EXCLUSIVE: Mad Distribution has taken Arab theatrical rights for Kaouther Ben Hania’s Gaza drama The Voice of Hind Hajab, which was introduced as Tunisia’s entry for the Finest Worldwide Function Movie class of the 98th Academy Awards on Thursday.
Paris-based The Get together Movie Gross sales is dealing with worldwide gross sales on the title, whereas CAA Media Finance represents North American rights.
The drama reconstructs the occasions surrounding the killing of six-year-old Hind Rajab, her 4 cousins, her aunt and uncle, and the 2 paramedics who got here to her rescue, after their automobile got here beneath fireplace as they tried to flee Gaza Metropolis in January, 2024.
The killings came about some three months into Israel’s ongoing army operation within the Gaza Strip, sparked by the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 terror assaults, which killed 1,200 and resulted in 251 being taken.
With the demise toll now standing at greater than 61,000 folks in Gaza, a lot of which has been razed to the bottom, whereas households of the hostages in Israel agonize over the destiny of their family members, The Voice of Hind Rajab is anticipated to be one of many extra explosive movies of the Venice’s 82nd version.
The movie is lead produced by Ben Hania’s long-time producer Nadim Cheikhrouha beneath his Mime Movies and Tanit Movies banners. Further producers are Odessa Rae at New York-based RaeFilm Studios and James Wilson at London-based Jw Movies Manufacturing.
Mad Distribution is an arm of Cairo-based advertising and marketing and distribution firm, which additionally oversees the Arab Cinema Centre stands at key markets and festivals.
The corporate is celebrating a pageant hat-trick beneath which it has attended the A-list festivals of Berlin, Cannes and Venice with three key titles.
Cotton Queen, My Father and his Qaddafi
Mad Options
Along with The Voice of Hind Rajab, Mad’s Venice slate additionally options Jihan Okay’s documentary My Father and Qaddafi, which world premieres Out of Competitors within the Official Choice, in addition to Suzannah Mirghani’s Cotton Queen, which debuts within the parallel Worldwide Critics’ Week part.
It’s dealing with gross sales on My Father and Qaddafi whereas it has MENA rights for Mirghani’s coming of age drama set in rural Sudan.
Previous to Venice, Mad Options was in Cannes with Erige Sehiri’s Un Sure Regard opening movie Promised Sky; Tarzan & Arab Nasser’s As soon as Upon A Time In Gaza, which received Finest director within the sidebar, in addition to Morad Mostafa’s Aisha Can’t Fly Away, which debuted in Critics’ Week. The corporate holds MENA rights on all three movies.
The Berlin trio spanned Ameer Fakhereldin’s Golden Bear contender Yunan, Mohamed Rashad’s office thriller The Settlement (Views); and Maja-Ajmia Yde Zellama’s Têtes Brûlées in Era 14plus.
“There’s a transparent demand for genuine tales that discover our aspect of the world – tales that transfer, provoke, inform, construct, deconstruct, shock and humanize,” commented the Mad Options co-founders Alaa Karkouti and Maher Diab.
“With the pan-Arab cinema business scaling ever new heights, creatively and commercially, it was solely a matter of time earlier than we hit this new milestone of three movies at every of the three most prestigious aggressive movie festivals. Arab tales are clearly resonating on the highest ranges of the leisure business and we’re immensely proud as an organization to be related to so many of those eye-opening movies and the extraordinary artists behind them.”
