Johnny Depp’s ‘Modi’ & Robbie Williams Biopic ‘Better Man’ Head To Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Film Fest With Karim Shenawi’s ‘The Tale Of Daye’s Family’ Set As Opener
The Red Sea International Film Festival has unveiled the bulk of the line-up for its fourth edition, which will showcase 120 films from 81 territories from December 5 to 14 in the port city of Jeddah.
The festival will open with Egyptian director Karim Shenawi’s The Tale Of Daye’s Family (aka Light) about an 11-year-old Nubian albino boy with a beautiful voice, who faces adversity due to his unique appearance.
Abandoned by his father and bullied by his peers, he dreams of following in the footsteps of his idol, singer and actor Mohamed Mounir. When he gets a chance to audition for The VoiceDaye and his family embark on a perilous 1,000-mile journey from Southern Egypt to Cairo.
Michael Gracey’s semi-biographical feature Better Maninspired by Robbie Williams and portraying the pop icon as chimpanzee, will close the festival.
Johnny Depp’s Modi, Three Days on the Wing of Madness – which was supported by the festival’s parernt body the Red Sea Film Foundation – and employed participants of its apprenticeship program as crew, will also screen in a special awards night gala.
Star power will also be assured on the red carpet through this year’s Red Sea honorees: Academy Award winning actress and producer Viola Davis (The Woman King, Fences) and Egyptian superstar Mona Zaki, whose recent credits include Flight 404which is Egypt’s Oscar entry this year.
Aside from being honored, Davis will also be at the festival as the co-founder of JVL Media, the full-service production/media packaging firm and publishing house she co-founded with Julius Tennon and Lavaille Lavette.
The company will attend the festival’s Souk market and feature in the industry talks programming – exploring storytelling trends, funding and connecting diverse cultures beyond the screen.
Starry titles in the Gala line-up include Peter Chelsom’s A Sudden Case Of Christmaswith its star Danny Devito expected to hit the red carpet in Jeddah, Pablo Larrain’s biopic Mariastarring Angelina Jolie as iconic tragic opera singer Maria Callas; Mehdi Idir’s Mr Aznavourstarring Tahar Rahim as the French crooner; and Thierry Teston and Lisa Azeulos’ Jane Fonda-narrated doc My Wayand We Live In Time with Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield.
The festival has yet to unveil what talent will be hitting its red carpet this year. The jury and its high-profile In Conversations strand have also yet to be unveiled.
The main competition will feature 15 titles from the Middle East, Africa and Asia.
A number of titles, which have already created buzz on the festival circuit, will have their MENA premieres at the festival such as Palestinian director Mahdi Fleifel’s To A Land Unknown, which debuted at Cannes Directors’ Fortnight; Afghan filmmaker Roya Sadat’s Sima’s Songexploring the evolution of women’s rights during the Russian occupation of Afghanistan in the 1970s, and Indian director Reema Kagti’s comedy Superboys of Malegaonbased on the true story of a group of amateur filmmakers who came together to create a film that honors their city, and Iraqi-Austrian filmmaker Kurdwin Ayub’s Moon.
This year will see the festival return to Jeddah’s historic Al Balad district, after two editions at the Ritz-Carlton while the headquarters for its parent body the Red Sea Film Foundation were being built. The festival’s unveiled its promotional video for this edition, shot against the backdrop of the gentrified Al Balad quarter to give a taste of what participants and spectators can expect.
