Seven Films Distributed by MAD Solutions at the 2nd Manarat Mediterranean Film Festival in Tunisia

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The Healer |The Borrowed Dress|Taranta on the Road| Kilkis...The Town of Owls | Day for Women| Mare Nostrum| Fatwa

Seven Films Distributed by MAD Solutions at the 2nd Manarat Mediterranean Film Festival in Tunisia


Seven films distributed by MAD Solutions take part in the Manarat Mediterranean Film Festival in Tunisia that runs from 1 to 7 July. The Healer directed by Mohamed Zineddaine will screen within the Official Competition, while The Borrowed Dress directed by Leen Alfaisal will screen in the Interactive Cinema Section and the Italian Film Taranta on the Road by director Salvatore Allocca will screen in the Aspect Du Cinema Contemporain Italien.

On the other hand, A Day for Women by Kamla Abouzekri will screen within the Aspects of Modern Egyptian Cinema Section, Kilkis...The Town of Owls by Azalarabe Alaoui will screen in the Panorama Mediterranean along with Mare Nostrum by Rana Kazkaz and Anas Khalaf and Fatwa film by Mahmoud Ben Mahmoud.

Organized by the Centre National du Cinéma et de l'Image (CNCI) in cooperation with the French National Centre of Cinematography, the French Institute in Tunisia and the Arab Tunisian Bank, the festival aims to grant theTunisian audience the opportunity to explore films from Mediterranean countries.The festival includes a number of sections that screen 53 films from 12 countries.

About Healer:

On the outskirts of Khouribga, a mining town exploiting phosphates, a 16-year old teenager, Abdou, helpful and caring, simple and down to earth, incapable of harm, is anxious to regain the gift of human dignity through learning how to read and write. His adoptive mother Mbarka, a midwife, the neighborhood's healer, protects her privileged status with ways that the laws of obscurantism allow her. Ch'aayba, a thirty-year old guy, uncontrollable and ferociously cynical, is an eccentric pickpocket. Suffering from a skin disease, Abdou convinces him to come see Mbarka in order to get treatment for it: that's how the fate of these three will entangle, twirling on the carrousel of illusion.

Directed by Mohamed Zineddaine and written by Olivier Bombarda, the film stars Ahmed Moustafid, Fatima Atif, and Mehdi Laarroubi. MAD Solutions handles the film's distribution in the Arab world.

Screening Times:
Wednesday, 3 July, at 9:30 PM at El Hamra Cinema
Thursday, 5 July, at 9:30 PM at CinéMadart Cinema

About The Borrowed Dress:

Written and directed by Leen Alfaisal, The Borrowed Dress is produced by Sarah Hassan and Alaa Alassad (Creative Media Solutions). The film stars Siham Abu Nabbout, Doaa Al Zoabi and Saad Alkuwatly. The film is distributed in the Arab world by MAD Solutions.

Grandmother Susu (80 years old), her daughter Doaa (50 years old), and her grandchild Saad (16 years old) are forced to flee Syria after the beginning of the revolution to live in different scattered places, with the one thing left to share being their desire to reunite. The details of their personal stories and human experiences are microcosms of two stories: one of a population that has spread all over the world, and the other of a homeland that might have changed forever.

Screening Time:
Wednesday, 2 July, at 10:30 PM at Houmt El Souk Cinema

About Taranta on the Road:

The day after the Arab Spring of 2011, Amira and Tarek, two Tunisian migrants with nothing in common, reach the Italian coast. By chance, they find themselves both seeking help from a music band from Salen to in search of success around festivals and weddings. The band mistakes them as a couple that's going to have a child and they decide to help them to reach France. The trip, fear, love, the uncertain future and the desire to find their own way, join all in a unique experience that, perhaps, will change their lives forever.

The film won the Best Soundtrack award at the Cerase Film Festival in Italy. Directed by Salvatore Allocca, Taranta on the Road stars Nabiha Akkari, Helmi Dridi, Bianca Nappi and Emmanuele Aita. The film is distributed through the Arab world by MAD Solutions.

Screening Time:
Tuesday, 2 July, at 10:30 PM at Hamman Lif Beach
Wednesday, 3 July, at 10:30 PM at Khayr al-Dīn Beach

About Kilkis...The Town of Owls:

The film's events take place at the Town of Owls, an isolated residential community situated in the High Atlas Mountains. It is inhabited by families and guards of a secret political prison camp, which remained out of history for a long time until the early 1990s. The Town of Owls is in fact a titanic prison in which everyone, including guards and residents, are held as detainees.
Written and directed by Azalarabe Alaoui, Kilkis...The Town of Owls stars Med Rzin, Amin Ennaji, Hassan Badida, Kamal Elkademi and Asmae Srioui. MAD Solutions handles the film's distribution.

Screening Time:
Wednesday, 3 July, at 9:30 PM at Sfax Beach

About A Day for Women:

A Day for Women takes place in a shabby neighborhood in Egypt where a youth center decides to allocate one day on the swimming pool for women only. The film follows the consequences of this decision on the social, psychological and emotional life of the women living in that neighborhood.

A Day for Women brings together a cast and crew of outstanding women, as it is produced by Elham Shahin through her company Shahin Film, who also stars in the film, directed by Kamla Abouzekri, written by Hanaa Atiyah, DOP Nancy Abdel Fattah, and Costume Designer Inas Shahin. The film stars Nelly Karim, Nahed El Sebai, Hala Sedqi, Ragaa Hussein, Shaimaa Seif, along with Mahmoud Hemida, Farouk Al Fishawy, Ahmad Al Fishawy, Eyad Nassar and Ahmed Dawood. MAD Solutions handles the film's marketing and promotion in the Arab world.

Screening Time:
Wednesday, 3 July, at 9:30 PM at CinéMadart Cinema

About Fatwa:

The film tells the story of Brahim, a Tunisian guy living in France, who decides to go back to Tunisia to attend his son's funeral who passed away in a motorcycle accident. He then discovers that Marouane, his son, was militating with a radical Islamist group, so Brahim decides to identify the people who brainwashed his son until. The investigation leads him to doubt the circumstances surrounding his son's death.

Written and directed by Mahmoud Ben Mahmoud, Fatwa starsAhmed Hafiane, GhaliaBenali, and SarraHannachi. The film is produced by Arts Distribution (Tunisia) andLes Films du Fleuve (Belgium), and MAD Solutions is distributing the film through the Arab world.

Screening Time:
Tuesday, 2 July, at 9:30 PM at Ciné350 Cinema

About Mare Nostrum:

The film's events take place in 13 minutes on the shore of the Mediterranean, where a Syrian father and his little daughter flee the civil war in Syria, but the father makes a decision that could endanger his daughter's life. Directed by Rana Kazkaz and Anas Khalaf, and written by Kazkaz, Mare Nostrum stars Ziad Bakri and Zayn Khalaf. The film is a French Syrian Jordanian production. The film is distributed in the Arab world by MAD Solutions.

Screening Time:
Thursday, 4 July, at 10:30 PM at Houmt El Souk Cinema