Alana Hadid’s Watermelon Pictures Takes North America For Gaza Director Mohamed Jabaly’s Doc ‘Life Is Beautiful’
deadline.comEXCLUSIVE: Watermelon Pictures has acquired North American distribution rights for Palestinian director Mohamed Jabaly’s documentary Life Is Beautiful about his experiences after he became stranded in Norway in 2014 when Gaza’s borders were shut indefinitely.
The distribution agreement, which includes all North American theatrical and ancillary rights, was negotiated in Cannes by Munir Atalla, head of Production and Acquisitionat Watermelon Pictures and Esther van Messel of First Hand Films.
Jabaly was attending a film festival in Tromsø in 2014, when the borders to Gaza closed. Little did he know that it would be seven years before he could see his family again.
While waiting for the situation to change, Mohamed’s friends back home tell him to seek asylum or get married to stay in Norway.
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