release date October 14 2024
Hend Sohail’s A PROMISE TO THE SEA wins Best Fiction Film at Linz International Short Film Festival
Egyptian short drama A PROMISE TO THE SEA — directed by Hend Sohail — walked home with its first award, Best Fiction Film, at the recently concluded Linz International Short Film Festival, which took place from October 9th to the 12th in Austria.
The festival’s jury — made up of Wiltrud Katharina Hackl, Nozhat Badi, and Katharina Farnleitner — commented on the film’s win saying, “This film unfolds quietly and unobtrusively, much like its protagonist, who leads us on an intimate, emotional journey. A poetic road movie that reaches straight to the heart, it boldly addresses societal taboos and beautifully conveys the idea that saying goodbye is not a single moment, but a gradual process… For this deeply moving debut, the jury is proud to present the Best Fiction Film Award to director Hend Sohail for A Promise To The Sea.”
The film — which world premiered at the São Paulo International Short Film Festival and is set to hold its Arab World premiere at the upcoming 7th El Gouna Film Festival — follows Zain, who, after irrationally deciding to steal his mother’s corpse during the funeral preparations, recklessly drives far from his humble hometown and hits the highway, where he encounters a situation that will change his life forever.
The film’s director Sohail revealed what she had hoped to achieve with A PROMISE TO THE SEA, saying, “Through this film, I want to tell the story of an extraordinary relationship between a son and his mother. When Zain loses his mother, he refuses to accept this closure and starts to think of another one, leading him to embark on a risky journey, during which he discovers that the world is much bigger than he had previously thought.”
Directed and co-written by Hend Sohail alongside Omar Zinhom, A PROMISE TO THE SEA stars Nabil Botros Talaan, is lensed by Mostafa El Kashef, edited by Samir Radwan, and produced by That’s A Wrap’s Nourhan Yasser and co-producers Younes Medhat, Mohammed Al-Omda, Ahmed El-Naggar, Dina Shokry, and Hussain Hamadi.
Meanwhile, the film’s international sales are handled by MAD World while MAD Distribution handles its distribution and sales in the Arab-speaking world.
Hend Sohail is an Egyptian director and editor who studied editing at the High Cinema Institute, where she assisted a number of notable directors on several short films and commercials.
After graduating, she worked as a director’s producer for esteemed commercial directors, enriching her skills further before pursuing her dream of becoming a director and working on small social media projects and commercials. A PROMISE TO THE SEA is her directorial debut
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