Global Flicks: Mahdi Fleifel Releases Documentary Highlighting Struggles Of Palestinian Refugees

Lula Ali

Africa: Scythia Films has hired Lula Ali Ismaïl to direct Nuur, the story of an academically gifted 17-year-old boy growing up in Dixon, a Somali community in Toronto. The new film will star Omar Abdi and Hamza Fouad. Nuur is adapted from Hassan Ghedi Santur’s novel The Youth of God. According to Variety, the film explores themes of migration, assimilation, intergenerational trauma, and the struggle for identity. The main character, Nurr, faces internal conflict as he must address his “intellectual ambitions and troubled family life.”

In a statement, Ismaïl said that Nuur “is close to my heart because it will allow me to show the specific and the universal experience of Somali migration from within, having been part of it myself, and to authentically document the experiences of those who struggle to feel good in a new place.”

Asia: Filipino filmmaker Mikhail Red is creating another horror film, Lilim, set to release in 2024. This film will be Red’s return to the horror drama after his widespread success with Deleter, one of the highest-grossing Filipino horror films. Lilim follows the journey of a sister and brother who seek sanctuary in an orphanage during a time of social unrest. What begins as an asylum quickly turns into a “nightmare” as the siblings discover cult practices within the orphanage. This film will be Red’s first collaboration with his father, Raymond Red. Raymond Red is known for his experimental Super 8 short films in the 1980s. Critics expect the elder Red’s presence to lend authenticity to the film’s period aesthetic, as he has experience with the era the film takes place. In addition to Red’s father, his brother, Nikolas Red, helped write the screenplay. Lilim has a cast of both established and new actors. Heaven Peraleho will take the lead role of Issa.

The new Bollywood film Munjya, starring Sharvari and Abhay Verma, will be one of the few supernatural horror-comedy films from this region. Munjya has now entered the “100-crore [1 billion rupees] club.” The film is part of the Maddock Supernatural Universe and focuses on the legend of “munjya,” an evil spirit from Indian folklore. Sharvari plays Bela, the love interest of Verma’s Bittu. 

Mahdi Fleifel - Alex Bruce Photography

Middle East: Mahdi Fleifel, known for his Palestinian refugee-focused documentary A World Not Ours, has now released his newest doc, To a Land Unknown. The film had its premiere in Cannes as the only Palestinian film in the lineup. It closed the Galway Film Fleadh on July 13, which has made Palestine its country of focus this year. To a Land Unknown follows two young Palestinian refugees stranded in Athens and desperate to reach Germany. Fleifel wanted to “pay homage” to his favorite type of cinema, “early Martin Scorsese” and “Brian De Palma 1970s New York films.” To match these themes, he structured the documentary as a heist thriller set in Greece where the main protagonists aren’t necessarily the good guys. The documentary’s two main characters, one of whom has a drug addiction, hatch a plan in which they pose as smugglers and take hostages to pay for fake passports to get out of Greece. With this, he wanted to take a “new angle,” to the cinematic refugee story. He hopes that To a Land Unknown helps people connect with Palestinians on a “human level.”

“The people trying to flee Gaza are like the ones we meet in Athens. All they want is to have a better life and, like us, they have dreams and fears and hopes. But they’re stuck,” said Mahdi Fleifel.

Filming has begun on the newest Arab thriller Boomah (The Owl). The film is written and directed by Zaid Abu Hamdan. Rakeen Saad is set to play the lead role of the female thug Boomah and Joanna Arida will play the role of her best friend Anoud. Boomah is described as an “expansive crime thriller set against the backdrop of Jordan’s underworld.” The film follows a female gang member who has become entangled in a power struggle between street thugs and religious extremists.

“Zaid is an outstanding young and ambitious director with a very bright future ahead, a true visionary and difference-maker. His understanding of the nuances of Jordanian street culture is exceptional. We are concentrating on a script and storytelling that transcends borders and nationality while looking to break the limits of background and identity to bring Boomah to a wide Arab audience and beyond,” said Gianluca Chakra and Mario Jr. Haddad in a joint statement.