A Drowning Man Receives a Special Mention at the Ismailia International Film Festival for Documentaries and Shorts

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A BAFTA Award Nominee and Winner of Six International Awards

A Drowning Man Receives a Special Mention at the Ismailia International Film Festival for Documentaries and Shorts


The short film A Drowning Man by director Mahdi Fleifel received a Special Mention at the 20th Ismailia International Film Festival for Documentaries and Shorts aftercompeting in the Short Film Competition. A few days ago, the film was selected screen at the Cairo Cinema Days.

A Drowning Man was nominated fora BAFTA Award for Best British Short Film. The film is a co-production between Denmark, UK and Greece. Alone and far from home, The Kid makes his way through a strange city looking for the means to get through his day. Surrounded by predators he is forced to make compromises merely to survive, his life of exile grows one day longer.

Written and directed by Mahdi Fleifel, A Drowning Man stars Atef Alshafei, Jalal Qaniry, Mounir Alkhateeb, Rebih El-Saleous and Thymios Koukios. The film is produced by Final Cut for Real, Nakba Film Works, and distributed by MAD Solutions in the Arab world, while Salaud Morisset is handling the film's world sales.

A Drowning Man won the Best Muhr Short Film award at the Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF), where it landed its Arab world premiere within the Muhr Short competition. The film made its world premiere at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival as the only Arab participation in the Short Films competition. A Drowning Man alsotook part in the Toronto International Film Festival, within the Short Cuts competition, Melbourne International Film Festival, Odense International Film Festival and the Valladolid International Film Festival in Spain, where it won the Silver Spike award for Best Short Film.