The Tower Commercially Releases at Prime Cinemas in Jordan for a Week

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Winner of Seven International Awards

The Tower Commercially Releases at Prime Cinemas in Jordan for a Week


Animated film The Tower by director Mats Grorud will commercially release in Jordan for a week, starting Wednesday, July 4, at Prime Cinemas. This comes as part of the partnership between MAD Solutions and Arab Media Network.

Last month, the film screened at a number of camps in Palestine and Lebanon, in addition to taking part in the Franco Arab Film Festival in Jordan. This comes following a string of successful screenings and participations, the latest of which was the film's commercial release in Tunisia.

The film received huge international critical acclaim as Writer/Producer Jordan Mintzer wrote in The Hollywood Reporter that the film is "filled with moments of bittersweet humor and shreds of hope."

Most recently, The Tower received the Liv Ullmann Peace Prize and the Professional Jury: 2nd Prize for Best Animated Feature Film at the Chicago International Children's Film Festival.

Most recently, The Tower received seven awards from prestigious international film festivals including; the Liv Ullmann Peace Prize and the Professional Jury: 2nd Prize for Best Animated Feature Film at the Chicago International Children's Film Festival; the Jury Special Award and the Best Soundtrack Award at the Lisbonne Monstra Lisboa Animation Festival; the Jury Award at the Festival International du Film d'Histoire de Pessac; the Secondary School Students Prize at the Festival International des Arts Jeune Public; and Best Editing at the Kosmorama Trondheim International Film Festival. The film was nominated for two AMANDA awards in Norway presented by the Norwegian International Film Festival and the Norwegian Film Institute.

The film took part in different film festivals, including the Cairo International Film Festival, Marrakech International Film Festival, London Palestine Film Festival, Palestine Cinema Days, Annecy International Animated Film in France, Arab Film Festival in Famac, France, Busan International Film Festival, Helsinki International Film Festival, and European Film Festival in Ishbilia. The film screened at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The film took part in Cairo Cinema Days, San Sebastian Human Rights Film Festival in Spain, and the Metropolis Youth Film Festival in Lebanon.

Written and directed by Mats Grorud, The Tower features the voices of Laila Najjar, Makram J. Khoury, Mohamed Bakri, Mouna Hawwa, Morad Hassan, Hanan Hilow, Saleh Bakri, and Shaden Kanboura. The crew also includes Ahlam Canaan; the Director of Arabic Dubbing, Sound Engineer and Adaptation; who is also handling the Casting in Palestine alongside Salim Abu Jabal. The film is a French- Swedish-Norwegian co-production that is distributed in the Arab world by MAD Solutions.

The film follows Wardi, an eleven-year-old Palestinian girl, who lives with her whole family in the refugee camp where she was born. She learns about her family's history through stories told to her by three earlier generations of refugees.

Mats Grorud is a Norwegian director and animator who studied Animation at Volda University College. He complimented his animation career with studies in Denmark, Beirut and Beijing. Mats directed the short films Santa Klaus and My Grandmother Beijing, in addition to animation films Kaja Polmar (2006) and Piotr Sapegin's Grandpais a raisin (2006).

Today, Mats runs his own company called Nubbsjangs Productions, where he develops his own projects, does commissioned work and teaches animation. He has also worked on several documentary projects. In 2007, Grorud started working on his debut feature animated film, The Tower, along with producer Frank Søbstad at Tenk.tv.