As part of its long-term strategy to support and promote the Arab film industry around the world,
MAD Solutions will present six films at the 10th Arab Film Festival in Brazil, run under the auspices of the Institute for Arab Culture (ICArabe). Based in São Paulo, the festival opened on Wednesday, August 12th, 2015.

MAD's line-up of films include; the feature films Theeb, Omar, Atlantic and Fallen Angels' Paradise, the feature-length documentary The Dream of Shahrazad and the documentary Underground/On The Surface.

Regarded as the best Palestinian film in the recent years, director Hany Abu-Assad's film Omar will be screened in a panel discussion titled "Palestinian Cinema". The film was part of a large number of prestigious international festivals and film events and was nominated for the Oscars Best Foreign Language Film Award in 2014.

This marks the second collaboration between MAD Solutions and the Arab Film Festival since the festival's 9th edition. The company will be represented by Film Analyst Alaa Karkouti, CEO of MAD Solutions, and Maher Diab, Creative Director and Co-founder, as they will be part of several panel discussions, introducing to the Brazilian audience an authentically open window on the social and cultural aspects of the Arab world.

In an official statement, Geraldo Adriano Godoy de Campos, Director and Curator of the Arab Film Festival in Brazil, stated, "Contemporary art is in permanent relation with the possibility of building a common space and a world to be shared, with its potentialities and limits. The curatorial's perspective for this 10th edition of the Arab Film Festival in Brazil is connected with the attempt of perceiving art as indispensable in a global context in which the answers seem to be the repetitive, patience is fading out and tension has a place. Facing this scenario, one might ask: what can a film festival do? It can instigate uneasiness, foster encounters and provoke the political imagination, undeniably necessary in current days."

Geraldo Adriano is a lecturer in the course of International Relations at ESPM University, based in São Paulo, and a researcher at the Center of Research on Mobilities in the same institution. He is the director of the Institute for Arab Culture (ICArabe) of Brazil. Adriano is the author and co-editor of the book Participatory Democracy and Redistribution: experiences of Participatory Budgeting in Brazil (2008).

The Arab Film Festival in Brazil started through the São Paulo- based Institute for Arab Film, an independent non-religious organization that promotes Arab culture and history and raises public awareness of their significance in Brazilian society. The organization was created as a response to an initiative by a group of intellectuals, writers, scientists and university professors to prove that the demand for such organization is widespread in Brazilian society and for this reason the institute collaborates with high-profile cultural institutions across the world in promoting different forms of cultural.

About MAD Solutions' Films in the 10th Arab Film Festival in Brazil:

Theeb: Jordanian director/writer Naji Abu Nowar's first feature film which he co-scripted with Bassel Ghandour since 2010. Set in the Arabian Desert of 1916, the film follows Theeb, a young Bedouin boy, and his brother Hussein as they leave the safety of their tribe to venture on a treacherous journey at the dawn of the Great Revolt. If Theeb is to survive he must quickly learn about adulthood, trust and betrayal.

Omar: A Palestinian feature film written and directed by Hany Abu-Assad and stars Adam Bakri, Leem Lubany, Eyad Hourani, Samer Bisharat and the Palestinian- American producer and actor Waleed Zuaiter who also co-produced the film through his company ZBROS. Omar is accustomed to dodging surveillance bullets to cross the separation wall to visit his secret love Nadia. But occupied Palestine knows neither simple love nor clear-cut war. On the other side of the wall, the sensitive young baker Omar becomes a freedom fighter who must face painful choices about life and manhood. When Omar is captured after a deadly act of resistance, he falls into a cat-and-mouse game with the military police. Suspicion and betrayal jeopardize his longtime trust with accomplices and childhood friends Amjad and Tarek, Nadia's militant brother. Omar's feelings quickly become as torn apart as the Palestinian landscape. But it's soon evident that everything he does is for his love of Nadia.

The Dream of Shahrazad: A feature-length documentary by South African director Francois Verster. The film traces the recent developments on the political and social levels in Egypt and Turkey in an unusually captivating way, greatly inspired by the exotically famed story collection of 1001 Nights (aka Arabian Nights). Filming took place over the course of two years - between 2010 and 2012 - before, during and after the Arab Spring exploring how political articulation can coincide as a sharp weapon against oppression.

Atlantic: A joint production between the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Morocco by the Dutch director Jan-Willem van Ewijk, starring the Moroccan star Fettah Lamara, Thekla Reuten, Mohamed Majd and Jan-Willem van Ewijk. In 94 minutes, the film tells the story of Fettah, Moroccan fisherman sets off on an epic journey towards Europe on his wind surfboard. But the pursuit of dreams does not come without sacrifice.

Fallen Angels Paradise: Directed by Oussama Fawzy, the film received 15 awards from several film festivals. The film is a free adaptation of Brazilian author Jorge Amado's novel The Man Who Died Twice and the screenplay is written by Moustafa Zekri. A black comedy, Fallen Angels' Paradise starts with Tabl's death, a man who decided to leave his family and adopt a bohemian lifestyle along with a group of marginalized people. While his daughter is seeking to give a lavish funeral for her deceased father, his friends steal his corpse, paying tribute for the dead man in their own way. Fallen Angels' Paradise stars Mahmoud Hemeida, Lebleba and fresh faces at that time Amr Waked, Sari El Nagar, Saleh Fahmi and Caroline Khalil.

Underground/On The Surface: A documentary by director Salma El Tarzi which has been awarded from Dubai International Film Festival 2013. The film traces the accelerated growth of shaabi music and the rising of Oka and Ortega to stardom.