Book of projects Interchange 2013 by TorinoFilmLab

Proect tBook 13 of Book of Projects 2013 Interchange

with the support of

Proect Book 13 of Book of Projects 2013 Interchange

with the support of

Index Interchange Programme

Introduction

Tutors

Casting Ahmad Abunasser (Tarzan), Mohammed Abunasser (Arab), Rashid Abdelhamid

Daoud’s Winter Koutaiba Al-Janabi, Trent

Bound Sophie Boutros, Nadia Eliewat

Imbaba Samir Eshra, Daniela Praher

I Dreamt of Empire Kasem Kharsa, Jessica Landt, Falk Nagel

Nezouh Soudade Kaadan, Amira Kaadan

Holy Braille Rebecca Lloyd-Evans, Edward Hallett

#Fierce (working title) Julian McKinnon, Judith Lou Lévy

Two Rooms and a Parlor Sherif Elbendary, Mohamed Salah al Azab, Racha Najdi

The Cycle Musa Syeed, Sara Ishaq, Nicholas Bruckman Trainee Script Consultants

Nagham Abboud

Rowan Faqih

Antoine Waked

Staff

This is the fourth Interchange Workshop; a collaboration between the TorinoFilmLab, European Audiovisual Entrepreneurs (EAVE) and the Dubai International Film Festival; which brings together writer/director and producer teams from the Arab and EU countries. The Dubai International Film Festival and the European Union’s MEDIA Mundus programme generously fund Interchange.

Interchange Programme

During a week in Torino in June and a further week in Dubai in December the writers, in many cases writer-directors, focus intensively on the development of their scripts working individually and in small groups with the help of script tutors. At the same time, the producers concentrate on the many aspects of the producer’s craft including financing, marketing, packaging, sales and distribution, pitching and networking. Crucially, the year culminates with a direct encounter with ‘the market’ when the participant teams pitch their projects to industry decision makers attending the Dubai Film Connection. A fundamental aspect of our philosophy is that the process of meeting and working together creates long term relationships between the participants which will endure into the future to the benefit of as yet unknown projects and co-productions. This year the Interchange participants come from thirteen different Arab and European countries. They are joined by three script editor trainees – an innovation introduced from the start of Interchange – from Palestine and Lebanon.

subsequently won the main prize at the Dubai International Film Festival. Director Jihan Chouaib’s Interchange 2011 project, Breathe, has received CNC support and will shoot in 2014. The project Heatwave by Joyce Nashawati which was selected for Interchange 2012 will be presented at the Dubai Film Connection this year. Three Interchange graduates were selected for the 2013 Berlinale Talent Campus – Gigi Roccati; Italy, Ahmed Amer; Egypt and Hossam Elouan; Egypt. Suha Araj’s short film, The Cup Reader, premiered at the TriBecCa Film Festival 2013. We hope that the industry decision makers meeting the Interchange participants at the Dubai Film Connection will enjoy their encounter with some talented people and fascinating projects and wish all our participants the best of fortune not only with their current projects but in the rest of their careers. We have enjoyed working with you this year in Interchange 2013! Alan Fountain President, EAVE Savina Neirotti TorinoFilmLab Director Jane Williams Dubai Film Connection & Film Forum Director

An update on past Interchange projects and people: renowned documentary director Mai Masri, who participated in Interchange 2011, will shoot her first fiction feature, 3000 Nights, in 2014. Haifaa Al Mansour, a participant in Interchange 2010, whose film Wadjda, the first feature film shot in Saudi Arabia and directed by a woman, premiered in Orrizonti at the 2012 Venice Film Festival and

Tutors Jacques Akchoti - France

Roshanak Behesht Nedjad - Germany

Antoine Le Bos - France

Nicola Lusuardi - Italy

scriptwriter

producer

scriptwriter & story editor

scriptwriter

After studying at the NYU film school, Jacques Akchoti worked in different areas of film production with directors such as R. Bresson, JJ. Beineix and L. Von Trier.

Roshanak Behesht Nedjad started her career in the film business by organising film festivals whilst working as a freelancer for various TV programmes. In 1999, she started the company Flying Moon with Helge Albers. They produce multi-award winning fiction features and documentaries with a strong focus on international co-productions.

Antoine Le Bos is a French screenwriter and script consultant who has delivered over 25 feature film scripts under contract as a writer or co-writer; and has been a consultant on more than hundred feature film projects. Following a first life as a sailor, he interrupted a PhD in philosophy at the Sorbonne in order to graduate from the CEEA in Paris (the French conservatory for film writing) in 1996. After writing for TV; and directing short films and on-stage experiments in Paris and Prague; in 2002, he co-created the animation series Ratz, which aired in over 20 countries and established the Ciné-Ecritures workshops in Paris. Also in 2002, he started working as a scriptconsultant for producers and for the Moulin d’Andé (CECI, France) or European Short Pitch. As a writer for cinema, he won the Gan Foundation Prize in 2005 and has worked with, among others, the directors Lucile Hadzihalilovic and Atiq Rahimi. Since 2007, he has been the Artistic Director of Le Groupe Ouest, European centre for film creation in Britanny and co-created the Cross Channel Film Lab with Great Britain. He has been a tutor for the Script & Pitch Workshops and TorinoFilmLab since 2007, as well as for Interchange since 2009.

Since 1990, Nicola Lusuardi has been working as a playwright in collaboration with several production companies and as a screenwriter, story editor and supervisor with television networks (In treatment Italian version, Barabba, Il segreto di Thomas, La monaca di Monza). He is a script consultant and supervisor for original production at Sky Italy. In addition, he is a script consultant and tutor for the Interchange workshop and teaches dramaturgy for TV series at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome, at the new Holden in Turin and on the SerialEyes programme in Berlin. In 2010 he wrote La Rivoluzione Seriale, Dino Audino Editore, Roma. Nicola’s screenplays include:

He then became a screenwriter and script consultant and has led the development of numerous French and international films for cinema as well as television that were selected for and won awards at major film festivals. Recently, Jacques has worked on projects like A Screaming Man, Jury Prize at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival and Grigris, official selection at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, both by Haroun Mahamat Saleh. He has also directed a feature film for television and written several screenplays. His script, Don’t Look Back, directed by Marina De Van and featuring Sophie Marceau and Monica Bellucci was part of the Official Selection of the 2009 Cannes Film Festival. Jacques has been teaching writing and directing at the Femis (national French film school) since 1988 and has facilitated many international screenwriting and development workshops, including: EAVE, Sud Ecriture, DV8 Films, Vision Cinema, Ekran and Interchange.

Roshanak also works as an expert and consultant for various institutions and training organisations such as MEDIA International, EAVE for their European and international programmes, TorinoFilmLab, Focal and the Academy of Children’s Media in Germany. In 2012, she co-founded a second company with Jan von Meppen, LudInc, which produces serious games and trans-media projects for children. Roshanak is a member of the German and European Film Academy, an EAVE graduate (2003) and since 2010, also a group leader at EAVE.

In Treatment – italian edition – by Saverio Costanzo Un amore e una vendetta – directed by Raffaele Mertes L’ultima Trincea – directed by A. Sironi Little Dream – directed by D. Marengo, story M. Carlotto Puccini – directed by G. Capitani Pantani – directed by C. Bonivento Morte di un Confidente – directed by Manetti Bros., story M. Carlotto The Black Arrow – directed by F. Costa, based on the novel by R.L. Stevenson Casanova – Directed by G. Battiato Renzo e Lucia – directed by F. Archibugi Ultimo II – The Challenge – directed by M. Soavi

Tutors Sabine Sidawi - Lebanon

Sibylle Kurz - Germany

producer

pitching expert

Beirut-based producer Sabine Sidawi founded Orjouane Productions in 2007. It has gone on to become one of the most renowned production companies in Lebanon today.

Sibylle Kurz specializes in pitching training, project presentation, proposal development and dramaturgical doctoring. She also offers communication skills, negotiation training and personal coaching for companies and individuals.

Sabine has produced, co-produced and line produced more than 25 fiction and documentary films which have been screened and awarded at international festivals and sold around the world. These include: The Ugly One by Eric Baudelaire, May In the Summer by Cherien Dabis, 74: The Reconstitution of a Struggle by Rania and Raed Rafei, Beirut Hotel by Danielle Arbid, Carlos by Olivier Assayas, We Were Communists by Maher Abi Samra and Everyday is a Holiday by Dima El-Horr. A strong believer in co-productions, she has always supported and worked with Lebanese, Arab and international directors and crew. Sabine has been teaching film production at two major Lebanese universities since 2009 and frequently participates in international conferences as an expert on film production in the Middle East.

With an academic background in media & communication science, sociology and psychology; she has a postgraduate education as a communication skills trainer and is a certified NLP Trainer (INLPT associational standards). She works as a Pitching Trainer and consultant for film schools and film institutions all over Europe. Her expertise in “The Art Of Pitching“ is a result of more than 15 years experience in the acquisition, distribution and co-production of theatrical, video and TV films in the German-speaking market at a distribution company that she co-founded in 1981. She left the organisation in 1995 to start her own company. Kurz’ intensive workshop sessions enable producers to hone and time-tune their projects prior to pitching as well as gain insight into their own professional practice. In 1995, she co-founded d-net-work, an alliance of young European producers (feature & documentary) to help find co-production and distribution partners for their projects. She is a member of the European Documentary Network and the author of two books.

mme Interchan Program Ic Book of Projects 2013

Interchange

script & intention Inspired by our own experiences of making films in Gaza and especially the absurd difficulties we face, it comes naturally to want to tell a story about making movies against the tide and in a prohibitive context. Using humour to describe a situation the whole population is trapped in, and through an ensemble of burlesque urban vignettes that repeat and slowly evolve in the wake of life’s surreal monotony in contemporary Gaza, Casting draws a portrait of a whole society and explores the dialectics of time, place and identity. Widening the context of Gaza to any place where someone is struggling to produce art in the midst of social and institutional restrictions, we ask the broader question of how artists are supposed to work toward the betterment of their society, when there is a fundamental distrust of culture itself.

Casting writers & directors: Ahmad Abunasser (Tarzan) & Mohammed Abunasser (Arab) co-writer & producer: Rashid Abdelhamid

Palestine / France synopsis Khalil is an odd-man-out film director in the midst of a complete identity crisis. In his war-torn hometown of Gaza in Palestine; where the balance between religion, tradition and culture is skewed to conservative extremes; Khalil struggles through the writing of a script for a film to find the right path for his life. Encouraged by his long-time friend and producer Hassan, he keeps submitting the script to local authorities to get the necessary permits and funds, but he is confronted with the growing influence of radical religious movements that have taken hold of his city. While waiting for official approval, Khalil, firmly determined, drags through location scouting and local castings, observing the town’s colourful characters going about their days. These absurd and comic portraits of the townsfolk present different aspects of his thoughts, emotions and memories and represent the phases of his lifelong search for truth.

