Iraqi director Hakar Abdel kader's documentary film Separation wins the MAD Solutions award within the 3rd Final Cut in Venice workshop, held within the Venice Film Festival, which is acquiring the company's distribution and promotional services in the Arab world.

On the winning film, Alaa Karkouti, CEO of MAD Solutions, comments, "The documentary film Separation has a strong perspective of the suffering of the Yazidi Kurdish families in Iraq. The film lives through the suffering and projects it in an honest human way, so it is important and essential for the Arab audience to have an opportunity to watch this project."

Separation tells the story of thousands of Yazidi Kurds who fled their village of Sinjar in Iraq which is under the siege of ISIS militants. They find find themselves without food or water at the top of Sinjar Mountain. Faced with no other choice, three men leave to seek sustenance for their families, unaware that an almost safe passage to Kurdistan has been recently opened. Destiny has thus separated these men from their loved ones. The documentary reveals the story of their wives and children who, having reached the refugee camp, remain anxiously awaiting news of their husbands, while at the same time learning to adapt to life in a new setting.

Separation competed with 4 other films selected from among 50 films that applied for participation in the workshop which offers support for Arab and African films over the course of two days. The films were selected after being reviewed by a group of producers, distributers and festival managers. The workshop concludes with an award ceremony to honor the winning films that will be supported through post-production phase.

The award offered by MAD Solutions comes as part of the company's strategy to support the Arab film industry through the different production stages internationally and within the Arab region and to promote them on the long run. The company previously offered a similar award for the winning project at the Open Doors initiative held as part of the 67th Locarno International Film Festival in Switzerland last August. The winners were Hob Al Insan (Tunisia/France) by director Mahdy Attia and Mashrou' Rokaya (Algeria/France) by director Yanis Kassem.

This year, MAD Solutions launched two editions of Arab Cinema Center at Berlin International Film Festival and Cannes Film Festival. The Center is operating as an international promotional platform for Arab cinema as it provides Arab filmmakers with a professional window to connect with filmmakers all over the world through a number of events that it organizes and provides networking opportunities with representatives of companies and institutions specialized in co-production and international distribution, among others.