Screening of BONBONE at the Reel Palestine's Annual Film Festival in UAE

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Winner of More Than Ten International Awards

Screening of BONBONE at the Reel Palestine's Annual Film Festival in UAE


Director Rakan Mayasi's short film BONBONÉ will participate in the 5th Reel Palestine's annual film festival in the UAE (18 - 26 January). The screening of the film will be held on Thursday, January 24, at 09:30 pm (GMT +4), within the Palestinian Short Films Programme.

Reel Palestine is an annual film festival showing a selection of alternative Palestinian films in the UAE at Warehouse 421 in Abu Dhabi and Cinema Akil, the independent cinema platform that brings quality films from across the world to audiences in the UAE.

Most recently, BONBONÉ won the Best Short Film Award at the Elia Short Film Festival, in addition to the Best Director Award within the North Carolina Awards in USA and the Best Film and Best Script Awards at the Bajo la Luna International Film Festival in Spain, the two Jury and Audience Awards for the Best Short Film at the 4th edition of the Palestinian Film Festival in Paris.

BONBONÉ won the Best Short Film Award at the 16th Festival Internacional de Cine de Almería (FICAL) in Spain, Best Short Film Awards 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, Stockholm International Film Festival in Sweden, Malmö Arab Film Festival in Sweden (MAFF), Arab Film Festival Zurich, and Bristol Palestine Film Festival.

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 SalehBakri, 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 Academy in 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.