Lina Soualem’s Spain-set family story “Alicante,” Walid Messnaoui’s gangster Western “The Remaining Beast of Atlas” and Linda Lô’s search-for-identity drama “Lucky Girl” rank as buzz titles on the seventh Atlas Workshops, working Dec. 1-5 on the Marrakech Competitors.
“Mud” director Jeff Nichols has already been launched as this yr’s Workshops tutor.
They will even unveil first images from three of most likely essentially the most awaited movement photos from the Arab world – from “Amreeka” director Cherien Dabis and “The Yacoubian Setting up” helmer Marwan Hamed and Tarzan and Arab Nasser, behind Palestine Oscar entry “Gaza Mon Amour.”
Together with to this, however, are a slew of first or second choices by youthful filmmakers hailing from Morocco, Africa and the Arab world who’ve already gained Academy Awards or large fest recognition, giving the 2024 Atlas Workshops one in all many highest-caliber and thrilling lineups of any enchancment program this yr.
“Arab and African cinema is now being chosen on the world’s large festivals. Initiatives for the time being are being structured as sturdy potential motion pictures for the worldwide market. Reasonably than merely social drama fiction – which we nonetheless need – filmmakers are embracing all genres, discovering extraordinarily creative strategies to duplicate the drama and hope of our world,” Atlas Workshops director Hédi Zardi knowledgeable Choice, together with that his alternative requirements has been “daring genuine tales which could moreover be part of with market demand.”
Heading potential Workshop standouts this yr, having made a splash at 2009’s Sundance with “Amreeka,” about being Arab in America, and “May inside the Summer time season,”about being American inside the Middle East, Dabis will present first images of “All That’s Left of You,” a multi-generational story about being Palestine, shot in Arabic.
A revenge drama from brothers Tarzan and Arab Nasser, “As quickly as Upon a Time in Gaza” weighs in as a result of the Workshop’s largest co-production – between Palestine, France, Germany, Portugal, Jordan and Saudi Arabia – with Bac Films coping with French distribution and worldwide rights.
“El Sett” is the newest large swing from Egyptian Hamed whose movement photos launched a model new diploma of worldwide ambition to modern Egyptian filmmaking.
First fiction attribute filmmakers on the Workshops absorb Soualem, who attracted heat with 2023 Venice and Toronto title “Bye Bye Tiberias,” about her mother Hiam Abbas.
Moreover they absorb, however, Murad Abu Aiseh, the first Arab to win a Scholar Oscar, and Zamo Mkhwanazi, the first Black South African director to have a fiction film – fast “Sadla” – at Sundance.
“Aisha Can’t Fly Away,” from Egypt’s Morad Mostafa, gained this September’s Venice Manufacturing Bridge’s Final Decrease; Charlotte Rabate’s TV assortment “The Colony” was picked up by HBO Max.
Moreover inside the mix are awaited second choices. One, “Behind The Palm Bushes,” is from the Oscar-nominated Meryem Benm’Barek (“Jennah”), whose debut attribute “Sofia” scooped biggest screenplay at Cannes’ 2018 Un Positive Regard.
“Throughout the Shadows of Good Fortune,” from Nigeria’s Babatunde Apalowo marks his follow-up to “The entire Colours of the World Are Between Black and White,” which gained a Berlin biggest attribute Teddy Award.
Of additional consolidated directors, Tala Hadid’s first film screened at Toronto, her second at Berlin.
A additional detailed drill-down on the far-ranging Atlas Workshops titles:
Initiatives in Development
“Alicante,” (Lina Soualem, Algeria, France)
After break-up, Assia seeks downtime alongside together with her family which has merely opened a restaurant in Spain. She’s rapidly battling to keep away from losing the family enterprise. A approach of id drama from one in all many highest-profile first fiction attribute filmmakers on the Workshops, backed by Omar El Kadi and Nadia Turencev at go-ahead French outfit Easy Riders Films.
“Flowers of the Ineffective,” (“Flôr di Finado,” Nuno Miranda, Cape Verde, Portugal)
In early enchancment, the newest from Miranda whose 55-minute “Kmêdeus” (“EatGod”) screened on the Rotterdam Competitors. “Flowers” weighs in as a romantic freeway movie set in opposition to Cape Verde’s “mystical” panorama involving two characters dealing with grief and personal progress. Pedro Soulé produces for Cape Verde’s KS Cinema, Pedro José-Marcellino for Portugal’s Pedrada.
