release date June 13 2023
Firas Khoury's ALAM to commercially release at Zawya Cinema
After a successful run during the recently concluded sixth edition of Cairo Cinema Days, Firas Khoury's award-winning and highly acclaimed feature film, ALAM, is set to release commercially at Cairo's Zawya Cinema on Wednesday, June 14th.
Written and directed by Firas Khoury, ALAM — starring Mahmood Bakri, Sereen Khass, Saleh Bakri, Mohammad Karaki, Ahmad Zaghmouri, and Muhammad Abed Elrahman — follows the story of a Palestinian teenager named Tamer.
Tamer and his friends lead typical teenage lives until one day, he is swept off his feet by the arrival of the beautiful Maysaa. As he grows closer to her, Tamer agrees to take part in a mysterious and life-changing operation dubbed ‘Alam.’
Here are the screening times for ALAM for the coming week:
- Wednesday, June 14th at 1 pm and 7 pm
- Thursday, June 15th at 4 pm and 9:30 pm
- Friday, June 16th at 4 pm
- Saturday, June 17th at 1 pm and 7 pm
- Sunday, June 18th at 4 pm and 9:30 pm
- Monday, June 19th at 1 pm
- Tuesday, June 20th at 4 pm and 9:30 pm
Most recently, ALAM took home the Best Debut Feature Film Award at the 2023 Tetouan Mediterranean Film Festival, raising its tally of international awards to seven. Other prestigious awards for the film include the Young Jury Award at the Brussels’ Cinemamed Festival and the Best Asian Film Award at the 27th International Film Festival of Kerala, where its director Firas Khoury also received the Rajata Chakoram for Best Debut Director.
ALAM held its Arab world premiere at the 2022 Cairo International Film Festival, where it triumphed with flying colors, winning three awards at the festival’s closing, including the Golden Pyramid Award — the festival's top accolade for outstanding films in the international competition — the Best Actor Award for Palestinian actor Mahmood Bakri, and Youssef Cherif Rizkallah's Audience Award.
Moreover, it was featured in the Festival Favorites category of the 2022 Red Sea International Film Festival edition, held its world premiere at the 47th edition of the Toronto International Film Festival's Contemporary World Cinema Category, and screened at the Rome Film Festival.
Throughout its festival run, the film garnered widespread acclaim, with Variety's Alissa Simon saying: "Khoury’s convincing and engaging screenplay perfectly captures teenage fearlessness and bravado, along with a certain cluelessness about how the real world works." Meanwhile, Screen Daily’s Fionnuala Halligan described it as "a coming-of-age drama which hews to the conventions, Alam nonetheless offers a fresh perspective."
ALAM, which is co-distributed by MAD Solutions and Lagoonie Film Production across the Arab world, received a grant from the Doha Film Institute and a $20,000 script development grant from the Abu Dhabi Film Festival's SANAD Fund.
It was also chosen to participate in the Cinéfondation Workshop at the 2017 edition of the Cannes Film Festival and the 2019 Venice GAP-Financing Market; received a $10,000 grant from Cairo Film Connection — the CIFF's Co-Production Market — and was featured at the Atlas Workshops of the Marrakech International Film Festival.
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