Pan-Arab distributor MAD Solutions has acquired worldwide sales and distribution rights for Palestinian director Laila Abbas‘ upcoming female empowerment drama “Thank You for Banking With Us!” and boarded the buzzed-about project as a co-producer.
The multi-pronged company that is active in marketing and talent representation – and has become a leading local distributor of Arabic-language films – recently branched out into international sales with Sudan’s Cannes title “Goodbye Julia.” The Cairo-based outfit, headed by Alaa Karkouti and Maher Diab, is also becoming more involved in packaging Arabic projects with international market prospects.
Laila Abbas is a Palestinian filmmaker, producer and academic who in 2013 made a splash with doc “Ice & Dust” about a young Palestinian woman who crosses the Atlantic ocean to search for a better life in Canada. In 2019, she was selected for Berlin Film Festival’s Berlinale Talents program to nurture emerging filmmakers.
“Thank You for Banking With Us!,” which is now in pre-production, tackles the hot button issue of sexist Middle Eastern inheritance rules dictated by Islamic Sharia law, under which a man has a right to take double the share of a woman. The drama turns on two perennially bickering sisters, named Mariam and Noura, whose father dies and unexpectedly leaves a large sum of money in the bank. According to Sharia law, their brother can claim half of the inheritance because he’s the male sibling. Enraged by this injustice, the sisters put their differences aside and join forces in concocting a scheme to get their hands on the cash before their brother finds out about their father’s death.
Casting for Abbas’ feature film debut is still being decided.
“Inheritance laws in the Middle East and how women’s rights tie into them has always been a major topic of contention, and the discourse surrounding it has recently been reinvigorated,” said Karkouti and Diab in a statement. “‘Thank You for Banking With Us!’ picks at the heart of this issue, and it does so in a fresh and perhaps daring way that we believe can add something to the current discourse.”
MAD Solutions has partnered with Cairo and Riyadh-based production entity Lagoonie Film Production – the shingle behind absurdist Egyptian film “Feathers,” winner of the 2021 Critics’ Week Grand Prize at Cannes – to bring them on board as a “Thank You for Banking” co-producer.
The film’s lead producers are Hannah Atallah, founder and artistic director ofFilmLab Palestine, and Roshanak Behesht Nedjad via her Berlin-based production outfit, In Good Company Films.
The “Thank You for Banking With Us!” project has received support from Egypt’s El Gouna Film Festival, the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture (AFAC), the Doha Film Institute and Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea fund. Additional funding has also been secured from Germany’s Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung and Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg funds and the Rotterdam Film Festival’s Hubert Bals Fund.