“Ici Repose,” (Moly Kane, Senegal, France)
The potential first attribute from Senegal’s writer-director Kane, biggest recognized for 2011 fast “Moly,” screened in Cannes Classics, and “Sër Bi” (“Les tissus blancs,” 2020) and for founding the Dakar Courtroom docket pageant in 2018. Impressed by true events, a conformist mother who tries to fit in her neighbourhood determines to face as a lot as conventions to bury her son, lynched for being gay. Produced by Babubu Films (“Sër Bi”) and Films Grand Huit, behind Berlin Silver Bear winner “Disco Boy.”
“The Remaining Beast of the Atlas,” (Walid Messnaoui, Morocco)
A twilight Western-drama marking the anticipated attribute debut from Casablanca-born and ESAV Marrakech Film School alum Messnaoui, admired for 2022’s intense and despairing petty crime caper “No Key,” an Indie Fast Fest winner that moreover screened at Unbelievable Fest. Set inside the Nineteen Nineties middle-Atlas, “The Remaining Beast” prompts Boulohouch, a legendary outlaw and “picture of freedom and terror.” Then the parable begins to crumble. Produced by Taoufik Rais, El Mahdi Amsrouy at Caestus Film, behind “No Key,” and a fast-consolidating participant on the Moroccan film scene with a second endeavor on the Workshops.
“Lucky Girl,” (“Chanteuse,” Linda Lô, France)
In her debut attribute, Lô tells her private story in a fiction film. All through a visit in Bordeaux, Lili, 4, and her brothers, aged 9 and 20, are left to to their very personal models when their flamboyant mother returns with out them to Gabon to run her restaurant- discotheque. Seen in three acts – as a bit girl, teen and likewise you girl, Lili grows into Linda, determined to make her mother proud and reconnect alongside together with her African heritage. Produced by Didar Domehri’s Maneki Films, a standard French indie producer of giant fest performs, paying homage to “Paulina,” “White Elephant” and “Bang Bang.”
“The Orange Grove,” (Murad Abu Eisheh, Canada)
Backed by Roger Frappier, a producer on Jane Campion’s “The Power Of The Canine,” adapting Larry Tremblay’s 2013 novel, about an actor-understudy’s war-plagued childhood alongside together with his twin brother, rather a lot spent in an orange grove. Eisheh’s “Tala’imaginative and prescient” gained not solely a Scholar Oscar nonetheless biggest fast on the Purple Sea Competitors.
“Princess Téné,” (Fabien Dao, Burkina Faso)
Set in a up to date Ouagadougou, Téné, queen of Ouagadougou’s nightlife, inherits the family safe, using the horses to maneuver medicine, until she resizes they’re being purchased to the an identical terrorists who killed her brother. Slowly, she connects with the neighborhood of horsemen and heritage of horses, which she left when she was a child. Produced by Moustapha Sawadogo at Future Films, “a bunch of creative film fanatics primarily based in Ouagadougou,” he says.
Princess Tene
“Pure Madness,” (Inés Arsi, Tunisia, France)
A model new endeavor from Tunisia’s Instinct Bleu, primarily based in 2019 by Sarra Ben Hassen and a producer on “Who do I Belong To” by Oscar-nominated Meryam Joobeur, which premiered in Rivals at Berlin Competitors and is now a Specific Screening at Marrakech. A main doc-feature, Arsi’s “Pure Madness” chronicles the director’s personal journey, intrigued by the secrets and techniques and strategies of an uncle who immigrated to France inside the ‘60s, braving the omerta surrounding psychological effectively being factors in Tunisia.
Pure Madness
“Samir, the Unintended Spy,” (Charlotte Rabate, France)
Samir, 12, escapes to Lebanon after Syria’s 1966 coup d’état. Glad his father is a spy, he investigates with girlfriend Christine and discovers his father‘s secret. Organize at Coralie Dias’ Inter Spinas Films. Rabaté moreover produced/co-wrote attribute “Stray Dolls,” which bowed at Tribeca. Acquired by Arte, Netflix and The Criterion Channel, the Dias-produced fast “Warsha” gained a Sundance 2022 worldwide Jury Prize and was Oscar shortlisted.
