'Huda's Salon' is written and directed by Hany Abu-Assad and stars Ali Suliman, Manal Awad, and Maisa Abd Elhadi.
Huda’s Salon by Palestinian director Hany Abu-Assad will open the 13th edition of the Middle East Now Festival, which will run from October 4 – 9 in Florence, Italy.
The screening will be on Tuesday, October 4, at 9 PM (GMT+2) Florence time.
Huda’s Salon was screened at Tetouan Mediterranean Film Festival where it received a Special Jury Prize, Beirut International Women Film Festival, where it received a Special Jury Mention, and it opened Reel Palestine Film Festival. The film landed its Arab world premiere at the Red Sea International Film Festival, Saudi. The film’s lead actress, Maisa Abd Elhadi, won Best Actress at Critics’ Awards for Arab Films presented by Arab Cinema Centre.
Internationally, Huda’s Salon was screened in several US cinemas and joined ANA Contemporary Arab Cinema Festival in the USA. It also landed its world premiere at Toronto International Film Festival, Nashville Film Festival in the US and Valladolid International Film Festival in Spain.
Based on real events, Huda’s Salon is a heart-racing, entertaining feminist thriller, where two women fight for their freedom. Reem, a young mother who is married to a jealous man, goes to Huda’s salon in Bethlehem for a haircut and an attentive ear. However, this ordinary visit turns sour after Huda puts Reem in a shameful situation, and blackmails her to work for the secret service of the occupiers, hence betraying her people.
Written and directed by Hany Abu-Assad, Huda’s Salon stars Ali Suliman, Manal Awad and Maisa Abd Elhadi. The film is produced by H&A Production (Hany Abu-Assad and Amira Diab), Film Clinic (Mohamed Hefzy) and co-produced by Mad Solutions (Maher Diab and Alaa Karkouti), and Lagoonie Film Production (Shahinaz El Akkad), while Daniel Ziskind of Film Clinic is the film’s co-producer. The film is also co-produced by Key Films, Cocoon and Philistine Films. Memento International handles worldwide distribution, while Mad Solutions and Lagoonie Film Production handle the film’s distribution across the Arab world.
Hany Abu-Assad’s filmography includes several Arab films that gained international recognition, such as Paradise Now (2005), which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and won a Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film, and Omar (2013) received a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. In 2017, Abu-Assad directed The Mountain Between Us, starring Kate Winslet and Idris Elba, which opened the 39th edition of the Cairo International Film Festival (CIFF).
