Producer's Spotlight - Palestine Pavilion- Festival du Cannes 2020

Palestine Pavilion 26-22 Jan 2020

FORWARD The Palestine Pavilion at Festival de Cannes is proud to launch - for the first time - the Producers’ Spotlight platform. This platform aims to celebrate established professionals and to shine a light on up and coming producers from Palestine.

Through the programmed events of the platform, members of the international film industry attending the Marche du Film will be able to access the film projects chosen, and to communicate with the Palestinian Producers in Spotlight, whether directly or through the Palestine Pavilion info desk.

The Palestine Pavilion hoped to return to the Croisette for the third consecutive year, bringing our Producer’s Spotlight to the Marche du Film for in-person networking, pitching and celebration. Unfortunately the advent of Covid-19-related restrictions have made this impossible. Nevertheless, we are excited to present the programming of our Pavilion, and in particular the Producers’ Spotlight, digitally at Cannes’ 2020 edition.

This virtual presentation will highlight a selection of the best feature film projects currently being produced

by Palestinian Producers. The selected fiction and documentary film projects are rich, diverse, emotional and mature, and their producers look forward to introducing them to the world.

Truly PFI team info@palestinefilminstitute.org

Rakan Mayasi

Producer and Director rakan.mayasi@gmail.com +974 6664 8258

Biography:

The Passport - Moodboard

Rakan Mayasi is an independent filmmaker (producer, writer, director) from Palestine, born in Germany and currently based in Lebanon. He belongs to the Palestinians who were forcibly displaced in 1948 (Diaspora). He studied Cinema, Theatre and Psychology in Lebanon and then received film training with Abbas Kiarostami in South Korea at the Asian Film Academy. He underwent different filmmaking experiences around the globe in writing and directing and has written and directed several short films. His previous film ‘Roubama› was an official selection at the Locarno Film Festival in 2012. His latest film BONBONÉ tackles the phenomenon of Palestinian sperm smuggling from Israeli jails and has world premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2017 - it is the recipient of 28 Best Short Awards at international film festivals, namely Küstendorf Film and Music Festival (by celebrated Master Filmmaker Emir Kusturica), in the 40th Moscow International Film Festival and the Bucharest International Film Festival. The Passport (De Facto) is his first feature film in development.

Synopsis:

Producer and Director rakan.mayasi@gmail.com +974 6664 8258

A mysterious man from Gaza, on his way to Canada, dies on the layover 2014 - Sissi topples Morsy and the coup in Egypt shuts the last open borders with Gaza.

Mr. Khawajah is a 55-year-old man who manages a factory in the Gaza strip. Pressured by the Chase of Hamas secret operatives, he wants to visit his brother in Canada and end a past quarrel. While the border with Egypt is closed, the only way to get out of Gaza is to take the tunnel and then take a flight from Egypt. After going through plenty of challenging escapes, including getting smuggled, Mr. Khawajah succeeds in taking a flight on Serbian Airlines, which stops at Belgrade International Airport. Midway through the flight, Mr. Khawajah surprisingly but peacefully dies. After the doctors pronounce a natural death, the journey to find a solution to dismiss the corpse begin. His death creates a dilemma and a rising burden on the Serbian staff who do not know what to do with his body since he has a Palestinian passport (Gaza). They are unable to return his body to Gaza, the Egyptian authorities refuse to receive him, the Israeli authorities deny his entry and the Serbian staff cannot allow him in because he doesn’t have a Visa. After extensive examinations, they decide to open his luggage, to manage the dilemma, but this complicates the case as they find a smuggled endangered turtle in a hamburger.

What are they going to to do with him?borders with Gaza have all shut down. But who is this man anyway and what was he traveling for?

Farah Abu Kharoub

Producer and Director +42073743580

farahakphotography@gmail.com

Biography:

The Wind Above The Clouds

Farah, a Palestinian born in Lebanon, has a BA in Filmmaking from the Lebanese University in Beirut (2014). She Directed and Produced several TV shows for MBC TV, ​Desert Force (2015-2016), ​Rehlet Najem​(2017), ​Phoenix​ (2018). She also works as an Editor and Cinematographer for her personal projects and for documentaries that were produced by renowned Arab TV stations, and she focuses on documenting Palestinian stories through photography, in which her work was featured in Austria and Germany. She is currently pursuing her MFA degree in film directing from FAMU International in Prague and developing her first feature film ​The wind above the clouds​. Her past films that were selected in various festivals are ​Nafas (2014), ​Florentina​(2015), and ​Summer 2006​ (2018) that premiered in 22nd Jihlava IDFF. ​The seven villages​ (2020) is her recent short Hybrid documentary that was selected for development in East Doc Platform and Jihlava Academy. Farah is currently in the Pre-production of her short film ​News from Lebanon​ (2021). Through her work, Farah explores themes that are related to memory, borders, refugees, and freedom.

Synopsis:

Producer and Director +42073743580

farahakphotography@gmail.com

“Khaled is a boy who lives in a Palestinian refugee camp with his family in Lebanon. With all of the limited resources and the poor conditions that the family lives in, Khaled has a free spirit. Khaled spends most of his time flying kites with his friends and a girl he loves who is a Syrian refugee and her name is NADIA. During the summer Khaled’s cousin OMAR visits him from Germany with his mother RANIA. Both boys are 12 years old but their characters vary a lot, Khaled is adventurous and witty but Omar is calm and cautious.

The kids hang out together on the beach but Nadia ends up losing her shoes.

Khaled does the impossible to help Nadia and her mom from the poverty they are living in after he realises that they cannot afford to buy new shoes and they barely have food at home.

The wind above the clouds is film about a good-hearted young Palestinian refugee boy who is cursed by his imagination, defies all odds so he could reunite with his Syrian refugee girlfriend that he fell in love with in Lebanon.”