Samir, the Unintended Spy
“The Shelter,” (Talal Selhami, Morocco, France)
Organize at Lamia Chraibi’s La Prod, behind movement photos by Hicham Lasri, Narjiss Nejjjar, Ismaïl Ferroukhi and Mohcine Besri, the newest from Selhami whose fantasy film “Achoura” took awards on the Hardline Competitors and Sitges. Proper right here, in Paris, Leila, a Syrian refugee battle survivor, is requested to look after Georges, a former diplomat now nearing the tip of his life. This proximity to dying awakens the ghosts of Leila’s earlier.
“The Provide,” (Mouloud Ouyahia, France, Algeria)
“A film that follows two mates who, like Twenty first-century gold-seekers, cross the boundaries of progress and ethics,” the synopsis runs, accompanied by {a photograph} of an individual in barren, sun-scorched mountains. Ouyahia’s follow-up to Cannes 2023 Directors’ Fortnight fast, “The House is On Fire, Could as Properly Get Warmth.” Lead-produced by Toulouse-based L’Oeil Vif, primarily based by Lucas Senecaut and Ouyahia.
“Your Flip 203,” (“A Vous, 203,” Cynthia Sawma, Lebanon)
“In a Lebanon in catastrophe, Aida, 50, a housewife, discovers new freedom and which means in her life when she options a casting identify for extras,” per the synopsis. Set in “a world by which questioning one’s perform in society turns into an important act of change,” the Atlas Workshops notes. A reportedly spirited, vibrant title directed by Sawma whose “Dreaming of Lebanon” was chosen for SXSW and gained biggest VR on the Ji.hlava doc fest. Produced by the Lebanon’s Abbout Productions and France’s Wheelhouse Productions.
Atlas Shut-Ups
“And Nonetheless I Rise,” (“A balles perdue, mon âme gagnée,” Djanis Bouzyani)
French-Moroccan actor-turned-director Djanis Bouzyani’s documentary “And Nonetheless I Rise” captures French tennis participant Aravane Rezai who, torn between family loyalty and a thirst for freedom, makes an try to stage a comeback, endangered by the belligerence of her private father. Produced by French arthouse powerhouses Agat Films-Ex Nihilo, behind “The Most Treasured of Cargoes” at Cannes, along with 5 completely different titles chosen for the pageant.
“Dar Marjana,” (Lamia Lazrak, U.S., Morocco)
A doc attribute backed by U.S.-based Caravan Choices and Moroccan collective Paper Tongue, aiming to carry the visibility of girls and nonbinary of us of coloration, “Dar Marjana” prompts restaurant proprietor Kenza who determines to go away her family restaurant set in a 200-year-old residence in Marrakech’s Medina, inhabited by capricious however extremely efficient jinns. Directed by Portland-based Moroccan Lazrak, whose shorts embody “Camoflauge” and “Starting of Venus,” proper right here depicting her family.
“The Space,” (“Le Champ,” Mohamed Bouhari, Morocco)
Written and directed by Bouhari (“Jeans,” “Abandon de poste”), 5 characters whose paths cross in a vast corn self-discipline in Morocco are pressured to confront their fears, principally that of punishment. Organize at Casablanca’s Le Moindre Geste (“Le Miracle du Saint Inconnu”), established by Francesca Duca and Alaa Eddine Aljem in 2012.
The Space
“Fatwa,” (Mohamed El Badoui, Morocco)
The next from Spain-based actor-director El Badoui, biggest recognized for “Lalla Aisha,” starring Angela Molina, and “Palestine,” a West Monetary institution-set mistaken id drama.
“The Nours,” (“Les Frères Noirs,” Yassine Iguenfer, Morocco)
A singular, upbeat and doubtless extraordinarily cinematic freeway movie set in 1975 Morocco in opposition to attractive Atlas landscapes, as a youthful Vietnamese man often known as Ahmed Nour, arrives in Casablanca with a inexperienced truck, aiming to hunt out his Moroccan father. Produced by Caestus Films.
Films in Manufacturing or Publish-Manufacturing
“Aisha Can’t Fly Away,” (Morad Mostafa, Egypt)
The winner of the 2024 Venice Manufacturing Bridge’s Final Decrease, Mostafa’s first attribute was put by the use of Doha Film Institute’s Qumra Lab. In it, a woman cares for her aged mom and father as she witnesses the ethnic tensions in Cairo. “Extremely efficient and real,” talked about the Final Decrease jury, which added: “No matter being a main attribute film, it showcased assured path and a particular cinematic voice. The film’s gritty realism, consideration to factor and impactful storytelling left a sturdy impression on us.”