2024 Line-up TITLE/director
Red Sea: Competition
SUPERBOYS OF MALEGAON
Reema Kagti
HANAMI
Denise Fernandes
TO A LAND UNKNOWN
Mahdi Fleifel
MOON
Kurdwin Ayub
SONGS OF ADAM
Oday Rasheed
RED PATH
Lotfi Achour
SNOW WHITE
Taghrid Abouelhassan
BIN U BIN, BORDER ELSEWHERE
Mohamed Lakhdar Tati
SAIFY
Poor Abumansour
AISHA
Mehdi M. Barsaoui
SEEKING HAVEN FOR MR RAMBO
Khaled Mansour
SIMA’S SONG
Roya Sadat
6 IN THE MORNING
Mehran Modiri
TO KILL A MONGOLIAN HORSE
Xiaoxuan Jiang
SABA
Hossain means
Arab Specular Special Screenings (Announced Nov 5)
ABDO & SANEYA
Omar Bakri
FRONT ROW
Merzak Allouache
HOBAL
Abdulaziz Alshlahei
LAIL NAHAR
MY DRIVER AND I
Ahd camel
Red Sea: New Vision (announced Oct 30)
ALROSHAN
Mohammed Ous
CHEMISTRY
Abdulrahman Batawie
OTHMAN IN THE VATICAN
Yasir Bin Ghanem
WHEN THE LIGHT SHINES
Ryan Al Bishri
YALLA PARKOUR
Areeb Zuaiter
Red Sea: Series (announced Oct 30)
GHOST TRAIN
Se-Woong Tak
LOST WORLDS WITH BETTANY HUGHES: THE NABATAEANS
Jim Grayer
TALES ON BANKS OF THE BOSPHORUS
Which is Sfeir
ZORRO
Jean Baptiste Saurel
Red Sea: Shorts Competition – Arab Selection:
FRAGMENTS OF LIFE
Anis Ben Dali
SAINT ROSE
Zayn Alexandre
THE SIGNAL
Nasser Alqattan
SHAMS
Adam Ryan
CHIKHA
Ayoub Layoussifi and Zahoua Raji
AFRICAN FAMILY DINNER
Ibrahim Mursal
IN THREE LAYERS OF DARKNESS
Houcem Slouli
CHILDREN OF BARZAGH
Ahmed Khattab
MY, MY, MY
Khaled Zidan
MALIKA
Maram Taibah
LAND OF GOD
Imad Benomar
AND MISHI?
Assaf Al Rousan
FIZR
Rani Nasr
ZAHRA
Hadi Shatat
ONE LAST TIME
Karim Rahbani
Red Sea: Shorts Competition – International Selection (Announced Oct 18)
ACROSS THE WATER
Live It
ALAZAR
Beza Hailu Lemma
HATCH
Alireza Kazemipour and Panta Mosleh
LAI LEI
Binglin Cui
LUNGE
Hassanzadeh State
NAILS
Triparna Banerjee
NEVER HAVE I EVER
Joyce A. Nashawati
FOOT DAN LO
Kim Yip Tong
RADICAL
Arvin Belarmino
AS IF YOU ARE NOT
Azer Guliev
LIFE OF THE TURTLE
Ghetto Airplane
WASHHH
Mickey Lai
New Saudi, New Cinema Selection:
A MOSQUITO
Raneem Almohandes and Dana Almohandes
THE POST
Zakaria Albashir
THE DREAMER DREAMS
Abdulmohsen Albinali
UNDERGROUND
Abdulrahman Sandokji
PAVLOV’S BELLS
Khalid Fahad
KHAMSEN
Abdullah Alrowis
TWO SISTERS
Waleed Alqahtani
TIED
Yam Fida
WHERE’S THE IMAM?
Hide Abrar
WHEN THE SHELVES HYMN
No Saleh Alfassi
ASEER MEMORY
Saad Tahaitah
DIAA SHAMSI
Lama Jarkas
SUGAR
Khalid Bin Waleed
THE EXTRAORDINARY MISADVENTURES OF THE AMAZING BOY SUPER-BLURRY
Hassan El Hejaili
SAEED’S DAY
Mohammed Zawari
GUM
Belal Albader
THE EDGE (ORA)
Ahmed Alqithmi
THE CERTAINTY
Ahmad Kurdi
DOES IT HURT TOO BAD TO LOOK AT ME?
Frog Kill
Winners of the fourth edition of the 48 hours challenge:
ALL IN ONE NIGHT (AION)
Thoraya Akram
AT THE END
Nawaf Alkinani and Othman Al Khowiter
