release date February 19 2020
Fatwa and A Day for Women Compete at Festival Films Femmes Afrique in Senegal
Feature Films Competition at the 4th Festival Films Femmes Afrique (African Women Film Festival) in Senegal (February 21 March 7). The two films are distributed by MAD Solutions.
Held in the Senegalese capital, Dakar, and 8 other regional cities, the 4th edition of the Festival Films Femmes Afrique take place under the theme Women in Resistance, boasting the total of 60 films including; short, feature, documentary and animation films. It also hosts a number of panel discussions, and seminars between the filmmakers and the audience that take place after the screenings.
About A Day for Women:
The film won seven awards at international film festivals, including the Audience Award at the Arab Film Festival Rotterdam, Best Screenplay Award at the Slemani International Film Festival in Iraq, Best Music and Third Production awards at the Egyptian National Film Festival, and Best Feature Film at the Festival di Cinema Africano di Verona. The film also competed in the Official Competition of the Cairo International Film Festival (CIFF) marking its Arab world premiere, where its star Nahed ElSebai won the Best Actress Award for her role in the film. The leads Elham Shahin, Nelly Karim and Nahed El Sebai shared the Best Actress Award of the Kazan International Muslim Film Festival held in the capital city of the Republic of Tatarstan, Russia.
A Day for Women takes place in a shabby neighborhood in Egypt where a youth center decides to allocate one day on the swimming pool for women only. The film follows the consequences of this decision on the social, psychological and emotional life of the women living in that neighborhood.
A Day for Women brings together a cast and crew of outstanding women, as it is produced by Elham Shahin through her company Shahin Film, who also stars in the film, directed by Kamla Abouzekri, written by Hanaa Atiyah, DOP Nancy Abdel Fattah, and Costume Designer Inas Shahin. The film stars Nelly Karim, Nahed El Sebai, Hala Sedqi, Ragaa Hussein, Shaimaa Seif, along with Mahmoud Hemida, Farouk Al Fishawy, Ahmad Al Fishawy, Eyad Nassar and Ahmed Dawood. MAD Solutions handles the film's marketing and promotion in the Arab world.
About Fatwa:
The film tells the story of Brahim, a Tunisian guy living in France, who decides to go back to Tunisia to attend the funeral of his son, Marouane, who passed away in a motorcycle accident. He then discovers that Marouane, was militating with a radical Islamist group, so Brahim decides to identify the people who brainwashed his son until the investigation leads him to doubt the circumstances surrounding his son's death.
Written and directed by Mahmoud Ben Mahmoud, Fatwa stars Ahmed Hafiane, Ghalia Benali, and Sarra Hannachi. The film is produced by Arts Distribution (Tunisia) and Les Films du Fleuve (Belgium), and MAD Solutions distributes the film in the Arab world.
Fatwa received a total of 20 international awards, including Best Actress Award for Tunisian actress Ghalia Benali at the Ecrans Noir (Black Screen) Film Festival in Cameroon. Moreover, the film reaped four awards at the Tunisian Film Festival; Best Screenplay, Best Décor, Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress, Best Feature Film at the International Festival of Cinema and Audiovisual of Burundi (FESTICAB), Saad Eldin Wahba Award for Best Arab Film at the Cairo International Film Festival (CIFF), Grand Prix at the Festival Maghrébin du Film OUJDA in Morocco, and the Golden Dhow Prize at the Zanzibar International Film Festival in Tanzania.
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