“All That’s Left of You,” (Cherien Dabis, Palestine)
One of many awaited titles in your complete Atlas Workshops, overlaying fully completely different generations of a Palestine family. Dabis’ third film stars Dabis and a stellar Palestine solid of brothers Adam Bakri (“Official Secrets and techniques and strategies”) and Saleh Bakri (“Wahib”) and father Mohammad Bakri (“Private”). Germany’s Pallas Film and Cyprus’ AMP Fireworks produce.
“Bardi,” (Tala Hadid, Morocco, U.S., France)
Following on Hadid’s multi-prized Berlin-selected “Residence inside the Fields” (2017), the second part of a projected doc-feature trilogy that tracks a touring brotherhood of horsemen all through Morocco. “The film is an ode to horses and males and to the passions that bind them,” the synopsis runs. Produced by Morocco’s Kairoi Films, Danny Glover and Joselyn Barnes’ Louverture Films, France’s Cine Sud and Okay Films.
Bardi
“Behind The Palm Bushes,” (Meryem Benm’Barek, Morocco, France)
Now in post-production and one different anticipated title at this yr’s Atlas Workshops, produced by Worldwide Oscar-nominated (“Days of Glory”) Cannes frequent (“France”) Jean Bréhat, the failed romance between a youthful Moroccan and rich French expat girl is about in opposition to the backdrop of France’s domination of Morocco.
“Chronicles From the Siege,” (Abdallah Al Khatib, Palestine, Algeria, France)
Produced by Algeria’s Issaad Film Manufacturing and France’s Proof Film and Blue Observe Films, a fictional continuation of Abdallah Al Khatib’s critically acclaimed first doc-feature, “Little Palestine: Diary of a Siege.” “Sometimes infused with darkish humor, 5 interconnected tales uncover life beneath siege, the place human beings, in quest of their most simple desires – meals, warmth, pleasure, intercourse, and effectively being – reveal their ingenuity, adaptability, and resilience inside the face of adversity,” the synopsis runs.
Chronicles From the Siege
“Laundry,” (Zamo Mkhwanazi, Switzerland, South Africa)
Set in South Africa in 1968 and primarily based totally on Mkhwanazi’s family historic previous, in “Laundry” Khutala hesitates between his dream of a occupation in music and saving the family laundry concern as an apartheid authorities cracks down on Black enterprise possession. The attribute debut of revered fast film director Mkhwanazi, produced by Akka Films, which has moved from doc choices to fiction, paying homage to Un Positive Regard participant “The Shameless,” and South Africa’s Kude Media, behind “Sadla.”
“Throughout the Shadows of Good Fortune,” (Babatunde Apalowo, Nigeria)
A dramatic drama and look at of family dynamics as mom and father react to their daughter’s evaluation of a life-threatening illness from a writer-director renown for his psychological observance. Produced by Nigeria’s Polymath Pictures and The Make It Happen Manufacturing.
“It’s a Sad and Beautiful World,” (Cyril Aris, Lebanon)
The first fiction attribute from Lebanon’s Cyril Aris whose latest doc-feature, 2023’s “Dancing on the Fringe of Volcano,” gained a Karlovy Differ specific jury level out. A romcom set in a Lebanon assailed by monetary catastrophe, “two star-crossed lovers, one an eternal optimist and the alternative an impulsive pragmatist, ought to resolve within the occasion that they want to assemble a family and chart a monitor to happiness,” says one synopsis. Produced by a sturdy combination of legendary Lebanese producer Georges Schoucair at Abbout Productions (“Zama”), U.S.-based Selection Lease, behind Un Positive Regard winner “Joyland,” and Germany’s Reynard Films.
“As quickly as Upon a Time in Gaza,” (Tarzan and Arab Nasser, Palestine)
Described by one co-production companion, Kometa Films, as a revenge drama set as Hamas tightens its administration on Gaza. Yahia models out to avenge the brutal murder of Ossama, his buddy. A gathering alongside together with his killer “modifications each half,” however. Lead produced by France’s Les Films du Tambour.
Atlas Film Showcase
“El Sett,” (Marwan Hamed, Egypt)
An unlimited interval bio that features star Mona Zaki as iconic Egyptian songstress Umm Kulthum who from the late Nineteen Twenties turned the first distinguished Arab singer to disseminate her work to the loads by means of the model new utilized sciences of the situations: radio, the phonograph, cinema and television. Producing are Egypt’s Synergy Films, Film Sq., Film Clinic, Luxor Studios and Oscar Studios.
