Dubai-based Front Row Productions has acquired all rights to the story of Sally Hafez, the young woman who, in order to pay for her sister’s cancer treatment, walked into a Beirut bank and used a toy gun to take money from her savings account which had been locked due to Lebanon’s financial crisis.
Front Row Productions – which is a joint venture between prominent MENA region distribution companies Front Row Filmed Entertainment and Beirut-based Empire Entertainment – is planning to explore different aspects of the Hafez story “through feature films, TV series, docuseries and a podcast series.” They will look at “the various angles of Sally’s unique but relatable journey from a patriotic activist to a disenfranchised citizen taking it upon herself to be divisive,” the company said in a statement.
Starting in 2019, as the country fell into a deep economic crisis involving the downfall of its currency, Lebanon’s cash-strapped banks imposed strict limits on withdrawals of foreign currency, freezing up the savings of millions of people. Meanwhile, a large swathe of the local population slipped into poverty.
On Sept. 14, 2022, Hafez, brandishing a toy pistol that belonged to her nephew and flanked by activists from a group called Depositors’ Outcry, entered a Blom Bank branch in Beirut and stormed into the manager’s office. They forced bank employees to hand over $12,000 and the equivalent of about $1,000 in Lebanese pounds.
Hafez had previously repeatedly visited the bank to ask for her money, explaining that she needed it to pay for her sister’s cancer treatment. She had been told she could only receive $200 a month. After the bank break-in, she only faced a minor fine from a local judge.
Hafez was celebrated as a hero across social media in Lebanon, as many in the crisis-hit country struggled to make ends meet and retrieve their savings. Videos documenting her ordeal amassed well over 15 million views on YouTube as she encouraged others to take similar action to reclaim their savings.
“Her story is also a powerful testament to a woman’s agency within the context of a society driven by the policies of a patriarchal and corrupt system, which eventually cornered her into taking matters into her own hands,” according to Front Row Productions.
“Sally’s story is as remarkable as it is painful,” Front Row’s Gianluca Chakra and Empire Entertainment’s Mario Haddad said in the statement. “It is an example of triumph over the demoralizing reality that many hard-working citizens find themselves in, after being barraged by instability and corruption.”
Added Hafez, “I’m incredibly excited to work with Front Row Productions to bring my story to life. Our country has gone through so much, and the people in power have taken every opportunity to stamp their authority on a struggling population. It was important to me that my story gets told by people who understand what Lebanon is going through, and that is something I found with the Front Row team.”
For Front Row Productions, working with the Hafez IP marks a further step in the company’s stated mission to stories from across the MENA region. Their first production was the Arabic adaptation of Italian hit dramedy “Perfect Strangers” that premiered on Netflix worldwide in January 2022, topping the streamers’ charts in MENA and reaching the No. 3 spot globally. Front Row are currently in post on “The Sandcastle,” an atmospheric thriller directed by Matty Brown starring Lebanese multi-hyphenate Nadine Labaki, and are gearing up to shoot Jordanian crime feature “Boomah” this summer starring Rakeen Saad (“AlRawabi School for Girls”) and directed by Zaid Abu Hamdan (“Daughters of Abdul-Rahman”).
