Four of MAD Solutions' Short Films to Screen at the Reel Palestine in UAE

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The Parrot| Five Boys and A Wheel| Ayny| A Drowning Man

Four of MAD Solutions' Short Films to Screen at the Reel Palestine in UAE


MAD Solutions sends four short films from its distribution list to the Reel Palestine's annual film festival in UAE. The MAD films are The Parrot by directors Darin J. Sallam and Amjad Al-Rasheed, Five boys and A Wheel by director Said Zagha, Ayny by director Ahmed Saleh and A Drowning Man by director Mahdi Fleifel. The screenings of the MAD films will be held on Tuesday, the 23rd of January at 07:30 pm at Alserkal Avenue.

Reel Palestine's annual film festival will run from January 19th to 27th, 2018 in collaboration with Cinema Akil, across venues in Alserkal Avenue in Dubai, Sharjah Art Foundation in Sharjah and for the first time in Abu Dhabi at Warehouse 421 and Manarat Saadiyat. Reel Palestine is a pop-up film festival showing a selection of alternative Palestinian films in the UAE.

About The Parrot:
The Parrot tells the story of a Mizrahi Jewish family, who emigrate from Morocco, trying to settle into their new life in Haifa, Palestine in 1948. Directed by Darin J. Sallam and Amjad Al-Rasheed, the film stars Hend Sabry, Ashraf Barhoum, Yasmine Ben Amara, Eyad Hourani, Firas Taybeh, Lara Sawalha, and Ahmad Al-Madani, and written by Darin J. Sallam, Amjad Al-Rasheed, and Rifqi Assaf.

The Parrot had its world premiere at the 13th Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF) within the Muhr Short competition. The film is one of the film projects funded by the German Robert Bosch Stiftung Foundation, which funds the Best German-Arab film projects. The film received the 2015 Film Prize of RBS in the short fiction category. Recently, The Parrot won the Jury Award at the Malmö Arab Film Festival in Sweden. The film is a German/Jordanian co-production between the German company Monokel (Roman Roitman) and the Jordanian company TaleBox (Deema Azar).

About Five Boys and A Wheel:

Set in Jordan, a young father has to help his son out of a petty conflict with the neighbors. As the parents of each respective family are summoned to discuss the issue at hand, the discussions begin to quickly spin out of control, putting the values of the father to test.

Five Boys and A Wheel stars Ali Suliman, Nadira Omran, and Haydar Kfoof, and is produced by Akram Al-Ashqar, Ahmad Khatib and the film's director Said Zagha.

Five Boys and A Wheel is a Jordanian-Palestinian film by director Said Zagha based on American author Raymond Carver's short story 'Bicycles, Muscles, Cigarettes'. The filmwon the Golden Wahr Award at the Oran International Arabic Film Festival in Algeria and the Silver Palm award at the Mexico International Film Festival. The film landed its world premiere at the Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF) in its Muhr Short competition.

About Ayny:

Based on true events, Ayny follows two young boys who run away from their mother's protection and slack line on the danger of war to play music with the instrument they always dreamt to own.

Ayny is written, directed, edited and voiced by Ahmad Saleh, music by Nizar Rohana, animated by Frank Pingel, DOP Lionel Poutiaire Somé, and produced by Stefan Gieren. The film is a co-production between Germany, Jordan and Palestine.

Ayny won several awards including the Best of the Best award at the 8th Zayed University Middle East Film Festival (ZUMEFF) in Abu Dhabi, UAE, Best Third Movie - Film Competition from Outside Iraq at the2nd Qumrah International Film Festival in Iraq, Student Academy Award for Best Foreign Animation andthe main award (Amarji Alsumaria) at the 2nd Amarji International Film Festival for Short Films in Al Najaf, Iraq. The film landed its world premiere in the Muhr Short competition of the 13th Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF). Ayny was also screened at the Beirut Cinema Days, Sudan Independent Film Festival (SIFF), Animate. Ps (Palestine Animation Festival), ALFILM - Arab Film Festival Berlin, Ismailia International Film Festival for Documentaries and Shorts, Stuttgart Festival of Animated Film, International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, Festival Ciné-Palestine in Paris, Palm Springs International Shortfest in California, and most recently, the Arab Film Festival Australia.

About A Drowning Man:
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.

A Drowning Man was the only Arab participation in the Short Films Competition at the Cannes Film Festival, where it landed its world premiere. It also took part in the Short Cuts Competition at the Toronto International Film Festival, Melbourne International Film Festival, and Odense International Film Festival. A Drowning Man won the Silver Spike Award (Best Short Film) at the Valladolid International Film Festival and the Best Muhr Short Film Award at the Dubai International Film Festival.