Dubai-based Entrance Row Productions has acquired the rights to the life story of Sally Hafez, the Lebanese lady who stormed a financial institution to entry her financial savings in September 2022 throughout Lebanon’s monetary disaster, during which residents have been illegally restricted from drawing from their accounts resulting from an unofficial capital management imposed by Lebanese banks.
Hafez turned an immediate media determine following the raid, which she later defined had been performed to entry money from her accounts to fund her sister’s most cancers remedy.
Entrance Row has stated it plans to discover totally different facets of her story by creating a wide range of media content material via characteristic movies, TV sequence, docu-series, and a podcast sequence by trying on the varied angles of what they described as “Hafez’s distinctive however relatable journey from a patriotic activist to a disenfranchised citizen taking it upon herself to be divisive.”
Armed together with her nephew’s toy gun and a mix of water and gas, Hafez succeeded in reclaiming $13,000 and 30,000,000 Lebanese Kilos from Blom Financial institution in Beirut, acquiring a receipt to keep away from theft costs. Though she confronted a minor high quality from an area choose, she was subsequently launched by police.
Hafez’s raid sparked a ripple impact, with others deciding additionally to take motion and recuperate their funds. The following stress compelled Lebanese banks to shutter their doorways, later reopening by appointment solely. Hafez’s actions have been extensively reported on by worldwide media retailers, together with the BBC, Reuters, and Le Monde. The New York Instances dubbed Hafez as “the world’s most honorable financial institution robber.”
“I’m extremely excited to work with Entrance Row Productions to convey my story to life,” stated Hafez. “Our nation has gone via a lot, and the folks in energy have taken each alternative to stamp their authority on a struggling inhabitants. It was essential to me that my story will get advised by individuals who perceive what Lebanon goes via, and that’s one thing I discovered with the Entrance Row staff.”
In a joint assertion from Entrance Row’s Gianluca Chakra and Empire Leisure’s Mario Haddad, the producers stated: “Sally’s story is as outstanding as it’s painful. It’s an instance of conquer the demoralizing actuality that many hard-working residents discover themselves in, after being barraged by instability and corruption. This common expertise begs into query each side of how people world wide come up towards faltering constructions and programs. Entry through social media meant that many individuals worldwide related and interacted together with her story instantly, and acknowledged the struggles she was going through. Whereas Sally’s story is now very a lot a part of the collective creativeness, there are facets of who this younger lady is and the way she is constructed that create an intimacy with the braveness and audacity it takes to do what solely she and few others have carried out.”