release date November 10 2024
Saif Hammash’s THE DEER’S TOOTH among Palestinian films screening at the Asian World and Cairo International Film Festivals
Palestinian short film THE DEER’S TOOTH — directed, written, and edited by Saif Hammash — will be screening as part of the Spotlight on Palestinian Cinema Program at the 45th Cairo International Film Festival (CIFF), as well as the Asian World Film Festival (AWFF), both of which are scheduled to run from November 13th to the 22nd in Egypt and the US respectively.
The film held a brilliant world premiere at the 77th Cannes Film Festival’s Cinéfondation Section, then kicked off a long festival tour that included several prestigious destinations like the Oran Arab — where it held its Arab World premiere — Boston Palestine, Edinburgh Short, and Cyprus film festivals.
THE DEER’S TOOTH centers around a young man from a refugee camp who embarks on a perilous journey in order to fulfill his little brother’s wish: To throw his milk tooth into the sea.
The film was shot in the Dheisheh refugee camp, which was established in 1949 on an area of 0.31 square kilometers within the municipality of Bethlehem in the West Bank. Dheisheh is one of 68 Palestinian refugee camps scattered across the region and neighboring countries, housing residents who originally came from over 45 villages west of Jerusalem and Hebron.
Discussing the film’s concept at length, Hammash explained that “this film is an attempt to portray the internal conflict that Palestinians — especially those living in a refugee camp — live with between their inability to adapt to the imposed political and historical reality on the one hand and their desire for self-fulfillment despite the dangers surrounding them.”
THE DEER’S TOOTH was lensed by Ibrahim Handal, with music by Victor Kawwas, and sound by Saliba Rishmawi. The film stars Wisam Al-Jafari, Reada Ghazaleh, Yasmin Shalaldeh, and Jacir Abedrabou.
In terms of the bigger companies at play, the film was supervised by Majdi El-Omari, and produced by Dar Al Kalima, with MAD World handling the film’s worldwide sales and MAD Distribution handling both sales and distribution in the Arab-speaking region.
Saif Hammash is a Palestinian filmmaking student based in the Dheisheh Refugee Camp in Bethlehem. While pursuing his degree, he directed a short fiction film as well as an experimental and documentary film. He has also worked on several other films as a scriptwriter, assistant director, editor, and camera assistant, and on the third edition of the Palestinian Refugees Film Festival as an editor in September 2022.
Saif’s filmography includes ESCAPE ATTEMPT and CLICK OF A BUTTON.
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