When life is mysterious, the world becomes a kind of fantasy

The script for Casting is now in the final stages of development. Our cinematographic vision, (which relies on a realist style in the spirit of European filmmakers like Jacques Tati, Emir Kusturica and Roy Andersson) uses long scenes and slow tracking movements in order to heighten the sense of time and reflect the protagonist’s experience of reality. A range of eccentric yet archetypal characters (to be played by non professional actors in order to add to the sense of spontaneity and realism) will help to transmit a universal vignette of time and place. As filmmakers, we believe cinema to be, through entertainment, an important instrument of social critique, development and awakening. This film is our attempt to highlight the value of protecting diversity and individuality – in the Arab world and beyond – from political attempts at imposing a unilateral lens on life.

Tarzan and Arab writers & directors Budding filmmakers and identical twins, Tarzan and Arab hail from Gaza. They were born in 1988, one year after the last cinemas in Gaza were closed. In 2010, Tarzan and Arab received the A.M. Qattan Foundation’s prestigious Young Artist of the Year Award for their conceptual artwork Gaza wood, a series of mock-Hollywood posters for imaginary feature films named after real Israeli military offensives on Gaza, and their short film Colorful Journey. In 2012, Tarzan and Arab were invited to Jordan, where they met the Palestinian producer Rashid Abdelhamid. Their common desire to convey an alternative vision of Palestine led to the development of a creative triad and the production of their second short film, Condom Lead, under their brand new label: Made in Palestine Project. The film, selected in Cannes, is currently participating at some of the world’s most prestigious film festivals and will feature in the Muhr Arab Short section at DIFF 2013.

In the end, in spite of the stubborn mentality of the local authorities and the growing pressure of the Islamic extremists, Khalil decides to organize a big casting session, which announces the beginning of the production of his feature film.

production notes As a producer, my goal is to make films that convey an alternative vision of Palestine and the Arab world, showing the diversity of the region and its human stories. Casting is such a film. While the story is inspired by Tarzan and Arab’s experiences of making films in Gaza, this project has a symbolic depth that allows its messages of protecting intellectual diversity and freedom of expression to work on a universal level. This quality is key, because it is what functions as the bridge in the development of greater understanding between people and cultures. Casting fits extraordinarily well with the profile and overall development strategy of the production company. In fact the company was founded, in

a major international film festival in 2014. In terms of feasibility enhancers going into the production stage, our fundraising capacities have recently seen an immense boost from the buzz being generated by our first short film, Condom Lead (also written and directed by Tarzan and Arab), which was selected to compete for the Short Film Palme D’Or at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival. The announcement has stirred interest amongst international (particularly European and Arab Gulf) partners and created greater industry credibility for the company within the independent film sector. Casting’s natural audience is an international one that appreciates the independent art film genre with its

writers & directors: Ahmad Abunasser (Tarzan) & Mohammed Abunasser (Arab) co-writer & producer: Rashid Abdelhamid

Palestine / France

The film is currently in the final stages of development and fundraising and we have secured French co-production. Our co-producer, Incognita, is a subsidiary of one of France’s leading production companies, Europacorp. This production partnership is built on our shared objective to submit the film to

co-producer Incognita Films France total production budget 619,000 USD current financial need 549,000 USD production status development

Casting

part, to provide a structure and a banner under which Tarzan and Arab and I could work together as a creative triad following our initial meeting in the summer of 2012. Made in Palestine Project was launched in February 2013 as an independent initiative to create and promote contemporary film and visual art with a focus on Palestine. We seek to support the creativity of emerging visual artists and create new opportunities for the next generation of Arab creators. The company is committed to reaching new audiences and widening the global perspective on Palestine through a spectrum of cultural platforms including films, exhibitions and publications. As an independent feature film project promoting strong artistic expression by young, emerging regional cultural producers, Casting is a great first feature film for the company.

production company Made in Palestine Project Al Rasheed St. Gaza Palestine Rashid Abdelhamid T 00 970 5995006 T 00 962 777006666 madeinpal.project@gmail.com madeinpalproj.tumblr.com

character-driven stories and global perspective (think of the audience for Kusturica’s Black Cat, White Cat, for example). The film will be shot in Arabic, but we intend for its distinct cinematographic style, universal story and message, high production values; and unique, colourful characters to transcend cultural limitations, increase global audience appeal and expand the regional and international potential of the project. Our co-producer has already contacted several major French and international sales and distribution companies and we expect to finalise an agreement in the upcoming months.

Rashid Abdelhamid co-writer & producer Rashid Abdelhamid is an architect, designer, art curator and film producer. Of mixed PalestinianSerbian origin, he was born and raised in Algeria and received his education in France and Italy. He went on to live and work in Gaza from 1997 to 2008. In early 2013, in collaboration with twin Gazan filmmakers Tarzan and Arab, he founded Made in Palestine Project, an independent arts initiative to create and promote contemporary visual art for Palestine. He assisted with the production and distribution of Tarzan and Arab’s 2010 film, Colourful Journey, which screened in over 20 countries, including the Rotterdam International Film Festival. In 2013, he produced and acted in the short film, Condom Lead, which was part of the official selection of the Cannes Film Festival (the first time ever a Palestinian short film was selected in this category). Abdelhamid is currently producing Made in Palestine Project’s first feature film, Casting, which is in the final stages of development and funding.

script & intention The film is set in the early eighties, in Iraq’s most difficult period. Our society suffered many wars and no Iraqi family was left unharmed by the effects of war. This period has not been dealt with in films; these conflict-ridden, dark years in the country’s history, in the history of the Arab world. The Iraq-Iran war lasted 10 years and is an era that nobody likes to touch because all those involved from the Arab world and other parts of the globe gave money and support to one side or the other. Everybody had their reasons – but with no regard for the consequences and the victims. I would like to make a film that shows the consequences of these meaningless wars; the effects on the ordinary people, on the young soldiers, their mothers, the train drivers or the shopkeepers. Daoud’s Winter does not show the frontlines, the battles of soldiers and weapons; but instead the fear, the paranoia and grief that this situation inflicted on those trying to carry on with their lives in the country. The film explores life and death during this period, the injustice that marred society and the internal conflicts.

Daoud’s Winter

Many young people were faced with the choice of either joining the ruling Baath party or going to battle with a very good chance of not coming home. My brother was one of them. I will never forget seeing my mother in her black dress standing at the door waiting for my brother, all day, all night, hoping that he would return from the frontline.

writer & director: Koutaiba Al-Janabi producer: Trent

Netherlands / Iraq synopsis DAOUD, a young man in his twenties, is studying for better things in life until he is drafted into military service during the war between Iraq and Iran in the 1980s. He is sent to the frontline in the desert, but because of his educational background, he is assigned to the morgue. Cataloguing the new arrivals of dead bodies and organising their transport, starts to break his soul until he spots his best friend Ali lying amongst the dead and decides to desert the army base in order to return his deceased friend back to his family. It is a dangerous journey to his friend’s family home because deserters are being hunted down by the army, but he manages to survive. Upon arrival, Ali’s family warmly welcomes Daoud and he does not have the heart to break the bad news. Whilst he is hiding from the army in their home, he falls in love with the people and finds the family he never had. In the meantime, he is consumed with guilt. He does not know what to do with the dead body and the army is still hunting for deserters.

A young soldier during the IraqIran War deserts his post in order to return home the body of his friend.

This memory, the stories of friends and family come together in the main character, Daoud, a young man who is about to start his service. Joining the army represents an escape for him as he either has to register for military service or face the repercussions from the regime for his political views and activities and end up in the hands of the secret police. He is given the job of registering the dead coming back from the frontline at a sorting station from where the bodies are distributed and returned to families. Whilst in this post, he finds his friend amongst the dead. The ensuing story sees Daoud taking us on a journey with his friend’s body, showing the importance of friendship and relationships.

Koutaiba Al-Janabi writer & director Koutaiba Al-Janabi was born in Baghdad and went on to study photography and cinematography in Budapest, Hungary. He wrote his PhD. thesis on the aesthetics of Arab cinema. Koutaiba has directed and produced several short films, documentaries and television programmes. He has won awards for his work as a cinematographer and as a director. The first feature-length film that he directed, Leaving Baghdad, won first prize at the 2011 Gulf Film Festival, a British Independent Film Award in 2011 and was nominated for the Cinema for Peace Award in 2012. He currently lives between London and Baghdad.

When Daoud finally finds the courage to break the news to his friend’s mother, they bring out his body and silently start to dig. They have lost a son. He has found a family.

production notes Founded by Trent, and later joined by Charlotte Scott-Wilson, the independent film production company NFI Productions’ ambition is to spot and encourage new talents in order to realize personal projects with an edge, while at the same time maintaining broad audience appeal. NFI Productions works with a select number of directors and writers, typically over a long period of time. Our previous feature films were all nationally released, produced on quite a tight budget and earned international recognition at major film festivals. For the past couple of years we have been developing projects on a more international level, resulting in the Argentinian/Dutch/French film

pictures of the bombing and the fighting, this is a different yet very effective path. This story is about characters we very rarely (or not at all) see in movies, the Iraqi draftees in the eighties; and it is set during a period of Iraq’s history which we still know very little about. All this coupled with the intention of showing the effect of war on people without showing the actual battle field, is a very interesting take I would like to see in the cinemas. Status The treatment is written with support from the Hubert Bals Fund and the Netherlands Film Institute. We are currently writing the script with guidance

Daoud’s Winter writer & director: Koutaiba Al-Janabi producer: Trent

Netherlands / Iraq Villegas by Gonzalo Tobal that premiered in the Official Selection of the Cannes Film Festival 2012. It was Koutaiba’s previous feature film, Leaving Baghdad, which seduced me at first. He managed to create a cinematic atmosphere of both fear and claustrophobia and paranoiac ambiances. When I got to know Koutaiba himself, his warm personality and his integrity made me decide to produce his next film; another personal story. In Daoud’s Winter I feel for the main character. How many times do we try to avoid telling the truth because the truth is too hard to bear - even for the messenger? The main character does not dare to tell the family that their son has died. Something a universal audience can relate to. Both the set up (structure) of the story and the fact that the environment is unique makes the film appealing to worldwide audiences. What I find personally interesting is that you do not have to depict the actual war in order to show the effect it has on people and their lives. Specifically in the case of the Iraq war where we have all seen the

from the Interchange workshop. We aim to be finished at the end of 2013. We also need to develop our co-production setup, secure production partners and a sales agent. We will initially look for co-producers in Iraq and the Middle East with considerable international coproduction experience and excellent networks in terms of crew, cast and sales agents. Then we will seek out possible co-production partners in Europe, especially from Germany, France or the UK as they have schemes for co-productions with the Middle East and are interesting partners in regards to both Koutaiba’s previous work and his future films. We aim to set-up our co-production and financing schedule in 2014. Filming will commence in 2015. The budget is estimated to be € 1.450.000. The film aims to be a co-production between the Netherlands, Iraq, Middle East and a second European country. We would preferably like to shoot the film in Iraq, but if this does not seem possible or doable in any way, we would like to shoot the entire film somewhere in Jordan.

