Ely Dagher: Last News

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentSaudi Arabia’s nascent Red Sea International Film Festival has revealed 14 Arabic feature films selected to receive production and post-production funding from its Red Sea Fund.The announcement was made at the Venice Film Festival where the Red Sea festival and Saudi Arabia’s fledgling film industry have a substantial presence.Among the beneficiaries of the fund are Jordanian writer and director Darin J. Sallam’s Toronto Film Festival-bound “Farha,” the story of 14-year-old girl Farha in Palestine in 1948, who watches from a locked pantry as catastrophe consumes her home, and Lebanese director Ely Dagher’s “The Sea Ahead,” that recently launched from the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight.

Lise Pedersen “Harvest” (“Jana”) by Lebanese artist and filmmaker Ely Dagher is one of six films from Africa and the Middle East selected for the Final Cut section in Venice Film Festival industry event, Venice Production Bridge.The film’s producers at France’s indie outfit Andolfi are hoping to pick up prizes in Venice, in kind or in cash, that will allow them to fill their funding gap and wrap up post-production by the end of the year, with the goal of returning to Cannes in 2021.Dagher won best short in Cannes back in 2015 with his animation “Waves98,” the lyrical tale of a disillusioned young man in late 90s Beirut, which went on to win several awards on the festival circuit.“Harvest” tells the story of Jana, a 26-year-old woman who