of shooting, of decoupage. ‘Is this a wide shot?’ she would ask. She spent three days asking about the lenses. On the second day an actor off camera forgot his lines. She continued to talk as if he were talking, as if he were acting. She came out of war. Two of her uncles were killed in the war. When you loose your fear of death you are enormously naked, exposed and you become more sensitized. She could become a great actress.”
“I’m glad I could do something for these four children”.
The Filmmaker
Hany Abu-Assad is one of the world’s most distinctive filmmakers. The two-time Academy Award-nominated director – “Paradise Now” (2006) and “Omar” (2013)- has won countless other awards including the Berlin International Film Festival’s prestigious Blue Angel award, Best Foreign Language Film at the Golden Globes and the Special Jury Prize in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard.
He was born in Nazareth, Palestine in 1961. After having studied and worked as an airplane engineer in The Netherlands for several years, Abu-Assad entered the world of cinema as a producer and produced the feature film “Curfew”, directed by Rashid Masharawi, in 1994.
In 1998 he directed his first film, “The Fourteenth Chick”, from a script by writer Arnon Grunberg, followed by his documentary “Nazareth 2000”, his second feature film “Rana’s Wedding” and his second documentary “Ford Transit”.
In 2006 his film “Paradise Now” about two Palestinian men preparing for a suicide attack in Tel Aviv, was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. The film won the Golden Globe for Best Foreign language film in 2006.
In 2011 Abu-Assad finished working on “The Courier”, a Hollywood movie starring Jeffery Dean Morgan, Til Schweiger and Mickey Rourke.
Most recently, Abu-Assad’s “Omar”, which featured star-making performances from Adam Bakri and Leem Lubany, garnered the director his second Academy Award nomination for the edge-of-your seat thriller. The film won several worldwide prizes including the Jury Prize of Certain Regard at the Cannes Film Festival.
- 5/3/2016
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
There is nary a film genre more tried and true than the war-time romance. From Casablanca to Doctor Zhivago to The English Patient, the structure allows for a micro conflict injected into a macro scenario. From a script by Christopher Hampton (Dangerous Liasons, Atonement), adapted from the novel under the pseudonym Kurban Said, and directed by Asif Kapadia (Senna, Amy), Ali and Nino strives for the status of epic but falls considerably short.
Starring Adam Bakri as Ali Khan Shirvanshir, a young Muslim Azerbaijani man who falls in love with Nino Kipiani (María Valverde), a Georgian princess, the film is set in and around Baku, the capital city of Azerbaijan on the brink of the Bolshevik Revolution. The couple hopes to marry quickly, but the rumblings of war postpone everything. Nino’s parents (Mandy Patinkin and a woefully-miscast Connie Nielsen) are convinced the conflict will be over in months. Ali won’t have it,...
Starring Adam Bakri as Ali Khan Shirvanshir, a young Muslim Azerbaijani man who falls in love with Nino Kipiani (María Valverde), a Georgian princess, the film is set in and around Baku, the capital city of Azerbaijan on the brink of the Bolshevik Revolution. The couple hopes to marry quickly, but the rumblings of war postpone everything. Nino’s parents (Mandy Patinkin and a woefully-miscast Connie Nielsen) are convinced the conflict will be over in months. Ali won’t have it,...
- 1/30/2016
- by Dan Mecca
- The Film Stage
Sundance 2016 is fast approaching. Last week we posted the movie lineup of Midnight and Competition film selections. We now have the complete lineup for the premieres in both the feature film and documentary categories. We also have their selections for the Spotlight and Kid films. I've also included a list of special events.
There are a lot of great films on this list that I'm excited about seeing because of the incredible talent involved. Viggo Mortensen and Frank Langella star in Captain Fantastic; Laura Dern, Kristen Stewart, Michelle Williams star in Certain Women; Rachel Weisz, Michael Shannon, Kathy Bates and Danny Glover star in Complete Unknown; Paul Rudd and Selena Gomez star in The Fundamentals of Caring; John Krasinski directed a film called The Hollars which he stars in with Anna Kendrick, Margo Martindale, Richard Jenkins, Sharlto Copley, and Charlie Day; Thor: Ragnarok director Taika Waititi has made a new...
There are a lot of great films on this list that I'm excited about seeing because of the incredible talent involved. Viggo Mortensen and Frank Langella star in Captain Fantastic; Laura Dern, Kristen Stewart, Michelle Williams star in Certain Women; Rachel Weisz, Michael Shannon, Kathy Bates and Danny Glover star in Complete Unknown; Paul Rudd and Selena Gomez star in The Fundamentals of Caring; John Krasinski directed a film called The Hollars which he stars in with Anna Kendrick, Margo Martindale, Richard Jenkins, Sharlto Copley, and Charlie Day; Thor: Ragnarok director Taika Waititi has made a new...
- 12/13/2015
- by Joey Paur
- GeekTyrant
Sundance programmers have unveiled what is a jaw-dropping, savoury Premieres line-up. With names such as Asif Kapadia (Ali & Nino), Kelly Reichardt (Certain Women), Joshua Marston (Complete Unknown), Ira Sachs (Little Men), Whit Stillman (Love & Friendship), Kenneth Lonergan (Manchester by the Sea), Todd Solondz (Wiener-Dog) and James Schamus’ directorial debut (Indignation), the 2016 edition could be considered a “gold” level edition that in the decade plus years we’ve been covering the fest easily rivals what we might find in the Main Comp in Cannes later that year. In addition to titan auteurs names mentioned above, the fest also have faves in Anne Fontaine, Taika Waititi, John Carney and Diego Luna on tap plus will showcase work from Matthew Ross (directorial debut – Frank & Lola) and Matt Ross (sophomore film – Captain Fantastic). Here is the Premieres line-up.
Agnus Dei / France, Poland (Director: Anne Fontaine, Screenwriters: Sabrina N. Karine, Alice Vial, Pascal Bonitzer) — 1945 Poland: Mathilde,...
Agnus Dei / France, Poland (Director: Anne Fontaine, Screenwriters: Sabrina N. Karine, Alice Vial, Pascal Bonitzer) — 1945 Poland: Mathilde,...
- 12/7/2015
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
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