production company NFI PRODUCTIONS Jacob van Lennepkade 334P 1053 NJ Amsterdam Netherlands T +3120 7173504 M +31 624607869 contact@nfi.nu total production budget € 1.450.000 current financial need € 1.400.000

Trent

production status script development

In 2005, Trent took over Amsterdam-based NFI Productions which is one of the most prolific production companies in the Netherlands today. Renowned for only working with a few directors and writers, typically over a long period of time, Trent has produced numerous award winning films. His credits include: Does it Hurt by Aneta Lesnikovska which was nominated for a Tiger Award at the IFFR; several shorts by Jochem de Vries whose latest one, Missing, was selected for the Camera d’Or Competition in Cannes 2009; the feature Can Go Through Skin by Esther Rots, that was part of the Forum Section of the Berlinale 2009, won several international and national awards and was named Best Dutch Film of 2009; Hunting & Sons by Sander Burger was selected at the prestigious New Directors New Film Festival in New York, was shortlisted for the Maverick Award at the Calgary International Film Festival and nominated for two national film awards; and Villegas by Gonzalo Tobal which was part of the Official Selection in Cannes 2012 and is currently travelling the international festival circuit.

producer

Trent was Dutch Producer on the Move in Cannes and is a member of the European Film Academy and the ACE network.

script & intention The fact that one of us was brought up in a war torn country and the other was deprived of her homeland many years before she was even born, choosing what to write about came as a natural consequence. War and conflict create intolerance; intolerance creates bigger gaps; and the gaps turn into hatred. That is exactly what happened in Lebanon towards Syrians. For some Lebanese, the status of Syrians in Lebanon was blurry, placed somewhere between the invited and the unwanted, for others they were and still are the enemy. In our story, Therese lives a series of dysfunctional relationships. By grieving over a brother who died as a casualty of war, she lost the love and compassion of her daughter. By holding a grudge deep inside her, she created an enemy. Today, the enemy is at her doorstep: her daughter’s suitor and his parents are Syrians and they just arrived from their own land of crisis. How will Therese react? How will this affect her relationship with her daughter? Is it time to be tolerant? Does she have more in common with her unwanted guests than she had thought she would?

Bound

Although our film explores the complex love/hate relationship between Syrians and Lebanese by following our main character Therese and the way she deals with the complicated situation she finds herself in; the essence of the story is the mother/daughter relationship and how after being emotionally absent for years, Therese prioritizes her daughter, Ghada, to win her back. The genre of the film is comedy, because we believe that this conflict needs to be addressed in a light-hearted way.

co-writer & director: Sophie Boutros co-writer & producer: Nadia Eliewat

Lebanon / Jordan synopsis A remote village in Lebanon: Therese, the mayor’s wife enjoys observing the villagers compete to be at her service to prepare for an overnight visit of her daughter’s suitor and his parents. She joyfully shares the great news with her brother, who only exists in pictures on the walls. He died 20 years earlier in the Lebanese-Syrian war but is still alive in every corner of her life; a constant reminder of her hatred towards Syrians whom she blames for his death. There is one little detail her daughter and husband have failed to share with Therese: the guests are Syrian; a fact she only learns when they are on her doorstep. For Therese, this marriage proposal will happen over her dead body. She declares war against the guests; planning one crazy scheme after another, bringing her daughter’s ex-boyfriend to the dinner table and stealing the engagement rings.

Her enemies just stepped into her house. And yes, they are staying for good!

The project tackles a sensitive issue without fear but also without preaching. It is a story that we feel strongly about telling during this critical transitional period that the Arab world is going through where fear of the ‘other’ is being spread between Arabs; this ‘other’ that once was a neighbour, a family member or a friend. The story raises questions and opens an important dialogue about social prejudice and the image of the enemy; we want to break stereotypes carved in the minds of the Lebanese in particular and the Arabs in general. And we want to do it in a humorous way. We feel it is the right time for a story that questions the past, influences the present and consequently will impact the future.

Sophie Boutros co-writer & director Sophie earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Directing for TV and Film from the Académie Libanaise des Beaux-Arts (ALBA) in Lebanon. For six years after graduating, Sophie worked in television production, starting as an Assistant Director and then becoming a Director on several TV shows at Future TV in Lebanon and later on at Dubai TV, UAE. She also worked as a freelance director on promotional videos and TV commercials in Dubai. Sophie started her career as a filmmaker by shooting music videos for Julia Boutros’ La B’ahlamak which was followed by a series of videos for other A-list Arab singers like Rashid El Majid, Abdul Majid Abdalla, Nancy Ajram and Nawal Kuweitiye amongst others. Sophie is currently the Manager of Student Affairs & Communication at the Mohammed Bin Rashid School for Communication (MBRSC) at the American University in Dubai.

Therese finally manages to kick out the unwanted guests and reveals secrets that damage what is left of her relationship with her daughter. Realizing that it is time to put the living before the dead, Therese goes out of her way to win back her daughter’s heart. She accepts a wedding in Damascus where the two families struggle to fit in one wedding portrait.

production notes Bound is a story of yesterday, today and tomorrow. By following Therese, the mother, sister and wife, we witness the unravelling of a tangled web of emotions that are knitted together with the fragile threads of a painful past and a disappointing present yet celebrating the dream of a brighter future. As the co-writer and producer of Bound, I believe in the urgency of highlighting our similarities and discarding our differences during this difficult phase that the Arab world is going through; and this is the essence of Bound. Bound is the first feature film that will be produced by the Jordanian production company Screen Project.

original title Mahbas the film with Syrian and Lebanese TV stars. Sophie Boutros, co-writer and director of the film, already has an established professional relationship with these personalities through her earlier work in music videos. We are also proud to have Lebanese music composer Ziad Boutros attached to the project. Ziad is famous for composing most of Julia Boutrosâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; music repertoire in addition to other famous Arab singers and the musical idents for leading pan-Arab TV stations. Bound is primarily targeted towards the Lebanese, Syrian and Arab audiences, more specifically towards women from this region aged between 25 and 55. The film can attract different circles of audiences initially through the sensitive issue of the love/

Bound co-writer & director: Sophie Boutros co-writer & producer: Nadia Eliewat

Lebanon / Jordan The company focuses on producing mainstream commercial films that are created with high artistic value in screenwriting and production. I see the Arab world as the main source of our stories as well as the main market. I believe that the only way to make Arab cinema flourish is through opening new markets horizontally; starting with co-productions between Arab countries and ending with collaborations between Arab distributors to encourage alternative distribution models across the Arab world. Bound is in the early stages of development. We are aiming at a spring 2015 production. Despite the early phase we are in, the project already has partners attached; INHOUSE Film, a production company based in Dubai, is an official sponsor that will provide equipment for the filming. The finance plan focuses on 6 different channels between 2013 to 2014 and into early 2015 to cover the entire budget. The financing and marketing strategy is in place and its implementation is in progress. In order to make the film more attractive for the target audience and consequently for financing partners, we are working on packaging

hate relationship between Syria and Lebanon and secondly through the comic approach chosen to tackle this subject that will help the movie reach a wider audience. Also, the Mother/Daughter relationship that carries the main plot of the story is a more universal angle that can touch a wider range of audiences worldwide. My mission is to reach to the desired audience as soon as possible by following a concrete marketing strategy that allows the film to be on different digital platforms at the same time as serving the desired target audiences in different territories. I believe in the importance of having a sales agent/ distributor at an early stage of the process in order to further develop the marketing strategy together. I will start reaching out to selected organisations as soon as the first draft of the script is in place, which is expected by the end of November 2013. Sophie and I are serious about creating a mainstream commercial product with a good market potential that is based on a strong multi-layered story of today. And we are looking for partners who believe in the story, share the same producing vision and can contribute to developing it further.

production company Screen Project Nadia Eliewat Amman-Jordan: +962 79 5621437 Dubai-UAE: +971 56 7249517 nadia.eliewat@gmail.com total production budget 500,000 USD current financial need 500,000 USD production status development/financing

Nadia Eliewat co-writer & producer Nadia is a producer and screenwriter whose passion is finding new stories to tell and helping create new voices through education. After experimenting with short films from 2006 to 2010, and winning her first award for producing the Jordanian short film High Heels; Nadia produced her first feature film, When Monaliza Smiled. The film had its international premiere at the Dubai International Film Festival in 2012 and participated in many other festivals around the world. It went on to be theatrically released in Jordan and Morocco. Bound will be produced by Nadiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s newly established production company, Screen Project, through which she aims to develop and produce various platforms of screen content in the Arab region with a specific focus on fiction films for theatrical release. As a passionate educator, Nadia is an Associate Professor of Digital Production and Storytelling at the Mohammed Bin Rashid School for Communication (MBRSC) at the American University in Dubai.

script & intention In 2007, as a student, I moved to Cairo. After searching for an apartment for a long time, I settled in a district located in the heart of the capital, close to the university where the rents were relatively low. That was Imbaba: a poor and repellent quarter of Cairo, sheltering hawkers, homeless people and criminals; an area long forgotten by the government. I discovered that most of Imbaba’s inhabitants claimed to live in one of the luxurious districts nearby, separated from Imbaba only by a pedestrian bridge built over the train tracks. Imbaba had fallen into oblivion due to the government’s negligence, which led to the spread of bullying, drug trade and poverty. I avoided inviting friends over for fear of them misjudging me once they knew where I really lived. Three years ago, I read a message sent to the Al-Ahram newspaper’s weekly column, which discussed social problems of anonymous writers. A woman living in Imbaba wrote that the name of the district carried a social stigma and made her a less desirable potential wife for men from outside Imbaba. Moreover, the district was going from bad to worse, compared to when her family first moved there. Her father considered selling their house and to relocate in order to increase his daughter’s chances of getting married; an idea she rejected, but her father kept insisting. The woman was wondering what else she could do.

