EXCLUSIVE: French gross sales and manufacturing firm Totem Movies has boarded worldwide gross sales on Somalia-set drama The Village Subsequent To Paradise by Mo Harawe.
The film was amongst 14 titles introduced for the Un Sure Part of the 77th version of the Cannes Movie Competition on the occasion’s press convention in Paris on Thursday.
Set in a distant Somali village, the characteristic revolves round a newly assembled household as its members navigate between their totally different aspirations and the advanced world surrounding them. Solely love, belief and resilience will energy them via their life paths.
“It’s a privilege to afford to dream, not to mention to change into a filmmaker,” stated Harawe. following the information. “The Village Subsequent to Paradise serves as a metaphor for a rustic that holds the potential for paradise, had been it not for the circumstances that make such a actuality inconceivable.”
The movie stars Somalian actors Ahmed Ali Farah, Anab Ahmed Ibrahim and Ahmed Mohamud Saleban.
The Village Subsequent To Paradise is produced by Sabine Moser and Oliver Neumann from Austria’s Freibeuter Movie (Nice Freedom, Hinterland), Germany’s Niko Movie (Extra Than Ever), France’s Kazak Productions (Corsage, Titane) and Somalia’s Maanmaal ACC.
“We will’t wait to current Mo Harawe’s excellent debut characteristic about household, love and resilience in Cannes,” stated Moser and Neumann.
The Village Subsequent To Paradise is Mogadishu-born Somali and Austrian filmmaker Harawe debut feature-length movie. He additionally wrote the screenplay.
An alumnus in Visible Communication and Movie at Kunsthochschule Kassel, Harawe has already made waves on the competition circuit with a variety of buzzy brief movies.
His second brief Life on the Horn, concerning the penalties of poisonous waste touchdown on the Somali shoreline, earned a Particular Point out at Locarno Worldwide Movie Competition in 2020.
His newest brief Will My Dad and mom Come to See Me, a couple of younger jail inmate, was nominated for a European Movie Award and received a German Lola award in 2022 and clinched the the Grand Prix at Clermont-Ferrand and Austrian Movie Award for Greatest Quick Movie in 2023.
Paris-based Totem Movies have been monitoring The Village Subsequent To Paradise because it presentation on the Marrakech Movie Competition’s Atlas Workshops final November, the place it received the $21,000 (€20,000) post-production Atlas Award.
The business jury comprised Cannes Critics’ Week head Ava Cahen, Moroccan filmmaker Meriem Benm’Barek and Egyptian producer Mohamed Hefzy.
“With a exact mise en scène, Mo opens a large body on a fancy state of affairs to raised concentrate on the core of human connections, love, forgiveness and reminiscences,” stated Totem Movies co-heads Laure Parleani and Bérenice Vincent.