The Journey to be Commercially Released in Jordan and UAE Starting November 8

Back to Press Releases

Iraq's Official Submission for the Oscars

The Journey to be Commercially Released in Jordan and UAE Starting November 8


The film The Journey, which has recently screened for 4 weeks in Beirut, Lebanon, made a long round of commercial screenings at Arab and international festivals. Because of the great success that the film achieved among audiences previously, the film's director Mohamed Al Daradji's will start two new screenings in the Arab world in Jordan and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) starting from November 8.

The film will be presented in the UAE at Roxy Cinemas at City Walk, Dubai, for the second time after its world premiere at the Dubai International Film Festival. At the same time, the film will be released in Jordan at Grand Cinemas, City Mall, and Prime Cinemas, Baraka Mall, for the second time as it had been presented before at the Franco Arab Film Festival, Jordan. The film's Director Mohamed Al Daradji will attend the screening in Jordan.

This comes a few days after the film won the Best Director award and Best Actress award to its lead Zahraa Ghandour at the Malmö Arab Film Festival in Sweden. The film participated in the 5th Palestine Cinema Days.

Iraq's Ministry of Culture selected The Journey to be its official submission to the 2019 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. The film received a Special Mention at the Oran Arabic International Film Festival in Algeria, and before that, it landed its Jordanian premiere at the 24th Franco Arab Film Festival. The film won the Jury Award and Best Actress Award at the Muscat International Film Festival, in addition to the Special Jury Award at its Egyptian premiere at the Sharm El-Sheikh Film Festival, and the Grand Prize of the Arab World Institute to director Mohamed Al Daradji and Best Actress Award to Zahraa Ghandour at the Festival des Cinémas Arabes à Paris in France.

Set in Baghdad in 2006. As Sara stands on the cusp of committing an unthinkable act, an unforeseen and awkward encounter gives her the opportunity to witness the potential consequences of her destructive action. But is this a second chance or an admission of guilt?

The Journey screened at more than 10 international festivals all over the world. It landed its Arab world premiere at the 14th Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF), within the Muhr Feature competition, competed in the official competitions of the BFI London Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and the Busan International Film Festival, and made its US premiere at the Miami Film Festival. The Journey also screened at the Cairo Cinema Days in Egypt.

Directed by Mohamed Al Daradji, who co-wrote the film with Isabelle Stead, The Journey stars Zahraa Ghandour and Ameer Jbara. The film is produced by Human Film, Iraqi Independent Film Center (IIFC), in cooperation with Lionceau Films, Iraq Al-Rafidain and Iraqi Media Network. The Journey received grants from the Doha Film Institute, AFAC - The Arab Fund for Arts and Culture, World Cinema Fund (WCF), the Centre National du Cinéma et de l'image Animée (CNC) of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Development, Institut Français, Netherlands Film Fund, SANAD Development Fund (Abu Dhabi Film Festival) and Screen Yorkshire. The film is distributed in the Arab world by MAD Solutions.