'The Tower' Screens at the Franco-Arab Film Festival in Baghdad

release date March 13 2022

The animation film, ‘The Tower,’ directed by Mats Grorud, will be screened at the Franco-Arab Film Festival, which will be held in the Iraqi capital Baghdad. The screening will take place on Saturday 12 March at 2 pm (GMT +3) in Dream City Mall Cinema in Baghdad.

The film has garnered several accolades in international film festivals, including two awards from Chicago International Children's Film Festival, which are the Liv Ullmann Peace Prize and the Professional Jury: 2nd Prize for Best Animated Feature Film. Moreover, it won two awards at Lisbonne Monstra Lisboa Animation Festival, which are Best Soundtrack Award and the Jury Special Award. The film received 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 in Trondheim in Norway. Furthermore, it was nominated for two AMANDA awards in Norway presented by the Norwegian International Film Festival and the Norwegian Film Institute.

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

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. The film is a French- Swedish-Norwegian co-production that is distributed in the Arab world by MAD Solutions.

Mats Grorud is a Norwegian director and animator who studied animation at Volda University Colleg, then he pursued his studies in Denmark, Beirut, and Beijing. His credits include several shorts such as ‘Santa Clause,’ ‘My Grandmother Beijing,’ as well as other animation films including ‘Kaja Polmar,’ and ‘Piotr Sapegin's Grandpa is a raisin,’ in 2006.

Mats now runs his own production firm, 'Nubbsjangs Productions,' where he works on his own projects and teaches animation. Besides, he worked on several documentaries. In 2007, Grorud started working on ‘The Tower,’ as his first animated feature film alongside the producer Frode Søbstad and Tenk.tv