EXCLUSIVE: MAD World, the movie gross sales arm of Cairo-based MAD Solutions, has acquired international rights to Lebanese director Sarah Francis’ tense couple drama Dead Dog forward of its premiere within the Rotterdam Movie Pageant’s Harbor modern cinema strand.
Written and directed by Francis, the film explores the non permanent reunification of Aida with husband Walid who returns to their house in Lebanon after a few years working overseas.
An emotional gulf has developed throughout his absence and the encounter is uneasy, as every tries to know the opposite. A revelation about their beloved canine Pluto solely serves to deepen the chasm.
Chirine Karameh, a longtime theatre performer and actress, co-stars reverse Nida Wakim, who starred in final yr’s award-winning Lebanese thriller Zaman Darkish by Christophe Karabache.
MAD Options co-founders Alaa Karkouti and Maher Diab mentioned that they had been drawn to the drama for its exploration of the influence on households of its members residing aside to make ends meet.
“It’s an all-too-common observe within the Center East, one which has been identified to trigger a lot pressure when these households inevitably reunite, whether or not in a short-term context like a trip or a long-term one like everlasting resettlement,” they mentioned.
“And but, it’s not usually that we see movies exploring the subject in-depth; if something, it’s often talked about in a throw-away remark, by no means to be addressed once more… So, when an completed director like Sarah Francis got here to us with a movie that lastly tackles this intriguing Arab social phenomenon, we couldn’t resist.”
Useless Canine is Beirut-born filmmaker Francis’s third function movie after documentary Birds of September (2013), which premiered in the primary competitors of CPH:DOX, and Above So Beneath, which premiered on the seventieth Berlin Worldwide Movie Pageant as a part of the Discussion board sidebar.
The film is produced by Lara Abou Saifan at Beirut-based Placeless Movies (Valley of Exile, The Jacket) and Francis, and co-produced by Marine Vaillant of French firm Dewberries Movies (Les Chenilles, Someplace in Between) with Niam Itani, Carole Mezher and Mary Jirmanus Saba as affiliate producers.
“We’re actually thrilled to rejoice the Useless Canine world premiere at Rotterdam alongside a wealthy collection of progressive works and a particular group of movie lovers; we couldn’t have hoped for a greater place to start out this journey!” mentioned Francis and producer Saifan.
“We actually stay up for collaborating with MAD Options. With their understanding of the movie market, they’ll play a necessary position in broadening the movie’s outreach, carrying it into the world, and bringing it to screens all over the place.”
Useless Canine provides to a rising slate of MAD World and MAD Distribution titles which can be premiering at main upcoming worldwide movie festivals together with subsequent month’s Berlinale together with the just lately introduced acquisitions of The Settlement and Têtes Brûlées.
The film was shot in Lebanon following a Inexperienced Shoot Protocol, with key crew together with Valley of Exile cinematographer Mark Khalife, editor Zeina Aboul-Hosn (Birds of September), and a rating by Rabih Gebeile and sound design by Victor Bresse (Souad, In The Final Days of the Metropolis).
It was developed with the assist of a variety of labs, movie funds and co-financing conferences spanning the Doha Movie Institute, OIF Fond Picture de la Francophonie, the Crimson Sea Fund, the Aflamuna Connection, Qumra, Cinephilia Cannes Sure and the Jordanian Royal Movie Fee’s Rawi Screenwriter’s Lab. It additionally gained the El Gouna Movie Pageant’s CineGouna Platform Award on the Beirut Cinema Platform.
