BONBONE Wins the Best Short Film Award at the Elia Short Film Festival in Jerusalem

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The Seventh Award at International Film Festivals

BONBONE Wins the Best Short Film Award at the Elia Short Film Festival in Jerusalem


A few days ahead of is participation at the Lebanese Film Festival in Beirut, director Rakan Mayasi's short film BONBONÉ wins the Best Short Film Award at the Elia Short Film Festival in Jerusalem. The festival is organized by the We Have a Cinema initiative, in collaboration with cultural institutions and community centers that aim to revive the cultural scene in Jerusalem. The award marks the seventh one for the film at international film festivals.

Most recently, the short film won the Audience Award and the Jury Award for Best Short Film at the 4th Festival Ciné-Palestine (FCP) in Paris, France, the Best Short Film Award at the 16th Festival Internacional de Cine de Almería (FICAL) in Spain, the Best Short Film Award at the Moscow International Film Festival in Russia, and the Golden Egg Award for Best Short Film at the Küstendorf Film & Music Festival in Serbia. BONBONÉ landed its world premiere at the 42nd Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) and took part in the Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF), New York Film Festival in USA, Cork Film Festival in Ireland, and Stockholm International Film Festival in Sweden.

In less than 16 minutes, BONBONÉ follows a Palestinian inmate serving time in an Israeli jail receives a visit from his wife who devises a bold and crafty operation to fulfill their secret desires.

Written and directed by Rakan Mayasi, BONBONÉ stars Saleh Bakri, Rana Alamuddin and features Nadira Omran. BONBONÉ is produced by Groundglass235 in co-production with The Postoffice and Mad4Films, and in association with db Studios. MAD Solutions is responsible for the film's distribution across the Arab world and Salaud Morisset is responsible for the international sales.

Rakan Mayasi is a Palestinian filmmaker who was born in Germany, raised in Jordan, and currently based in Lebanon. He studied filmmaking in Lebanon and then received intense film training with Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami at the Asian Film Academyin South Korea. Mayasi practiced writing and directing in Serbia, Germany, Morocco, and Egypt. In addition to BONBONÉ, he has written and directed the two short films Sea Sonata and, Roubama which screened at the Locarno Film Festival in 2012. Mayasi is currently working on his debut feature film that is based on three different stories.