Sanad helps showcase Arab talent at Venice film festival

Merzak Allouache, director of Madame Courage. Courtesy twofour54

Sanad, the film development and post-production fund of twofour54, will have a strong presence at the Venice Film festival this year.

Two of its films, Madame Courage by Merzak Allouache and Leyla Bouzid’s As I Open My Eyes, will be premiered at the festival. Madame Courage, in the Orizzonti Competition, is about a drug-addicted teenager who goes on a crime spree in Algeria.

It is Allouache’s first film since The Rooftops won the Variety Middle East Filmmaker of the Year award at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival in 2013.

As I Opened My Eyes will play in the Venice Days category. Set in Tunis in the summer of 2010, a few months before the revolution, Bouzid’s tale focuses on Farah, an 18-year-old graduate who sings in a political rock band, much to the chagrin of her mother.

Sanad is also collaborating with Final Cut in Venice, a two-day workshop supporting films from the Middle East and North Africa, where work-in-progress versions of movies are shown to producers, distributors and festival heads. The winning film will receive a cash prize of €10,000 (Dh40,439).

Of the 50 films submitted, six projects were selected to participate: Ali, the Goat and Ibrahim by Sherif Elbendary (Egypt); House in the Fields by Tala Hadid (Morocco); Path of Paradise by Atia Al Daradji (Iraq); Roosters of Beirut by Ziad Kalthoum (Syria); Separation by Hakar Abdulqadir (Iraq); and Zaineb Hates the Snow by Kaouther Ben Hania (Tunisia). “Arab films and filmmakers are making strong strides towards international recognition; not only are they being featured and screened at various film festivals, they are also competing and winning prominent accolades,” says Sanad director Ali Al Jabri.

“Our partnership with the Final Cut in Venice workshop will provide Arab filmmakers with another level of support and exposure internationally.”

• Final Cut at Venice is on September 7 and 8 during the Venice Film Market. The 72nd Venice International Film Festival runs from September 2 to 12