The picture, which is sold internationally by MPM Premium, was acquired by Film Movement for North America earlier this year.
Palestinian filmmaker Firas Khoury’s feature film Alam has won the Golden Pyramid Award for Best Film, Best Actor for Mahmoud Bakri and the Audience Award at the 44th edition of the Cairo International Film Festival (CIFF).
Written and directed by Firas Khoury and starring Mahmood Bakri, Sereen Khass, Saleh Bakri, Mohammad Karaki, Ahmad Zaghmouri, and Muhammad Abed Elrahman, Alam follows the story of a Palestinian teenager named Tamer.
Alam follows a Palestinian-Israeli teen who undergoes a political awakening sparked by a pretty, outspoken girl from his high school class, who spurs him to join a group of classmates in a risky flag operation on the eve of Israel’s Independence Day. Lead actor Mahmoud Bakri won a share of top acting honours for his performance, along with Maher Elkheir, the star of Ali Cherri’s Cannes Directors’ Fortnight player The Dam.
The film is produced by MPM Film, Paprika Films, Philistine Films, Red Sea Film Festival Foundation, Metafora Productions and Lacydon Bay Productions.
MAD Solutions and Lagoonie Film Production are handling the distribution of Alam across the Arab world.
Alam held its world premiere at the 47th edition of the Toronto International Film Festival’s Contemporary World Cinema category, after which, it featured in the Rome Film Festival.
In the regionally focused Horizons of New Arab Cinema Competition Awards, Best Arabic Film went to Mother Valley by Lebanese director Carlos Chahine.
In another win for Lebanon, Bassem Breche’s Riverbed clinched the Special Jury Award.
Egyptian documentarian Sherief Elkatsha won Best Non-Fiction Award for Far From The Nile, following the U.S. tour of 12 musicians hailing from different countries along the Nile River basin.
There were also Special Mentions for Tunisian filmmaker Yassine Redissi’s documentary I’m Coming Home and French-Algerian director Mounia Meddour’s Houria, starring Lyna Khoudri as an aspiring dancer whose career is cut short by a violent attack.
