Karim Bensalah’s Algerian-French drama SIX FEET OVER will be getting its much-anticipated Arab World premiere at the third edition of the Red Sea International Film Festival, which is set to be held in the Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah from November 30th to December 9th.
 
SIX FEET OVER — which recently enjoyed a stellar world premiere at the CineMed - Montpellier Mediterranean Film Festival — follows Sofiane, the son of a former Algerian embassy clerk who has traveled around a lot.
 
Now a student in Lyon, his visa has been revoked and he lives under the threat of expulsion. Hoping to legalize his status, he agrees to work for a Muslim funeral home.
 
Amidst parties, encounters, and his job, Sofiane will start an initiatory journey that will lead him to find himself, shape his own identity, and gradually move toward adulthood.
 
The film aims to shed light on the struggles of life through the eyes of a young Arab man who has no sense of belonging but finds himself through an unexpected, turbulent journey with death, religion, music, and family, and highlights the unseen intricacies of Muslim undertakers through the main characters’ unique job.
 
Directed and written by Karim Bensalah, the film stars burgeoning Moroccan actor Hamza Meziani and Algerian veteran actor Kader Affak, alongside Souad Arsane and Mostefa Djadjam. The film was also co-written by Jamal Belmahi, lensed by Pierre-Hubert Martin, and edited by Bénédicte Cazauran.
 
Additionally, SIX FEET OVER was produced by Oualid Baha (Tact Production) and co-produced by Eugénie Michel Villette (Les Films du Bilboquet) while MAD Solutions is in charge of distribution throughout the Arab World and The Party Film Sales is handling worldwide distribution.
 
Karim Bensalah was born in Algiers to an Algerian father and a Brazilian mother. After living in Haiti and Senegal, he moved to Paris at the age of 18 to study literature, philosophy, and social sciences. Karim then entered the London Film School, where he directed CONSTANT FLOW.
 
His first short film, LE SECRET DE FATIMA was selected and awarded at numerous festivals such as Clermont-Ferrand and broadcast on Arte.
 
Bensalah then directed RACINE(S) — a segment of the feature film PARIS LA MÉTISSE — before joining the Collectif Tribudom, which works with teenagers in the working-class districts of Paris and its suburbs, with whom he made several short films, the latest of which is CHANTIER(S).
 
After that, he worked on the short LES HEURES BLANCHES, in which he collaborated with Quebecois screenwriter Sébastien Baril.