Imbaba writer & director: Samir Eshra producer: Daniela Praher

Austria / Egypt synopsis Like any Egyptian woman of her age, Dina (28), eagerly awaits to get married. But she lives in Imbaba, a poor and rough district of Cairo suffering from unemployment and a drugs trade. Suitors change their mind once they find out where she lives. Whereas Dina, a managing editor in a news agency and a PhD student, refuses to marry a man from her neighborhood. She doesn’t find them up to her standards. Dina’s family and social environment start putting pressure on her to marry. Out of desperation, she accepts the proposal of a 45 year-old businessman. But the groom’s mother refuses the engagement: she suspects Dina might have had relations with men before. Being at a loss, Dina anonymously writes to a reader’s column in a newspaper, describing her problems. Later on Dina gets engaged to Salah, a trustable man she meets on an Islamic marriage website. Unexpectedly, Dina’s letter to the newspaper gets published and her life is turned upside down. She starts receiving marriage proposals from engineers, doctors and professors who admire her frankness.

In Cairo, when you live in Imbaba, finding a husband can become an ordeal.

I remembered the feelings I had when living in Imbaba. The woman’s case seemed complicated because her education and career made her part of Egypt’s modern society but she still had to live in Imbaba. To me, all this perfectly reflected Egypt’s “fake society”, which is only interested in appearance and deception instead of honesty and personal qualities as a result of the last four decades of corruption, ignorance and economic liberalization. This woman seemed somehow trapped to me. I asked myself if she would be able to evolve within the society surrounding her that insisted on a traditional concept of life. And: What kind of ideals could she believe in then? Would she become part of the “fake society”, or would she decide to live differently than the people around her? And finally: What would this woman be willing to do to find “the right” husband?

Samir Eshra writer & director Samir Eshra was born in Al Buhayrah, Egypt and studied at The Academy of Cinema Arts And Technology in Cairo. He is an independent filmmaker whose short films have toured international festivals: Half Blindness (Doha Film Festival, Qatar 2011), Not Available (Gaza Film Festival, Palestine 2010), Utopia (Corto Del Med, France, 2008, Baghdad Short Feature Film Festival, Iraq 2007, Alexandria International Film Festival, Egypt 2007). He is currently working on a documentary entitled The Shadow Lawyers that follows three young lawyers working with different NGOs and human rights centers in Egypt. The project was selected for the IDFA WorldView Summer School 2013 in Amsterdam (Editing Consultancy) and will be finished by the end of 2013. Imbaba will be Samir‘s first feature film as a director.

Dina breaks off her engagement to Salah and sets up an appointment with one of the men who proposed to her – not knowing whether or not he will come to Imbaba.

production notes Daniela Praher Filmproduktion was founded in 2011 in Vienna, Austria. Initially, the company developed and produced documentaries and short films. Now it is turning towards producing fiction feature films and international co-productions. When I learned that a young male Egyptian director wanted to make a feature film about marriage from a female perspective, it immediately aroused my interest. In Egypt, being a 28-year-old woman who is unmarried means that you have somehow been rejected by the majority of society. Often women get urged to marry young, even by their own families, sometimes in arranged marriages. The status of the future husband is of high importance. In present-day

Imbaba is in the development stage. We are seeking European and Arab funds for writing the screenplay, doing research and preparing a test shoot in Imbaba. As soon as the development financing is secured, we will, besides finalising the script, start with casting and preproduction. For the production and post-production, we will apply to European and Arab funds. We intend to collaborate with European and Arab production companies. We are looking for co-producers; for example an Egyptian co-producer could be a good combination. We expect to find the financing in Europe and the Arab world mainly through public funding and TV presales and/or TV co-productions.

Imbaba writer & director: Samir Eshra producer: Daniela Praher

Austria / Egypt Egypt, origin, social class and education still define the opportunities concerning one’s future. The previous short fiction films by Samir Eshra reflect human diversity and themes like injustice and social issues. His first feature film Imbaba, is set in the poor district of the same name in the middle of Cairo; Imbaba is a melting pot of inhabitants of all ages and from all walks of life. Over the past two years I have gained an insight into the complexities of Egyptian society. In March 2011 – soon after the Arab Spring events – Austrian director Alexandra Schneider and I began working on our documentary about four young Egyptian women entitled Young, Female, Egyptian. We decided not just to make another “revolution documentary”, but to portray four very different women fighting for their ideals and dreams. In cooperating with Egyptian film professionals and production companies, I learned what it meant to shoot in an Arab country. All of my experiences led to the conclusion that I want to continue working in Egypt!

Currently, the western world is paying close attention to the Arab world. Therefore it is very important to work with Arab filmmakers tell their stories giving an insight into their present society’s situation. Regarding distribution and sales, I see a great international potential for Imbaba. Together with a sales company we want to release the feature film in Egypt and at major international film festivals, in cinemas, via VoD and TV with a special focus on the Arab market.

production company Daniela Praher Filmproduktion Karajangasse 4/13 1200 Vienna, Austria T +43 650 3417460 daniela.praher@gmail.com total production budget USD 700,000 current financial need USD 700,000 production status in development, seeking financing

Daniela Praher producer Daniela Praher graduated in 2007 with a Masters degree in journalism, film sciences & audiovisual media design. She worked as a location and production manager on national and international films for Austrian companies such as DOR Film, PRISMA Film and Lotus Film. In 2011, she founded her own company Daniela Praher Filmproduktion. Her aim is to produce both documentary and fiction films at an international level. She is currently producing a feature-length documentary, Young, Female, Egyptian (director: Alexandra Schneider) and a short fiction Sweat (director: Iris Blauensteiner). Both films will be completed by the end of 2013 and will then start their international festival tours.

The film targets adults - women and men - aged 20 and older, especially in Egypt but furthermore in Arab countries and Europe who are interested in sociopolitical topics and in gender aspects. The young audience will like to see the story of an independent woman who tries to find ways to live within the restricitons of origin and gender; older people will focus on the generational and family issues. The impact we seek on the audience is that they discuss the topic of traditional marriage and the perspectives of a 28 year-old woman living in present-day Egypt.

script & intention This story is inspired by loss in my own family. During the ‘56 War, my grandfather received news that his favorite son, an Egyptian army officer, had been killed in the Sinai by the Israeli army. Upon hearing this, he was stricken with grief and suffered a stroke. He eventually recovered but people say he was never quite the same - the sorrow he felt was so intense it was as if he had lost a part of himself out in that desert. It was a sorrow that would also send him to an early grave at the age of 50. Because they both died so young, I never met either of these men and so it was up to my mother to tell me their tragic story. As a child I tried to picture them, I tried to imagine a love so deep between two human beings that it could turn into something tragic. I tried to picture a man that could be destroyed by his own grief. I Dreamt of Empire is a story about a father who has lost his beloved son, but here he has the unique opportunity to do something about it. He invents a way to travel back in time to stop his son from dying in the first place. But as he journeys back and forth to alter time, his simple plan is complicated by another man, a kind of double, taking over his present life.

I Dreamt of Empire

While the film fits in the sci-fi genre, it has little to do with futuristic technology and more to do with human memory, nostalgia and identity. I find these three facets of a person most fascinating and they inform all of my writing. It is by exploring these elements as a storyteller that I am able to resolve my own fragmented past. Here, we have a main character that finds a fantastical way to repair his own past, to literally go back to his son and save him. But the price he pays for rewriting history is that he must go deeper and deeper into a nightmare and lose hold of his own identity.

writer & director: Kasem Kharsa producers: Jessica Landt & Falk Nagel

Germany / Egypt / U.S.A. synopsis CAIRO, 1980. Musa is a brilliant Egyptian professor. But he cannot move past the grief of losing his only son, Yusuf, an officer who died fighting the Israelis in the 1956 War. These ghosts of the past have fuelled his recent research into doing the impossible - finding a way to travel in time and save his son from ever dying. He has been working on a method to ‘leap back’ to the past, by switching places with someone else from that time. He succeeds and wakes up in the war, but unexpectedly, in the body of an Israeli soldier - Ben. It is as if Musa has woken up in a nightmare. While he roams the Sinai desert in Ben’s body looking for his son, Ben is taking over Musa’s life in Cairo. Each time Musa returns to the present, he discovers the changes Ben has been making to his life. More and more as Musa leaps back and forth in time, he increasingly loses grip of his own identity. Does he stay and reclaim his life or does he complete his mission? He decides to make the ultimate sacrifice and go back for Yusuf before it’s too late. But as he nears Yusuf’s unit, he is mistaken for an Israeli and killed. Moments later, Yusuf finds Ben/Musa’s body and buries him, unaware that this man is actually his father.

An Egyptian professor travels back in time to save the son he lost.

Kasem Kharsa writer & director Kasem Kharsa is a filmmaker and visual artist based between the Middle East and United States. His films are inspired by his own fragmented past and centre around memory, identity and survivorship. His work has been supported by both regional and international funding bodies and he is a fellow of the Sundance Directors/Writers Lab and Binger Film Labs.

Empire intentionally starts off with two natural enemies pitted against one another and could easily become a grand political allegory. But as the story continues we learn Musa’s greatest adversary is not his Israeli double, it’s himself. This film is ultimately about a man coming to terms with what he lost, a man learning to no longer be a victim of his own grief and past.

SHELTER Feature Film Project in development / Writer & Director - Binger Directors & Writers Lab ’11 Participant - Sundance Directors & Writers Lab ’10 Participant - Awarded Shasha Development Grant

As a child, as much as I tried to picture my grandfather and his pain, he was always a blur, a shadow of a man. Writing this story has been a way to try to understand him and how love can lead a father to sacrifice everything, even himself.

PAPER DRESS 6min doc Director & Production Designer Aqaba, Jordan, 2009 GREY 20min drama Director & Producer Amman, Jordan, 2007 SCREWDRIVER 12min comedy Director & Producer Amman, Jordan, 2007

production notes When I first read Empire I was immediately drawn into the atmosphere and the conflict of our main character, Musa. He is a very lonely man who cannot overcome his son’s death. He becomes a hermit, neglecting his life, wife and career. I can understand and sympathize with him, although I would not choose this radical way because I need to live my life in the now. But losing a beloved one is something very difficult for anyone who is left behind; it takes a great effort to overcome this loss. Yet, I can relate to Musa wanting to turn back time. Who has not thought about that? Who does not regret something? The way Kasem has set this entirely personal story within the concept of time travel is fascinating,

documentary about an Australian pianist, Helfgott; I Am A B-Boy (French/German co-production) as well as the transmedia project Tell Me Who You Are./yourbeat.org. Producing an international debut feature film like Empire; as lead producer, is consequently the next step for our company. We are excited to realize Empire for its story, approach and potential. Our ambition is to make a film whose quality and depth attracts strong international appreciation. It is aimed at an international art house audience, possibly attracting a wider audience due to the topic of time travel. The main audience will be adults, concerned with philosophical questions about life, death, and how

I Dreamt of Empire writer & director: Kasem Kharsa producers: Jessica Landt & Falk Nagel

Germany / Egypt / U.S.A. including the possibilities and challenges that arrive with it. It is not a typical sci-fi film, but touches us on a very personal level, opening up the chance to explore “what if” and takes us onto the very personal search of Musa for his own identity. Musa has created a very subjective image of his son in his head, which he has preserved over the years. This is what he is trying to find, yet it is not so easy to trick fate and relive the past. Things are compounded further because by travelling back in time, Musa switches places with his enemy, who actually lives out Musa’s life better than he did.

to deal with it. We will focus on local distributors and world sales early in the project development and will start contacting them once the script is ready. International festivals will be a main part of our strategy for the worldwide recognition of the film. The project will be structured as a GermanArab project, raising German as well as Arab funds, television and distribution partners and possibly equity. We are aiming to go into production in late 2014, filming in real locations in Cairo and the Sinai. We will also be researching other major Arab cities and deserts as substitute locations.

