Filmmakers From the Arab World Adapt to Get Projects Off the Ground in Times of Conflict: ‘You Can’t Just Stop Telling Stories’

variety.com:

Rafa Sales Ross Guest Contributor As conflicts escalate in the Middle East and North Africa, from Palestine to Yemen and Sudan, filmmakers have seen an increase in solidarity within the local creative community to find ways to continue to get films made in the region.

Still, producers and directors struggle to navigate an increasingly tense and politicized international scene and express concerns about the future of an industry that has experienced unforeseen growth within the last five years. “We are in the middle of a very scary situation right now and we don’t know when it will end,” said film producer Alaa Karkouti, CEO and co-founder of MAD Solutions, the Arab world’s most prolific distributor of Arabic film content. “There is the issue of local productions but any non-Arab productions will also look at the political situation before coming to the region.

This is the most pressing issue in the world right now.” Karkouti, who distributed Mohamed Kordofani’s “Goodbye, Julia,” mentioned how the drama — which became the first-ever Sudanese film to play as part of the Official Selection at the Cannes Film Festival in 2023 — opened the doors for Sudanese filmmakers, who then saw those doors firmly shut following the country’s civil war. “There were a lot of hot projects coming out of Sudan, and now it’s impossible to shoot in the country.” “I have said this many times and I believe in it: we are in the Golden Age of Arab film.

But it’s about stability,” Kakouti added. “Talent, budget and passion are all important, of course, but it doesn’t matter if you don’t have stability.” One of the most prominent producers in the region and the CEO of Film Clinic, Mohamed Hefzy told Variety he is currently working on a Sudanese.