Hani Kort

Producer and Director +962 7 9949 8124 hani.kort@darb-ltd.com

Biography:

Who Killed Arafat?

Hani Kort established with Najwa Najjar Ustura Films Ltd. in Ramallah, Palestine in 2000 as a registered limited company with the intention to produce documentaries and fiction films to change stereotypes and present different narratives.

The company’s mission has been to build the budding local cinema industry and to support artists in the field. To date they have trained many crew members, offering several head of department positions during its productions over the years with half the trainees being women.

In 2012 Kort and Najjar opened another branch of the company in Amman, Jordan.

Kort has produced several award winning documentaries, shorts and 3 critically acclaimed fictional by Najjar. (please see above Najwa Najjar’s filmography) He is the General Manager and Founder of Development And Reconstruction Bureau / DARB ltd., Ramallah-Palestine and Amman-Jordan, April 2001 – present. Responsible for project development in Palestine and Jordan, and managing water related projects.

Logline:

Producer and Director +962 7 9949 8124 hani.kort@darb-ltd.com

An investigative documentary combining archival footage, interviews and staged drama to question and explore “Who Killed Arafat.” Yasser Arafat, President of the Palestinian National Authority and Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization, died unexpectedly after a short period of illness on 11November 2004, at 75 years of age. Cause of his death has since been debated and remains until today unknown.

President Arafat who was flown to France for treatment, was pronounced incapacitated of what French doctors called a massive haemorrhagic cerebrovascular accident. However, the underlying infection was declared unknown. The official statement announcing his death failed to determine a cause, saying only that he had a “mystery blood disorder”.

Who Killed Arafat will look at the developments in the case since 2012 and the impact of Yasser Arafat’s death to the regional and international political scene. An exploration of his life and legacy will be part and parcel of the documentary with the fictionalised part of the documentary taking the dramatic story of the last person who was with Arafat before he passed away.

Saed Andoni

Producer + 972 2 2770747 + 970 599260015 andonisaed@gmal.com

Biography:

Code Name S

Saed Andoni was born in Bethlehem in 1972. For many years, he worked as film editor for many documentaries. In 2001 he gained an MA degree in documentary filmmaking from Goldsmith’s College in London, after his return to Palestine; he produced several documentaries and Fictions. He has co-established Dar Film Production. Currently Saed is the Head of the Films Program at Dar Alkalima University College.

Synopsis:

Producer + 972 2 2770747 + 970 599260015 andonisaed@gmal.com

9 years ago I was arrested in israeli jail, I met Jameel at the Prison Waiting room and he told me about his love story with a girl that is prisoned in another jail. They never met,he only saw her in the tv when she was arrested.

Their only way to communicate are letters delivered by the red cross 6 years later I met a girl called Smoud, she was just released from Israeli jail. She told me about her love story with a prisoner she never met, and the only communication with him was through letters delivered by the red cross.

This story fascinated me and I decided to make a film about this story.

When we started filming we found ourselves part of the story , Somoud and Jamil decided to get married although he is still in Jail. Smoud wanted us to help her to choose the wedding dress, the jewelry, and all other wedding details. threw the camera she tried to record every second to show it to Jamil later when he is released. The camera became a window for her to him.

Jamil and Sumood have been lovers for 10 years. They fell in love daring the prison bars, walls, and barriers and physics. Those two lovers have never met in real life , but their souls have. They have created their own universe outside of this world that has imposed the blackness upon them.

They are planning to build this love in a less brutal place. This love story leads them to make their wedding so that being officially his wife Smoud might get a permit to visit him in Jail while at the same time Jamil is trying to smuggle out sperms for her to get pregnant.

Reem Jubran

Producer and Director +1 (760) 994-8669 reemg27@gmail.com

Biography:

SOU-SOU

Reem Jubran is a producer/director/writer working between Palestine and Los Angeles, California in both short and feature narratives, including Annemarie Jacir’s Wajib, and Elia Suleiman’s It Must Be Heaven where she worked as 2nd Assistant Director and learned the ins and outs of the Palestinian production industry. She is currently pursuing an M.F.A. in Directing/ Writing from the prestigious UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television where she is producing, writing and directing her own short films. She is currently in post-production on her latest film, Mariam, following an Arab-American drag queen teen in a night of his life, and in pre-production for her next short film, Sou-Sou, which will be shot in Jericho, Palestine. As a dual citizen of Palestine and the US, Reem’s films intend to touch Palestinians and the global community. She aspires to redirect the spotlight to the unheard, unaccepted, and loud Arab woman’s voice through her own interpretation. She is a recipient of the Jim Morrison Film Fund Award and the Jack Shaheen Scholarship. She is currently developing an Arab-American student-friendly production company called Arabish Films, an incubator for Arab content and support in development, equipment and crew.

Synopsis:

Producer and Director +1 (760) 994-8669 reemg27@gmail.com

Mai, a young graduate, returns to her small hometown from Paris, hoping to annul her five-year old marriage, only to face near impossibility in loMai, a graduate, returns to her hometown of Jericho from Paris for the first time in five years. She attempts to communicate with her marriage-obsessed mother, Ghada, that she intends to get an annulment of her first marriage, resulting in her mother rejoicing to the idea that Mai is going to fulfill her duty and marry a local. Mai has trouble finding it in herself to tell her mother that she has a fiancé waiting in Paris. Mai sets out to find her ex-husband Husam, reaching out to several members of the community and receives conflicting answers from each contact. Finally, she gets a lead that Sou-Sou, the fortune teller, can help her. Mai reaches out to Sou-Sou and realizes her husband has transitioned to a woman. Both Mai and Sou-Sou are forced to confront their past as different people. change that puts Mai in a seemingly helpless position.