The film will be produced by Beleza Film, the company I founded with Falk Nagel in 2009 that has bases in both Hamburg and Berlin. We produce fiction, documentary as well as transmedia projects. It is the personal stories and the characters that we are interested in. Our previous productions include 10 Palestinian short films (2010) and the Turkish/ German co-production Küf directed by Ali Aydin (in co-production with Motiva Film, Yeni Sinemacilar) which won the “Lion of the Future” at Venice 2012. We are currently working on a feature-length

Furthermore we are working on a concept to create an online world around the background stories and the characters. The transmedia elements will nurture the story, but also be used for marketing purposes. There is a large community interested in the idea of time travel which will also help to attract a wider audience during the production process.

production company Beleza Film Jessica Landt & Falk Nagel Jenfelder Allee 80 22045 Hamburg / Germany Anklamer Str. 4 10115 Berlin / Germany T +49 40 6688 4778 www.belezafilm.de info@belezafilm.de total production budget € 750.000 current financial need € 727.000 production status Next steps: work on script development, financing. We are looking for co-producers/ partners from the Arab region as well as financiers for the project.

Jessica Landt & Falk Nagel producers Beleza Film, based in Hamburg & Berlin (Germany), is composed of Jessica Landt & Falk Nagel. They produce fiction films, documentaries and audiovisual projects with a strong interest in personal stories and characters. Jessica Landt received her master’s degree from Bochum (Film and Television studies) as well as graduated from the French-German Masterclass, now Atelier Ludwigsburg-Paris. She has worked on the coordination of German and international film projects and coproductions like Béla Tarr’s The Man from London and Lisandro Alonso’s Liverpool. Falk Nagel graduated from postgraduate film studies (director: Hark Bohm) in Hamburg as well as the Masterclass. As executive producer for Corazon International he worked on the Turkish-German feature Takva - A Man’s Fear of God (Turkish Oscarnominee 2008 for best foreign film and nominee European Discovery Award 2007). Jessica and Falk are part of the initiative ‘Hamburg lives Cinema’ - www. hamburg-lebt-kino.de.

script & intention It was only after the bombing started in our neighborhood in Damascus that I left the house with my sister. Coming from a modern liberated society, no one outside Syria, could understand why we had not done this earlier. Damascene society was really closed even in liberal families. Women were allowed to travel, work, study and do everything but live alone. With the new wave of displacement it has become normal, for the first time, to see young Damascene women living alone and separate from their families. Many of my friends started to make decisions they would never dare to make before. It is sad that there is no more society and its structure and priorities have changed, but something new has happened. In the middle of the chaos of war and tragedy there is always some light and some freedom. The media is unable to notice this change because the stories of armed men with religious flags are more captivating than stories of women opening the doors to their house in war time. “Nezouh” in Arabic is the displacement of souls and people; it is the displacement of spirits and bodies in Syria. And with displacement there is definitely change. Nezouh tries to talk about this inevitable invasion of light in the middle of this chaos. It is maybe also about the displacement of darkness.

Nezouh writer & director: Soudade Kaadan producer: Amira Kaadan

Syria synopsis During the Syrian conflict in Damascus, a missile destroys the ceiling of Zeina’s house. For the first time, she sleeps under the stars when before she was forbidden to open the windows. For the first time, she sees the exterior world and notices Yazan, the neighbor’s kid. But Zeina feels guilty about her short lived happiness when she sees her father, Mutaz, burst into tears. He hangs a bed sheet on every falling wall until the house looks like a grotesque tent. Yazan sneaks onto the roof. Behind the sheets, he whispers to her all night long. Zeina falls in love with his imaginative stories. But very soon, the violence escalates. Yazan’s family decides to leave, but Mutaz refuses to become a refugee. Zeina’s mother manages to escape with her five daughters along with Yazan’s family, leaving Mutaz with the remains of his home.

A bomb falls on Zeina’s house, opening a window to a new colorful life.

Soudade Kaadan writer & director Syrian director Soudade Kaadan was born in France. She studied theater criticism at the Higher Institute of Dramatic Arts in Syria and graduated from Saint Joseph University Institut des Etudes Scénique, Audiovisuelles et cinématographiques (IESAV) Lebanon. She has directed and produced documentary films for Aljazeera Documentary Channel, UNDP, UNHCR and UNICEF. Her films have screened at several venues nationally and internationally and have received international awards such as: Martine Filippi award for discovery - 29 URTI Grand Prix for Author’s Documentaries - Monte Carlo TV festival and the second prize in the Muhr Arab Documentary section at the Dubai International Film Festival. She is currently working on her first feature-length fiction film.

The two families reach a school sheltering refugees. They share a room with a single window. Away from her father, Zeina feels this place is her own little oasis. But very soon after, they are forced to evacuate the school. It is then that Zeina and Yazan discover that they own nothing but the moment.

production notes The originality of the film Nezouh is derived from the current events happening in Syria and it explores the hidden sides of Syrian society when faced with the terrors of war. Nezouh exposes the complicated social structure that is broken and shattered during times of violence and suffering. It scratches at the reality that no matter how traditions and culture are embedded in our unconsciousness, the chaos of war and displacement breaks down these walls and allows the spirit to explore new horizons. Zeina’s story, the film’s leading character, is similar to the stories of many Syrian youths who were forced out of their familial home into a different world. The question remains whether this new world would

Nezouh writer & director: Soudade Kaadan producer: Amira Kaadan

Syria be considered as a disrupted location where one has no roots or would it unveil new opportunities, perhaps new experiences. Syria’s displaced younger generation are facing new decisions, forced out of the family traditions and barriers into a world where their words, thoughts and actions matter. The project is at an early stage of development, we expect to have a final outline and treatment by end of December 2013 and the script will be written in 2014. Once the script writing has started and reaches a more advanced stage; the budget will be better defined and tailored to the needs of the creative vision of the director. Accordingly, the financing plan and co-production strategy will be drawn to find partners who will believe in the values embedded within the film. The budget is currently estimated at six hundred thousand Euros.

production company KAF Production Mazzeh, West Villas - Damascus Syria Zarif, Beirut, Lebanon T +961 76034782 akaadan@kafproduction.com www.kafproduction.com total production budget € 600.000 current financial need € 600.000

Amira Kaadan

production status script development

Amira Kaadan was born in Paris, France to a Syrian family. In 2010, she graduated with a Masters degree in Business Administration from the Dauphine University in Paris.

producer

Amira was introduced to the film and production business through her sister, Soudade Kaadan. She started as an assistant producer on the films Looking for Pink and Damascus Roof and Tales of Paradise. At end of 2011, she co-founded KAF Production and her career as a producer took off. She is currently working on the production of two feature films The Day I Lost my Shadow (in pre-production) and Nezouh (Displacement) (in development). And two documentaries: Obscure (in development) and Projection (in post-production).

Nezouh explores the turmoil of a teenager caught in the absurdities of war. It is a bittersweet film about adolescence with a touch of humor. Maybe a film with a smile might be the way to overcome this craziness.

script & intention The idea for this film sprang from a real experience. I discovered that my aunt reads vivid erotica to a faithful group of blind elderly people in New York. After some persuasion, I was allowed to join a session. I could never have been prepared for the impact it would have on me. Erotic expletives and filthy fantasies poured from my aunt’s lips and filled a room packed full of old blind men and women. A drab community centre was transformed into an electric atmosphere, alive with the laughter and gripped attention of everyone present. It was like watching a light being turned on in the dark.

Rebecca Lloyd-Evans writer & director

This scene captured issues I’d long been wanting to explore. We are more comfortable assuming that people past a certain age, and particularly those with a disability, are devoid of sexuality. All of my instincts and experience tell me that this is not the case. The idea of Colette’s character arose after moving to Lebanon in 2011. I was moved by how common it is for an unmarried daughter to live at home as an adult, sacrificing their own lives to fulfill the duty of looking after ageing parents. I was also struck by the existence of a rich canon of oriental erotica, dripping in sensuality and beauty. Using this literature will enhance the poetic impact of the film. What’s more, Beirut’s intense colours, stunning light, varied architecture and chaotic street-life all provide a great backdrop for a film that has blindness at its core.

Holy Braille writer & director: Rebecca Lloyd-Evans producer: Edward Hallett

United Kingdom synopsis Beirut today. When Colette was 14 her Dad died and her Mum started drinking. She protected her younger siblings from the family break-down. They grew up and moved on with their lives. Colette, now in her 40s, peculiar and awkward, still lives at home. Feeling trapped, Colette pretends that she has found a job and each day goes to ‘work’. In reality she spends her time with the eccentric and lonely inhabitants in a faded elderly home. She bonds with Samir, a retired literature professor who has gone blind. She reads to him from his book collection and he shares his wisdom with her. Amongst his books she finds erotic tales that horrify and excite her. In a bold step she reads them to the residents, re-awakening something in them and her. However, the illicit readings stir up complex emotions. And when Colette’s secret is exposed she has to leave the home.

The discovery of pleasure by the most unlikely people, in the most unlikely of places.

Strong and experienced actors will play the leading roles of Samir and Colette. However, the residents of the home shall be cast from Lebanon’s real elderly blind. Coming from a documentary background, we have spent months researching in Beirut’s blind schools, elderly centres and at private homes in order to bring an authenticity to the film. The film will combine the real humanity found in a powerful observational documentary with the beautiful cinematic escapism found in a piece of fiction filmmaking. A shorter, 40-page version of the film was completed in 2012. Through the Interchange program we are undergoing many developments as this expands into a feature-length script. At the moment, we have a detailed treatment.

Before her life in film, Rebecca studied Neuropsychology. She spent the next 8 years as camera-woman, producer and assistant director for some of the best names in British film, including Oscar-winning Jon Blair, BAFTA-winning Penny Woolcock, and Sundance Award winning Kim Longinotto. She worked with Penny as part of a team of two, shooting the film One Mile Away, which won the Michael Powell Award for Best British Film at Edinburgh 2012. Since moving to Lebanon in 2011, Rebecca has worked as a filmmaker for The Guardian, BBC and The British Council as well as directing the half-hour documentary Charlie & Janet (London Short Film Festival), the short film Dinner Time (Finalist, Channel 4 Young Directors Competition, 2013) and the short fiction film Half Past Time.

