Soula Wins Golden Award for Best Feature Film at International Oriental Film Festival of Geneva

release date June 21 2022

Algerian film Soula, by Salah Issaad, continues to make its mark on the international festival circuit and wins Golden award for Best Feature Film at International Oriental Film Festival of Geneva. This is the fifth award in the film’s festival tour that started at the Red Sea International Film Festival (world premiere). Also, at International Film Festival of Geneva, the leading actress Soula Bahri received a Special Mention.

The jury unanimously decided to award Soula for the structure of its screenplay, the development of the characters, the authenticity of the dialogue, the coherence between the elements and the director’s ability to shoot a whole life in one night. All this contributed to conveying a strong and credible human message.

During last month, Soula was commercially released in 7 Moroccan cities. Previously, it was released in Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and Algeria and was awarded Best Feature Film and Best Actress (Soula Bahri) at Malmo Arab Film Festival in Sweden. Furthermore, film Soula nabbed Best Film at Beirut International Women Film Festival and Best Film at African Asian Latin Amercian Film Festival in Milan.

The film was previously screened at several Arab film festivals, including Red Sea International Film Festival (World premiere). Additionally, it earned widespread critical acclaim, with film critic Tarek El Shinnawi calling it as “a woman's cry out, and the performance of the leading actress, Soula Bahri, was striking.”

Soula is the story of a single mother whose father expelled her, leaving her homeless with her baby. Soula finds herself going from one car to another with other people while looking for a safe location to stay the night. Throughout a night full of unfortunate events along the roads of Algeria, Soula tries her best to change her destiny, but fate has another saying.

Written, directed, and produced by Salah Issaad, Soula is co-written by Soula Bahri, whose life story inspired the director to turn it into a film and let Soula play the lead role. The film is produced by Issaad Film Productions (the three brothers Taqi Eldin, Abdelghafour, and Salah Issaad). The film starring Soula Bahri, Idir Benaibouche, and Franck Yvrai. MAD Solutions handles the film’s marketing and distribution in the Arab world.

Salah Issaad is an Algerian director who was raised in a family of publishers. After receiving a bachelor's degree (High school degree) in Letters and Foreign languages in 2008, he joined the Law school of Batna in Algeria. He moved to France to complete his film studies for two years at the University of Paris VIII. Afterward, he joined the ARFIS audiovisual school in Lyon, then he ended up joining the Factory School in Villeurbanne, where he obtained his Cinema director diploma.

Salah directed a feature film and several short films, where his passion motivates him to tell stories that appreciate human relationships. Moreover, he likes to explore different narrative forms and film genres like drama, tragedy, stories inspired by real events, as well as comedies.