The film will screen at the upcoming Red Sea Souk Project Market of the Red Sea International Film Festival.
MAD Solutions has recently acquired the pan-Arab distribution rights to Ameer Fakher Eldin’s life-affirming drama Yunan.
Featuring a star-studded pan-Arab cast alongside several international actors in a co-production involving Germany, France, Italy, and Palestine, the project has been selected for the upcoming Red Sea Souk Project Market of the Red Sea International Film Festival (December 1-10).
Yunan follows the story of a disillusioned Arab author who travels from his exiled existence in Hamburg to a remote island in the North Sea with thoughts of suicide. There he meets an elderly woman whose quiet humanity incites a reawakening of his desires in life.
The film is being produced by Red Balloon Film, Les Films Du Veyrier, Intramovies, and Fresco Films. MAD Solutions is managing the film’s distribution across the Arab world.
Yunan is Fakher Eldin’s follow-up to his debut feature, The Stranger (released as Al Garib in the Arab world) which was selected as Palestine’s official entry for Best International Feature Film at last year’s 94th Academy Awards.
Top Lebanese theatre and film actor Georges Khabbaz (Perfect Strangers, Under The Bombs) will play the protagonist writer who travels from his exiled existence in Hamburg to a remote island in the North Sea with thoughts of suicide. There he meets an elderly woman whose quiet humanity incites a reawakening of his desires in life.
German actress Sibel Kekilli, best known for her role as Shae in Game Of Thrones, has also recently joined the cast and with further casting announcements to follow.
Yunan is the second part of a trilogy called Home that began with The Stranger. Fakher Eldin said it expands on the themes of estrangement that he explored in the first film.
He said: “Yunan is a story of salvation and rebirth. It deals with the distances that open up relentlessly as we exile, between the unforgettable past and the present, between the present and an unattainable future. It is about loneliness and depression, and particularly the kind of depression suffered by those who choose feelings they cannot bear and get stuck in the depths of their despair.”
“I am very happy to re-team with Red Balloon after our highly successful collaboration on Al Garib; the company has been very supportive throughout, and we are very pleased that MAD Solutions will handle distribution across the Arab world, as they have proven to be among the best in the business.”
Yunan reunites MAD Solutions with producer Dorothe Beinemeier, CEO of Hamburg-based Red Balloon Film, following their ongoing collaboration on Palestinian filmmaker Muayad Alayan’s upcoming film A House In Jerusalem.
Beinemeier stated that Yunan is the second part of a trilogy called HOME that began with Fakher Eldin’s prize-winning first feature Al Garib.
“The feeling of insurmountable strangeness and the longing for a reassuring but difficult-to-reach home are at the core of the cinematic narrative of the young Syrian director,” she explained.
“Ameer’s feature debut Al Garib focused on alienation within one’s own community and family, while the new screenplay Yunan is about the strangeness of an exiled man in Germany. Ameer strikes a deep chord with his timeless, poetic screenwriting and visual language, and is already demonstrating maturity in his way of storytelling.”
“We jumped at the opportunity to work with a hugely talented Arab filmmaker, a mouth-watering cast of Arab and international actors and actresses – some of whom are yet to be revealed – a passionate producer who has love for every project she has worked on, and a beautiful screenplay that takes us on a moving journey that will resonate everywhere,” said MAD Solutions co-founders Alaa Karkouti and Maher Diab.