The group manages to keep the spirit of her readings alive and a deeper solidarity is established in the home. Samir dies with Colette by his side. He departs in peace as she chooses the right book to ease his passing. His spirit and books remain with her so she can face up to a future with renewed hope.

production notes Old age is subject to two myths. Firstly, that the old people we meet are always old. Secondly, that old age is essentially boring. Rather than gravitating towards the old lady at the cocktail party, we veer away from her or, worse, take pity and decide to ‘keep her company.’ In filmic terms, this is a lost opportunity. It neglects a wealth of dramatic possibilities that are ripe for exploration. I have chosen to work on Holy Braille because I believe in the director’s peculiar sensibility to the beautiful, tragic and comic aspects of old age. She has a passion for her subject matter that I want to see converted into film and shared with a wider audience. Moreover, the film’s premise of explicit

towards other forms of digital entertainment; means that there is an incresing demand for films that will appeal to the 60+ demographic. A spate of successful films that do just this (including Amour, Quartet etc.), has only reinforced this trend amongst sales agents and distributors. The budget for Holy Braille is around US$ 600,000. We will be seeking to form links with co-producers in Lebanon, the Middle East and Europe over the coming months. As yet, neither sales agents or distributors have been approached. However, we aim to initiate contact once we have a full first draft feature-length script in place and once we have attached further project participants (including main

current financial need 600,000 USD

writer & director: Rebecca Lloyd-Evans producer: Edward Hallett

production status in development

United Kingdom

Araidne Films was set up in late 2011, largely inspired by the filmmaking potential that Lebanon has to offer. Lebanon has a diverse and fascinating range of human stories, stunning locations and natural light; and a pool of creative talent that is exceptionally open to collaboration. The current project reflects a desire to continue working within this inspiring environment. Of critical importance is that the project forms genuine links with local talent. Not just for reasons of execution feasibility, but also to ensure that the underlying mood, message and nuance of the film rings true to a regional audience.

co-producer Cathrine Pryser T +47 91 17 36 20 cathrine@fredrikfiction.no www.fredrikfiction.no total production budget 600,000 USD (approximate)

Holy Braille

erotica being read to the elderly blind has a stand out quality. It forms the basis for hard hitting and immediately gripping scenes but also sets in motion a subtle, but utterly compelling narrative arc of its own.

production company Ariadne Films P.O Box 167036 Sassine Square - Ashrafieh Beirut Lebanon Edward Hallett Edward@ariadnefilms.com Edward@acamedia.org T + 44 7873 675125 T + 961 70845012 ariadnefilms.com

cast, composer etc.). Once we believe we have a ‘saleable’ package we will approach financing partners in earnest.

Edward Hallett producer Edward spent much of his 20’s immersed in the study of philosophy and psychology. After completing a PhD focusing on Wittgenstein and Freud, he went on to join a London-based investment bank. He spent five years working in the corporate finance function at the bank, including a period spanning the onset of the financial crisis in 2008. He moved to Lebanon in 2011, to re-focus on writing and to explore a long-standing interest in the region. During this period, he became involved in several film projects, including the Lebanon-based short documentary Charlie and Janet’ (London Short Film Festival). He founded Ariadne Films in 2011 and now spends his time between Lebanon and London. He is currently advising a major UK-based production company and a gap financing film fund on raising GBP10 million of EIS film finance.

On the marketing front, the Holy Braille concept falls into a sweet spot that is unlikely to go away. The combination of an ageing population in Europe and America; and a youth that is increasingly drawn

script & intention #Fierce is my first script and it’s still in development. The idea for the subject came when I was living in Egypt (20092011). Munaqqabat – women wearing a niqab or Islamic facecovering veil – are more and more present and visible in European and Islamic countries. As a European, I had to challenge Western cultural stereotypes that depict Muslim women (especially those wearing a niqab) as oppressed by a patriarchal society and religion. My imagination used a transformative approach on this discourse by inventing stories about non-conventional Muslim women (at least for Europeans). These daydreams are the sparks at the core of #Fierce.

Julian McKinnon writer & director

My goal is to write a mainstream chick flick action film. More specifically, a conspiracy thriller. I want the story to be entertaining and dynamic. I want to offer to the audience an exciting visceral experience. And I want it to be a new, original experience.

#Fierce

Our aim is to reach the largest audience possible. First of all, the movie is written for a multi-cultural audience. The flamboyant characters, the fast-paced story and the spectacular movement of bodies draw on those aspects of Western pop culture that can also entertain Arab audiences and, at the same time, on those elements of Middle-Eastern iconography that will renew the aesthetics of the action genre for the Western viewer. Moreover, the story is meant to entertain different generations. The characters and the action are made to excite a young audience (even teenagers), while the crazy geopolitical intrigue in the background will attract a mature audience as well.

(working title)

writer & director: Julian McKinnon producer: Judith Lou Lévy

France / Italy / United Kingdom synopsis MALIKA (21), a French girl of Arab origin, needs the help of her three sisters to find and stop their evil mother, the most wanted terrorist in the world. Ten years have passed since their mother mysteriously disappeared and the sisters were separated and adopted by different Islamic families around the world. After a terrible attack, the sisters gather together again and start the adventure. They land in Lebanon, where their mother’s terrorist organisation is based. Thanks to chubby AIDA’s computer skills, strong YASMINA’s kickboxing, beautiful LATIFA’s 2.0 social abilities and tomboyish Malika’s courage, they locate their mother. But things are not how they seemed: the woman is at the service of BLANCHE WEISS, the leader of Whitewater – a worldwide private security company. The sisters get entangled in Blanche’s evil plan: produce and broadcast the “Burqa Bombers” videos to frighten the world and make Whitewater gain more and more control over Europe. The unexpected sacrifice of the girls’ mother allows the sisters to escape from Blanche.

When your worst fear becomes your only hope.

I want to use the visual and narrative power of the action movie to talk about disintegration and reconstruction of sisterhood (plot), shifting identities across contemporary worlds (the sisters’ subplots) and construction of imaginaries (the Whitewater conspiracy subplot). Unlike many action movies concerning Islam, I don’t want the Muslims to be either victims or villains. Furthermore, I don’t want the female characters to be sidekicks. They are strong positive characters, capable of reacting to injustice and to subvert stereotypes about religion and women. Dubai is an essential location for our story. The city is part of that hyper-contemporary dream that makes the rest of the world look old and boring. Higher than New York, shinier than Las Vegas, kinkier than the metropolis in Blade Runner, it provides new cinematic territories to our imaginaries.

Julian McKinnon (Italy/UK) is a screenwriter and a curator. He works between the Arab world and Europe. He holds an MA from the University of Naples “L’Orientale”, where he graduated with honours in Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies. He also conducted research at the American University in Cairo, focusing on Egyptian contemporary visual arts. Besides curating the Yalla Italia Competition of the Yalla Shebab Film Festival (Italy) – an award for Italian productions having a clear connection to or involvement with North Africa and the Middle East – he is working on the development of two film projects: #Fierce with Judith Lou Lévy and a web series project for Apsara Films in France. Both reflect his perspective on screenwriting: exploring new imaginaries picturing entertaining films. #Fierce is his first fiction feature script.

The sisters’ final journey is to seek revenge and prevent Blanche from bombing the Shopping Festival in Dubai.

production notes Les Films du Bal was founded by Judith Lou Lévy in 2011 to follow the work of young talents – both filmmakers and screenwriters. Its goals are to provide original and funny perspectives on globalisation and to give young “auteurs” the possibility of using mainstream culture to offer entertainment. Besides the production of shorts, several feature films with an international outlook are currently in development: Fire Next Time by Mati Diop, that will be shot in Senegal (awarded an Open Doors development grant at the 2012 Locarno Film Festival), Before The End Of The World, written by Noé Debré and Fabien Commoy, in co-production with Moonshaker (that recently produced Smart Ass directed by Kim Chapiron) and an omnibus about

#Fierce

Both cheeky and emancipating, our project questions western preconceived notions about Muslim women by giving them adventurous lead roles. It uses clichés in order to break them in a corrosive way. To strengthen the appealing dimension of the film, we want to choose French “jeunes premières” actresses with an Arab background like Leila Bekhti, Hafsia Herzi or Sabrina Ouazani and we are currently working on finding an Arab director who will bring nuance to the topic and give the film its legitimacy. This film has to achieve its whole commercial potential. #Fierce is aimed at offering a delightful comedy for a large and young audience, eager to see an action movie and comedy. That is to say teenagers and young adults (16+) both in Europe and in the Arab world.

(working title)

writer & director: Julian McKinnon producer: Judith Lou Lévy

France / Italy / United Kingdom music that will be directed by five world-renowned directors. Julian McKinnon’s project perfectly fits in our editorial perspective. The idea of #Fierce was born a few years ago, before the Arab Spring, when Julian was researching at the American University in Cairo. We have been dreaming of what we saw as a renewal of iconography concerning Arab countries. We explored this possibility, finding mystery and drama in the veil and a possible variation of the super-hero trope that, as 80s kids, excites us, providing the opportunity to finally make a women-centred action movie! #Fierce is situated at a crossroads of both cultural and geographical dynamics. It channels contemporary pop culture by referring to very modern and successful productions such as Haywire for action and Kick-Ass for comedy, with an unexpected Euro-Mediterranean twist. Beyond its entertaining aspect, #Fierce will offer a hopeful alternative path to a collective future. Tenderness, kinship and community: these are the values put forward in the story.

