The Final Cut in Venice workshop supports films in the post-production stage from Africa, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine and Syria.
Lebanese film Harvest, directed by Ely Dagher, winner of the prestigious Short Film Palme d’Or, won the Best Film in Post production award at the Final Cut in Venice, with a cash prize of $21,757.
The Final Cut in Venice workshop supports films in the post-production stage from Africa, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine and Syria. The film selections are screened to an audience of producers, distributors, and programmers of international film festivals. The workshop concludes with an award ceremony to honour the winning films that will be supported through the post-production phase.
Harvest was chosen as the Best Project in development at the CineGouna Platform, where it received a cash prize from Drosos Foundation.
The film tells the story of a young woman who returns home in Beirut after spending a long while abroad, leaving a bad experience behind. Haunting pressures to fit back into the family dynamics as well as revealing details of her life abroad weigh heavy on her. Feeling cornered, her fears and anxieties resurface, leading her to reconnect and find solace in another part of her Beirut life that she had forsaken.
The film stars Manal Issa, Yara Abou Haidar, and Roger Azar. The film is co-produced by Andolfi Production (Arnaud Dommerc), Abbout Productions (Myriam Sassine), Wrong Men, and Beaver and Beaver.
The film received grants from the Doha Film Institute and The Arab Fund for Arts and Cuture (AFAC). MAD Solutions handles the film’s distribution in the Arab world.
Born and raised in Lebanon, director and screenwriter Ely Dagher has been working on various projects juggling between different points of identification and visual structures, from surrealism, science fiction and the occult. His 2015 short film Waves ‘98’ was awarded the prestigious Short Film Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. Harvest is Dagher’s first feature film.
