The films will screen on May 3rd and 5th at the Gene Siskel Film Center.
The 22nd Chicago Palestine Film Festival, which runs from April 29 to May 14, will feature two films from MAD Solutions‘ distribution slate.
Alam by Firas Khoury and Hamza Al-Khatib’s short Samia have been selected to screen at the film festival.
Samia is about a young aspiring dancer who is diagnosed with cancer. After undergoing treatment, she begins the tough journey of mental and physical changes that cause her to withdraw from life and isolate herself, while her husband tries to bring her out of her isolation by supporting her and attempting to lift her spirits up with music.
Written and directed by Hamza Al-Khatib, Samia stars Hayat Abu Samra as Samia and Is’haq Elias as Samia’s husband, The film will be screened on Wednesday, May 3 at 6 PM at the Gene Siskel Film Center.
Alam will screen on Friday, May 5 at 8 pm at the same venue.
The film is written and directed by Firas Khoury, stars Mahmood Bakri, Sereen Khass, Saleh Bakri, Mohammad Karaki, Ahmad Zaghmouri, and Muhammad Abed Elrahman and follows Tamer and his friends, who lead typical teenage lives until one day, he is swept off his feet by the arrival of the beautiful Maysaa. As he grows closer to her, Tamer agrees to take part in a mysterious and life-changing operation dubbed ‘Alam.’
Alam had its Arab world premiere at the 2022 Cairo International Film Festival (CIFF), and took home three awards at the festival’s closing, those being the Golden Pyramid Award — the festival’s top accolade for outstanding films in the international competition — the Best Actor Award for Palestinian actor Mahmood Bakri, and Youssef Cherif Rizkallah’s Audience Award.
