Algerian-French drama SIX FEET OVER walked off with a Best Screenplay Award with director Karim Bensalah and co-writer Jamal Belmahi’s names on it at the closing ceremony of the Red Sea International Film Festival, which ran from November 30th to December 9th.
 
The film held its Arab World premiere at the Saudi festival and enjoyed multiple full-house screenings followed by a Q&A with Bensalah and lead actor Hamza Meziani, both of whom received the award, which was presented by jury members Freida Pinto and Amina Khalil in the presence of a star-studded audience that included Baz Luhrmann, Nicholas Cage, Adrien Brody, Jason Statham, Andrew Garfield, Halle Berry, and many more.
 
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Now a student in Lyon, his visa has been revoked and he lives under the threat of expulsion.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 drama feature — which was lensed by Pierre-Hubert Martin and edited by Bénédicte Cazauran — stars burgeoning Moroccan actor Hamza Meziani and Algerian veteran actor Kader Affak alongside Souad Arsane and Mostefa Djadjam.
 
It was also produced by Oualid Baha (Tact Production) and co-produced by Eugénie Michel Villette (Les Films du Bilboquet), with music by Adrien Casalis and sound by Romain Cadilhac, Benjamin Rosier, Valère Raigneau, and Xavier Thieulin.
 
MAD Solutions handles the film’s distribution in the Arab world while The Party Film Sales handles 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.