Global Flicks: Farah Kassem releases new documentary featuring her father’s life as a poet

Namit Malhotra -The India Today Group

Asia: Indian actor-producer Yash and producer Namit Malhotra have partnered on an adaptation of the Indian epic Ramayana for global audiences. The film will be directed by Nitesh Tiwari, whose Dangal is the highest Indian grosser of all time. Yash, backed by his Monster Mind Creations, is best known for the K.G.F action film franchise. Malhotra, backed by his Prime Focus Studios, is the global CEO of visual effects company DNEG, which has created seven VFX Oscar winners in recent years, including Dune: Part One and Tenet. There have been over 60 film adaptations of Ramayana, including Indian, anime, and Thai versions. 

“After years spent living between the U.S., the U.K., and India, building a business that has achieved unparalleled commercial success and more Oscar wins in the last 10 years than any other company, my personal journey has led me to the point that I feel ready to do justice to the incredible story of Ramayana, treating it with the due care and reverence that it deserves,” said Malhotra.

Canab Axmed Ibraahin - The Village Next to Paradise

Africa: French sales and production company Totem Films has received international sales on the new Somalia-set drama The Village Next to Paradise by Mo Harawe. The movie was among 14 titles announced for Un Certain Section of the 77th edition of the Cannes Film Festival. The feature, set in a remote Somali village, focuses on a new family as its members struggle with various aspirations and how to achieve them together.

Middle East: Farah Kassem premiered her new documentary, We Are Inside, Visions du Réel 2024 nearly seven years after its production. The film centers around Kassem’s father, Mustapha, a renowned poet in Lebanon. Kassem returns to her home in Tripoli, Lebanon, after a 15-year absence to stay with her 82-year-old father as his health declines. As the two try to reconnect, she realizes that poetry is “the key to his heart and soul,” according to Variety. As a result, Kassem joins her father’s men-only poetry club to spend more time with her father and “keep him alive as long as possible.”

“There you had these men – all well over 70, suffering from diabetes, yet eating plenty of sugar, babbling through verses and rhymes, about what beauty is left in this world, while the country was collapsing. I found this fascinating yet absurd, and started to think – this can be a film,” Kassem said.