MAD Solutions Screens Three Short Films at the Boston Palestine Film Festival

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Five Boys and A Wheel | Ayny | The Parrot

MAD Solutions Screens Three Short Films at the Boston Palestine Film Festival


Three short films distributed by MAD Solutions are going to be screened at the Boston Palestine Film Festival (October 20-29, 2017). The films are: Five Boys and A Wheel by Said Zagha, Ayny by Ahmad Saleh, and The Parrot by Darin J. Sallam and Amjad Al Rasheed that was selected as the closing film of the festival.

The Boston Palestine Film Festival (BPFF) brings Palestine-related cinema, narratives, and culture to New England audiences.

About Five Boys and A Wheel:

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

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.

The film received support from the Royal Film Commission - Jordan (RFC). Five Boys and A Wheel stars Ali Suliman, Nadira Omran, Haydar Kfoof, and is produced by Akram Al-Ashqar, Ahmad Khatib and director Said Zagha. MAD Solutions is handling the film's distribution across the Arab world.

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. The film is written, directed, edited and voiced by Ahmad Saleh, music by Nizar Rohana, animated by Frank Pingel, DOP Lionel Poutiaire Somé, produced by Stefan Gieren, and its Arab world distribution is handled by MAD Solutions. 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 the 2nd Qumrah International Film Festival in Iraq, Student Academy Award for Best Foreign Animation and the main award (Amarji Alsumaria) at the 2nd Amarji International Film Festival For Short Films in Al Najaf, Iraq. The film made 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 The Parrot:
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). The film is distributed in the Arab world by MAD Solutions.

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 (Jordan), the film stars Hend Sabry, Ashraf Barhoum, Yasmine Ben Amara, Eyad Hourani, Firas Taybeh, Lara Sawalha, and Ahmad Al-Madani, and written by Amjad Al Rasheed, Darin J. Sallam, and Rifqi Assaf.