Amr Gamal's highly-acclaimed Yemeni drama film THE BURDENED has done it again, adding yet another prestigious award to its already-impressive collection when it took home the Best Screenplay Award at the 44th edition of the Durban International Film Festival (DIFF).
 
The film’s award went to Gamal, who shares screenwriting credits with Mazen Refaat, and stars Khaled Hamdan, Abeer Mohammed, Samah Alamrani, and Awsam Abdulrahman.
 
Previously, THE BURDENED took home the Berlin International Film Festival’s Amnesty International Film Award, which came with a cash prize of €5,000. It also won Best Directing and Best Screenplay at the Valencia International Film Festival and a Special Jury Award at the Taipei Film Festival.
 
THE BURDENED — the first Yemeni film to play in the official selection of the Berlinale — is based on a true story set in Aden, Yemen. The film follows Ahmed, Isra'a, and their three children after they both lose their jobs as a result of an economic crisis.
 
After the mother discovers she is carrying a fourth child, the beleaguered parents try to get an abortion despite their community's conservative stance, forcing the family to make tough decisions to survive.
 
The film also brings together Yemen, Sudan, and Saudi Arabia in a landmark co-production that was first brought to international attention at the 2022 Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, where it earned the Works in Progress Post-Production Development Award in the festival's industry sidebar, Eastern Promises, with the platform's jury expressing its admiration for "the director's brave approach in tackling sensitive subjects against all odds."
 
MAD Solutions is managing the film's distribution in the Arab world, while Films Boutique is managing international sales.
 
THE BURDENED is co-produced by Mohsen Alkhalifi, Mohammed Alomda, and Amjad Abu Alala (Station Films) — the filmmaker who helmed the award-winning drama YOU WILL DIE AT TWENTY, which was submitted to the Academy Awards' Best International Feature Film Category in 2020 as Sudan's first-ever Oscars' submission.
 
Amr Gamal (b.1983, Poland) is an independent Yemeni film and theater director. In 2003, he received the President's Award for Playwriting. In 2005, Gamal established the Khaleej Aden Theater Troupe and has written and directed all of the troupe's theatre productions since.
 
His play MA'K NAZEL became the first Yemeni play to be performed in Europe (Berlin) after its big success in Yemen.
 
In the spring of 2018, production began for his first feature film 10 DAYS BEFORE THE WEDDING. The film premiered in Aden in the summer, becoming the first film to open commercially in Yemen in three decades.