release date July 11 2022
Soula Screens at the French Institute of Oran in Algeria
Feature film SOULA, by Salah Issaad, shall screen at the French Institute of Oran in Algeria on Wednesday, July 13th. This comes as part of the film’s screenings in its own country of production, where it previously concluded the events of No Means No initiative in Algeria. The film also had a tour across 3 other Arab countries; Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, and Morocco.
Most recently, the film won the Golden award for Best Feature Film at the International Oriental Film Festival of Geneva, marking its fifth award, and a Special Mention for its leading actress Soula Bahri. It was also awarded Best Feature Film and Best Actress (Soula Bahri) at Malmo Arab Film Festival in Sweden, Best Film at Beirut International Women Film Festival and Best Film at African Asian Latin Amercian Film Festival in Milan.
Landing its world premiere at the Red Sea International Film Festival, the film earned widespread critical acclaim, with film critic Tarek El Shinnawi calling it as “a woman's cry out, and the performance of the leading actress, Soula Bahri, was striking.”
SOULA is the story of a single mother whose father expelled her, leaving her homeless with her baby. Soula finds herself going from one car to another with other people while looking for a safe location to stay the night. Throughout a night full of unfortunate events along the roads of Algeria, Soula tries her best to change her destiny, but fate has another saying.
Written, directed, and produced by Salah Issaad, SOULA is co-written by Soula Bahri, whose life story inspired the director to turn it into a film and let Soula play the lead role. The film is produced by Issaad Film Productions (the three brothers Taqi Eldin, Abdelghafour, and Salah Issaad). The film starring Soula Bahri, Idir Benaibouche, and Franck Yvrai. MAD Solutions handles the film’s marketing and distribution in the Arab world.
Salah Issaad is an Algerian director who was raised in a family of publishers. After receiving a bachelor's degree (High school degree) in Letters and Foreign languages in 2008, he joined the Law school of Batna in Algeria. He moved to France to complete his film studies for two years at the University of Paris VIII. Afterward, he joined the ARFIS audiovisual school in Lyon, then he ended up joining the Factory School in Villeurbanne, where he obtained his Cinema director diploma.
Salah directed a feature film and several short films, where his passion motivates him to tell stories that appreciate human relationships. Moreover, he likes to explore different narrative forms and film genres like drama, tragedy, stories inspired by real events, as well as comedies.
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