release date March 22 2022
The official page of the Alleys Shares a video of its journey at international festivals
Under the title "From the Heart of Jordan to Europe, Saudi Arabia, and the Rest of the World," the official page of the Alleys by Bassel Ghandour posted a video on Facebook and Instagram highlighting the film's successful journey at foreign festivals. The film began its tour at Locarno Film Festival, where it became the festival's first participation for a Jordanian feature film, as well as the first Arab film to be featured in Piazza Grande section since 2008. The film's most recent stop was at Festival du Premier Film d'Annonay, where it received the Grand Prix du Jury.
Visit these links to watch the videos:
https://fb.watch/bU8zCVl3iV
https://www.instagram.com/tv/CbP_99DlWWq/?utm_medium=copy_link
The Alleys has gained wide acclaim during its screening in more than ten international festivals across Europe’s most significant cities. The last of which was the International Film Festival Rotterdam (Harbour Section), one of the world’s oldest film festivals, making it the first Jordanian feature film to be selected in the history of the prestigious festival. Moreover, the film had its Arab world premiere in December at the Red Sea International Film Festival.
In BFI London Film Festival, the film had a full house screening through the festival’s ticket-booking link. Furthermore, it competed for Sutherland Award, for the most creative feature directorial debut. Additionally, this is the first presence for Jordan at the festival in the past 7 years; since Theeb (2014), the winner of BAFTA award and the 2016 Oscar nominee.
It is also worth mentioning that the film received a fair share of acclaim by critics and international websites including, ‘Screen Daily,’ ‘Backseat Mafia,’ and the well-known American magazine ‘PopMatters,’ as well as the British website ‘The Upcoming,’ and the Swiss newspaper ‘Corriere Del Ticino,’ among others, where all of them described it as “Fascinating,” “Impressive,” ”Epic,” “Exciting,” and “ Quite memorable.”
The film’s plot takes place in a gossip-ridden, violent neighborhood in East Amman, where a young hustler will stop at nothing to be with his secret lover, but her merciless mother won’t have it. When an extortionist catches the couple in the act, the mother solicits a gangster to put a stop to it all... things don’t go as planned.
The film project of the Alleys received the Works in Progress Post-Production Development Award of the Eastern Promises program at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, Czechia. Furthermore, it won two awards for films in post-production at the Cairo Film Connection, the co-financing platform of the Cairo International Film Festival (CIFF) and received support from The Jordan Film Fund of the Royal Film Commission, Doha Film Institute (Qatar), and the Red Sea Film Festival (KSA). During the development phase, the film was aided by EAVE Producers Workshop, Rawi Screenwriters lab, Dubai Film Connection, and The Sorfond Pitching Forum, which is organized by The Norwegian South Film Fund.
The Alleys is written and directed by Bassel Ghandour and stars Emad Azmi, Baraka Rahmani, Munther Rayahneh, Maisa Abd Elhadi, Nadira Omran, and Nadim Rimawi. The film is produced by Bayt Al Shawareb (Yousef Abed Al-Nabi), The Imaginarium Films (Rula Nasser) and co-produced by Lagoonie Film Production (Shahinaz El Akkad). MAD Solutions handles the film’s distribution across the Arab World, while Elle Driver (France) handles the international sales.
Director Bassel Ghandour co-wrote and produced ‘Theeb,’ the was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at both the Academy Awards and the BAFTAs. It also won the BAFTA award for Outstanding British Debut in 2016. The Alleys is his directorial debut, as well as his first screenplay and had its world premiered at the Locarno Film Festival.
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