Considering the actual cultural consumption of this target, this film is in direct competition with action comedies from the American industry. It is a great production challenge to get the right budget to give the film the best production value and an efficient communication campaign. The estimated budget of the film is 6 million euros. We would like to partner up with a bigger studio to jointly consider the director. France would be able to provide at least 60 % of the budget but we want to involve other partners, above all from the Arab world, whose commitment will be decisive in introducing the film to Arab audiences. Since France remains the major funds provider in Europe, it will also be important to respect in the narrative process a 51% French language. The rest of the film will be in Arabic. We are currently looking for development funds to further develop the writing and begin the development of a viral communication strategy. The Dubai International Film Festival is the first public presentation of the project.

production company Les Films du Bal 1 rue de Rocroy 75010 Paris, France T +33 6 12 43 31 75 lesfilmsdubal@yahoo.fr total production budget € 6.000.000 (estimated) current financial need € 60.000 for development production status writing / seeking co-producers

Judith Lou Lévy producer Judith Lou Lévy (France) is a film producer. In 2007, she graduated in political sciences and production management from the internationally competitive institution, Sciences Po Paris. After graduating, she started working for several French producers and directors. She founded her own production company, Les Films du Bal, in 2011. Its ambition is to question contemporary fiction possibilities in order to produce entertaining cinema, fostering the imagination of young writers to not only meet the demands of French, but also European and international audiences. The first projects of the company have been supported by several European film festivals, such as Locarno in Switzerland. Two short films, now in post-production, were funded by French public institutions and co-financed by French television channels. Besides #Fierce, Les Films du Bal is also developing several feature films with emerging writers and directors.

script & intention I made 3 short films about the closest relationships in my life. Rise and Shine: The beginning of the day…about my mother. At Day’s End: The middle of the day…about my father. At Night: The end of the day…about my love. My obsession wasn’t with making films about those people; it was more of an urge to re-incarnate my relationship with them and what they represent to me. In At Day’s End I dealt with my relationship with my father, or, I’d rather say: Self-assessed my attitude towards it. I had found what I had been searching for in a story by Ibrahim Aslan: “At Day’s End”. It was part of a series of short stories published weekly in the Al Ahram newspaper …How strange! The story even carried the name of the same part of the day!! And even stranger, the father-son relationship was exactly as my experience!!

Two Rooms and a Parlor Egypt / Lebanon

Fall 2009: …My first feature. I am searching for it but I can’t find it…or, in better words: I don’t know what I really want to make. Ibrahim Aslan continues publishing his short story series every Wednesday in Al Ahram. They are about daily life situations involving Suleiman’s father and mother in their narrow space.

synopsis

Winter 2009: Still searching for my first feature …it seems that I have come closer to what I want. It’s the drama of daily life….but how?

director: Sherif Elbendary writer: Mohamed Salah al Azab producer: Racha Najdi

Ten years have passed since KHALIL SULEIMAN retired following a long and mundane career. Khalil believes his life has already ended and thinks about buying a family plot in a cemetery with some of his savings. His wife, IHSAN, however wants to renovate the house and change the floor to ceramics. Ihsan dies suddenly, leaving Khalil alone to deal with people he had avoided for years and face fears he had not previously explored. He realizes that he has never traveled outside of Cairo and decides to take a plane for the first time in his life. Loneliness, on the one hand, and making the travel arrangements on the other, forces Khalil to get involved in his neighbor’s lives although he didn’t know any of them before except ABDEL AAL, a retired photographer diagnosed with cancer. Soon he meets AZZA, an aging former dancer; YASSER, an infertile and religious young man who is afraid of artificial insemination and IRENE, an introverted veterinarian. Khalil overcomes all the obstacles he faces in order to make his trip by getting closer and closer to one of his neighbors. Finally when he is ready to travel, Yasser’s wife gives birth but the baby’s nursery is very costly. Khalil makes everyone around him happy and goes back to his old life that has been happily turned upside down.

After his wife’s death, Khalil realises his mundane life is about to end without him having explored all its aspects. He decides to make a trip to Panama.

Sherif Elbendary director Sherif Elbendary lives and works in Cairo. He graduated from the Faculty of Applied Arts in 2001 and then went on to study film directing at the High Institute of Cinema in Cairo. He has been teaching film directing at the Institute since 2008. Between 2008 and 2009 Elbendary also directed six documentaries in Mauritania and Egypt for Al Jazeera TV, produced by Hot Spot Films in Dubai, as well as many TV commercials.

Ibrahim Aslan publishes his short story series under the name “Two Chambers and a Living Room” “Shouldn’t you have called it ‘Two Rooms and a Parlor’ Mr. Ibrahim?” He answers, after a moment of his usual silence: “No, it’s good that way, Two Chambers and a Living Room” “As you like, Mr. Ibrahim”

His short film Rise & Shine, produced in 2006, was officially selected in more than 75 film festivals in 33 countries and won 15 awards and At Day’s End (2008), also a short, was officially selected in more than 50 film festivals and won 14 awards.

I read them all. It wasn’t just an exquisite piece of literature, the characters were alive and carefully studied, drifting together in their limited space and after reading them, I had two feelings: First, there was something in that book that my film didn’t unleash. Second, I felt there was someone in the world of literature who was speaking with my voice. Aslan sees things just like I see them in cinema. It is the daily life drama which I have always loved, which may lack major events but are filled with emotions. It’s all about the simple details that overwhelm us when we stop and watch closely.

Sherif also directed the short film Curfew which formed part of the collective feature film 18 Days that was part of the official selection in the Cannes Film Festival 2011, as well as several other festivals.

…To the daily life drama which I love, …To the tiny details that make up our lives and yet we just neglect, …To father-son relationships, I decide on my first feature film: Two Rooms and a Parlor

Sherif has been working on his first feature film, Two Rooms and a Parlor, since early 2010.

production notes When I first visited Egypt in 2009, I experienced a big city for the first time in my life. Cairo was totally new for me, although I knew a lot about it from movies and literature and through them I got to know places without being there before. The city amazed me for 10 days with the number of little details that you find in all its corners. And by the time I left, what I kept as beautiful memories were all these little details that formed my vision of this city. A year later, I came back to live and work in Cairo. And as I got caught up in daily life, I rarely paid attention to those details.

original title Oudtein w Sala invest financially in the film. Additionally we have a strong interest for several TV presales. We are currently looking for co-producers and we plan to shoot the film in 2014. We are aiming for the film to be selected at ‘A list’ festivals and hope that it will be well received by international and local audiences.

Two Rooms and a Parlor director: Sherif Elbendary writer: Mohamed Salah al Azab producer: Racha Najdi

Egypt / Lebanon The script of Two Rooms and Parlor was, for me, a trip into the memories of my first visit to Cairo and an unveiling of my special relationship with the city and the details that makes it very special to me. The story is tailored in a way to make a very nice script that portrays the little details of a simple life. Knowing Sherif, I am sure that he is capable of giving life to this story. The film revolves around the life of a 70 year-old man, but it is also the story of the humanistic details that take place in big cities and that we never manage to tackle except in literature. So turning it into a movie represented a big fascination for me, to see a film that represents an approach that we rarely see in Arabic cinema is a main motivation.

production company Film Clinic 141 (A) Corniche El Nile 9th ﬂoor, Maadi - Cairo Egypt T +202 252 680 50 Fax +202 252 680 14 info@film-clinic.com www.film-clinic.com total production budget € 515.447 current financial need € 263.827 production status preparation

Mohamed Salah el Azab

Racha Najdi

writer

producer

Mohamed Salah el Azab is the Managing Editor of the wellknown Egyptian newspaper El Youm el Sabee.

Racha Najdi is a producer in the fields of cinema and music. She worked with Wika Films in Cairo on Nadine Khan’s first feature film, Harag w Marag, which won the special jury award at the Dubai International Film Festival in 2012.

He graduated from the Al-Azhar University in Cairo in 2004 with a B.A. (High Honors) from the Arabic Language College. He is a member of the Union of Egyptian Writers and has published a number of books that have received awards and the admiration of the public. Sidi Barani was the last book he published in 2010. His first script, Two Rooms and a Parlor, won the Sawiri’s Award for best script.

In 2011, she managed the Express Fund at the Arab Fund for Art and Culture, a one-year funding program for projects inspired by the Arab Spring. Najdi studied public relations and advertising at the Lebanese University and in 2009 she obtained a Masters in Cultural Management from the University of Barcelona. From 2003 to 2007 she coordinated photography, animation and documentary filmmaking workshops. Najdi has contributed to several short films and documentaries including Mamalaket al-Nisaa’ (2010) and Bahia & Mahmoud (2009).

We started working on the project a year ago. We have participated in the Cairo Film Connection and received a grant from the Doha Film Institute. We have cast Mahmoud AbelAziz (famous Egyptian actor) for the main role of KHALIL and this enabled us to get backing from local distributors who will

script & intention Growing up in a Kashmiri Muslim family in America, my teenage years—and the rebellion that came with it—took on a different shape than that of my peers. If I chose to defy my parents, I wasn’t just challenging two people. I was choosing to call into question a complex set of cultural, political and religious values that my ancestors had struggled and fought for. I didn’t want to surrender my heritage but I also didn’t want to blindly accept it. The guilt, expectations and burden of reconciling my parents’ past with my present has often left me frustrated; tempted to take one side or another. So, I’ve often looked for insights from other young people around the world facing the same struggles. And through my travels, nowhere in this globalized world have I felt this struggle more resonant, these forces of past and present more dramatically different, than in Yemen. After marrying into a Yemeni family and traveling the country, I could easily see how Yemeni youth and I shared similar hopes and challenges. In their case, the past is represented by a centuries-old system of tribal law that is alive and well. In a country where the modern government is weak and unstable, keeping order often falls into the hands of sheikhs who rule according to ancient tribal law. But tribes are also associated—not always wrongly—with violence. With Yemen’s heavily armed population, tribes are often caught in cycles of revenge killings and a culture of brutal retaliation. It can be hard to see how these ancient tribes can survive in a modern Yemen.

The Cycle writer & director: Musa Syeed producers: Sara Ishaq & Nicholas Bruckman

Yemen / U.S.A. synopsis Since the tribe executed his father for murder, AHMAD (18) is the outcast of his village in Yemen. He dreams of moving to the big city to drive a motorcycle taxi. When the country’s water crisis forces his family to give up farming, Ahmad finally decides it’s time to go. But OMAR (50s), the sheikh of the tribe, demands Ahmad stays to protect a new well, soon to be the only water source in their valley. Ahmad refuses, still bitter about Omar’s ruling on his father’s fate. Using his savings, Ahmad buys a cycle and rides to the city. But armed youth from a rival tribe, angry at Omar for barring them from the well, block the road. When Ahmad tries to sneak by, their leader HAYTHAM (20s) grabs the cycle. Desperate to get it back, Ahmad offers to help them get access to the well. Haytham accepts, using Ahmad’s anger to turn him against his own village. But when Haytham’s attacks turn deadly, Ahmad fears he’s fallen in his father’s footsteps. Ahmad risks his life to stop Haytham, thereby allowing the tribes to negotiate well access. By averting war, Ahmad regains his family’s honor and the respect of the tribe.

In Yemen, no matter how far you ride, you can’t escape the tribe

And yet, there are many young Yemenis who hope to weave some tribal customs—particularly the tradition of arbitration—into contemporary society. Their vision in seeking a nuanced, integrated approach to reconciling past and present defies the typically all-ornothing demands of development. By taking this more difficult path, Yemeni youth are seeking to carve out an identity that is uniquely theirs. In a world where many are clamoring for a clash of civilizations, we need alternate voices to find a way forward. While it is fascinating to observe all this from the outside, I was struck by how their story crystallizes my own. The journey of young Yemenis inspires me to continue wrestling with the traditions I inherited and the culture I was born into, in order to strike a path that works for me, that embraces the richness of my experience as a third culture kid. For me, The Cycle is a reminder that this frustrating, messy, complicated dialogue between past and present is ultimately about something worthwhile: the future.

Musa Syeed writer & director Musa Syeed’s first feature film, Valley of Saints (shot in Kashmir), won the World Cinema Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival and Special Jury Prizes at the Mumbai and Dubai International Film Festivals. It had theatrical releases in America, Canada, India, Australia and Germany. His current project, The Cycle, has been selected to participate in the TIFF Talent Lab and IFP/Lincoln Center Emerging Visions Fellowship. His first Yemen/USA coproduction, the short entitled The Big House, premiered at the Los Angeles Film Festival and is currently touring the festival circuit. Syeed previously co-produced and directed the documentaries Bronx Princess (Official Selection, Berlinale) and A Son’s Sacrifice (Best Documentary Short, Tribeca). Musa was a Fulbright Fellow in Cairo, Egypt and is a graduate of New York University’s Film/ Television and Middle Eastern/ Islamic Studies departments. He has also taught film at Williams College and the Tribeca Film Institute.

Reunited with his cycle, Ahmad rides to the city, but with a new future in his hands.

production notes Sara Ishaq: Only a few films have been made in Yemen in the last decade and even less have been made with the help of local Yemeni talent. For this reason, Yemen has little to no film culture and remains underestimated, underexplored and in turn, severely misunderstood by the outside world. With this in mind, I set up a Yemen-based production house – Setara Films - with the primary intention of discovering, cultivating, encouraging and promoting the work of local talent to primarily preserve the social and cultural reflections of their complex yet ever-changing world and, secondly, to instill a tradition of film viewing and filmmaking in a country so averse to film. I also hope to ensure cultural and linguistic accuracy in the films I work on, to stay true

The Cycle falls in line with the aspirations of both Setara Films and People’s Television by including non-professional local actors and a predominantly Yemeni crew, shedding light on youth, tribalism and corruption through an endearing character-driven story. We both believe this will engage Yemeni and international audiences alike in a discourse about these issues, ultimately bridging the gap between Yemen and the rest of the world, while Yemenis themselves can relate to and be proud of the film as well. We aim to raise the finances for The Cycle through a variety of sources. The treatment is currently in consideration with two film financiers in the Middle

The Cycle writer & director: Musa Syeed producers: Sara Ishaq & Nicholas Bruckman

Nick Bruckman: People’s Television is a New Yorkbased film and commercial production company. We focus on telling universal, international stories about the immigrant experience and underrepresented cultures and communities around the world. Our first feature narrative, Valley of Saints, a love story set in Kashmir, won the World Cinema Audience Award at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, as well as the Jury Prize at the Dubai, Milan and Mumbai Film Festivals. It has been acquired for 2013 theatrical distribution in North America, Germany, and Australia, with deals in further territories pending.

People’s TV, USA Nicholas Bruckman - U.S.A. nick@ppls.tv total production budget 400,000 USD current financial need 400,000 USD production status in development

Sara Ishaq

Nick Bruckman

producer

Sara Ishaq is a Yemeni-Scottish director/producer who graduated with an MFA in film directing from the University of Edinburgh in 2012. In 2011, she travelled to Yemen to document the uprising while radio-reporting and filming for the BBC.

Nick Bruckman was selected for the Film Independent Producers Lab and given the Sloan Producers Award at the Sundance Film Festival for his work on Valley of Saints.

In 2012, she released her debut multi-award-winning short documentary Karama has no Walls which was nominated for the BAFTA New Talent 2012 & One World Media 2013 awards.

Yemen / U.S.A. to Yemen’s regional diversity and uniqueness within the Arab world. Two years ago, I came across the trailer for Musa Syeed’s film Valley of Saints and was instantly mesmerised by the film’s elegant narrative style and exquisite cinematography; and the thought of a Yemen-based film of such stature naturally crossed my mind. After meeting Musa in Yemen in 2012 and learning more about his work and next idea for a film in Yemen, the decision to collaborate with him on The Cycle was an easy one to make.

production companies Setara Films - Yemen Sara Ishaq sarahjishaq@gmail.com T +2-010-697-22292

East: Imagenation Abu Dhabi and the Doha Film Institute. We have made inroads with the project into the Yemeni diaspora community in the United States and Europe and expect to raise development funds through equity from several high net worth Yemeni investors and crowd-funding sources. Additionally, we endeavor to secure grant funding from U.S. foundations (Cinereach, NYSCA) as well as European institutions like Hubert Bals and the World Cinema Fund. If we decide to secure a sales agent prior to the completion of the film, we may be able to raise completion funds through a minimum guarantee or foreign pre-sales. We intend to begin pre-production in the summer of 2014 and begin filming in Autumn 2014.

Sara is currently completing a feature-length documentary film called The Mulberry House. Now based in Yemen, she has set up a production company, Setara Films, and is establishing a centre in Sana’a for Yemeni filmmakers and artists.

He previously directed and produced the feature documentary La Americana, which won best documentary at the New York and Los Angeles Latino Film Festivals; and was broadcast worldwide on networks including Al Jazeera, National Geographic and PBS World. In addition to independent film, Nicholas’ production company, People’s Television, creates commercial content for global brands including IBM, Nissan, Philips, and Facebook.

Trainee Script Consultants Nagham Abboud Lebanon

Rowan Faqih Palestine

biography

Nagham Abboud is an actor and filmmaker. She has performed in and organised film, theatre, television and cultural events in Lebanon, Germany and the United Kingdom. She has worked in the casting department and as an assistant director on Lebanese and international feature films including Circumstance by Maryam Keshavarz, La Montagne by Ghassan Salhab, Where Do We Go Now? by Nadine Labaki and Gate #5 by Simon El Habre.

Rowan Al Faqih is a researcher and filmmaker working with different forms of documentary and experimental video. She did her undergraduate degree at the American University of Beirut and holds a Master’s degree in urban and regional planning from UC Berkeley.

In 2011, Nagham wrote and directed her first short film, Behind the Window, which was selected at film festivals around the world and won the “Best First Short Movie” prize at the Lebanese Film Festival 2012 and “Audience Award” at the Arab Short Film Festival 2012. Nagham has a degree in acting and directing from the Lebanese Institute of Fine Art.

contact T 00961-70-102685 naghamabboud@gmail.com skype: nagham.abbou3

contact T +972-599-508749 rwnfqh@gmail.com skype: rowanfaqih

intention

intention Growing up, I remember performing with my cousins and sisters in plays we wrote and directed. I remember waiting till my parents were asleep to watch The Sound of Music, or imitating Annie and hoping Peter Pan would come and make us fly. These characters became part of our imaginations and fantasies. I grew up thinking of these protagonists and trying to create ones of my own. My addiction and passion for film increased as time went on. Today, I am a woman trying to make a difference in our world through film; creating new and meaningful images and protagonists. Achieving never comes alone. It comes after a long journey and with the help of people we trust, love working with and the sharing of ideas. Scripts cannot be finalized by the scriptwriter alone; and I have become accustomed to developing stories from the days when my sisters, cousins and I invented plays. Details in scripts come through experiences and experiences differ from one person to another. As a story editor, I try to understand what the writer wants to say and how to transform these intentions onto paper. I try to show weak points and improve the strong ones; share my thoughts and enrich the script with as many details as possible. My aim is to collaborate in making films that we can be proud of and that future generations will watch and dream of their heroes and live their stories.

Her films include Summer of 85 (2005), Security Leak (2006), H1 H2 (2010) and Offguard (2012) which have been selected and screened at various international film festivals and organisations including Oberhausen, Locarno, Visions du Reel, Docusur, Tate Modern, Jeu de Paume, Macro Contemporary Art Museum, Cinema Tout Ecran, Carthage and the ArteEast Touring Program. Her installation Defying Gravity and Melting Point was exhibited at Makan (2010).

As a story editor, my role is to be the second hand that is needed in order to clap. I am the supporter and the listener.

Although films are images accompanied by sound that appear on a screen, they are first conceived as ideas on paper. Ideas, emotions, locations, characters, dialogue, music and action are initially expressed in words that form a unified vision for a film before it is shot. This writing process is not a solitary exercise and involves a number of people. The scriptwriter is the main person to consolidate an idea, to extend or trim it and modify it as the script grows. As the body of a script extends, as its elements take a more definite structure, the input of others is required. When reflecting on a treatment or script, I try to understand and absorb what a writer is trying to say, the kind of story they are telling, the tone and texture; and the general feelings and emotions that the writer hopes to leave the viewer with. I try to express the aspects that draw me to the story, the gaps I see in what the writer is trying to communicate and what actually comes across. I try to imagine how the final script will materialize and adjust that to the changes that take place during the writing process and the feedback and input from the various players involved.

Script editing is a process that seeks to bring out the essence of a story, starting from its most general and broadest form.

In the end it is a privilege to be one of many people who contribute to the making of a film.

Trainee Script Consultants Antoine Waked Lebanon

biography Antoine Waked studied film directing at the Lebanese Academy of Fine Arts (ALBA). After graduating, he worked as a story producer and segment director on several television shows including as the Arab versions of The Biggest Loser, The X-Factor, Unanimous, Male/Female, Ton of Cash and Guesstimation. He has directed three short films: Le Matelas (2004), Giallo (2005) and the award winning animation The Big Fall (2005) which was selected at film festivals in Paris, Lyon, Sydney, Rome, Morocco and Egypt. He has been teaching writing and directing at his former university, ALBA, since 2005 and also currently works as a screenwriter and script consultant with Abbout Productions.

contact T +961 3 525 747 antoine@abboutproductions.com skype: giallomovie

intention The passage from an idea to a completed screenplay is one of the bumpiest roads a writer has to take. There are times when you are led to believe that you have reached your destination, more times than not, you return to your screenplay and realize that you are barely there. The writer is often immersed in his ideas, which form the delicate contours of his own world. He arrives at a point of confusion about his subject and what he exactly wants to convey. This is when a fresh look is needed. My job as a script consultant is to guide the writer during the laborious rewriting process. I create the distance between him and his script. I try to discern its weaknesses and strengthen its originality. I try to understand what the writer wants and how the story relates to him on a personal level. This way, I am able to guide the molding of his screenplay and to offer the director the tools to create a real cinematographic experience.

A screenplay should transcend its subject to become the essence of a pure cinematographic experience.

Ic Savina Neirotti TorinoFilmLab Director

Staff

Jane Williams Director of Dubai Film Connection & Film Forum Alan Fountain Head of Studies Greta Fornari TorinoFilmLab Project Manager Ayesha Chagla Associate Manager, Dubai Film Market Trupti Ashar DFM Information and Services Supervisor

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