Jordanian film “The Alleys” at a London Film Festival
The Jordanian Film “The Alleys”, directed by Basil Ghandour, was shown at the Safar Film Festival which shows Arab Films in Britain at the cinema hall of the French Cultural Center in London on Wednesday, July 12
Safar Film Festival will run from 1st until 17th of July, 2022.
The Jordanian film was first premiered In The Uk At London Film Festival 2021 Where It Was In Competition For The Best First Feature Award. Directed and Written by Basil Ghandour. And starring: Imad Azmy, Munther Rayhana, Mayssa Abdel Hadi, Baraka Rahmani, Nadera Omran and Nadim Rimawi.
The film shows a unique contemporary look at Jordanian society by showing the deep details of the labyrinth of alleys in East Amman. And the starring artists performed the stories and its aspect very well.
However, critics of the film see it as exaggerating the actual situation in Jordan and showing the city allowing for the gangs to impose their rules in the districts with no police prevention.
Nevertheless, The Alleys have still won the jury prize for the filmmaking program (Eastern Promises) at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in the Czech Republic.
It also received two other awards from the Cairo Film Forum for feature films in post-production as part of the Cairo International Film Festival.
The plot of “The Alleys”
The film takes place in a neighbourhood governed by gossip and violence in eastern Amman, where a hustler, Ali, has a secret relationship with a girl, Lana, and does the impossible to be with her, but her mother stands in their way.
Someone then started blackmailing the girl’s mother with pictures of her and the young being intimate, her mother then decides to take the matter into her hand by asking a gang for their “help” but then things don’t go as planned.
The funding of “The Alleys”
The film received support from the Royal Jordanian Film Commission (Jordan), the Doha Film Institute (Qatar), and the Red Sea Film Festival (Saudi Arabia).
During the development phase, the film project was supported by the EAVE Producers’ Workshop, Rawi Screenwriting Workshop, Dubai Film Forum, and Sorfond Forum in Norway.
The award “The Alleys” is nominated for
The Jordanian film “The Alleys” is nominated for prizes in the Piazza Grande section of the Locarno International Film Festival in Switzerland, to mark the first participation of a Jordanian feature film in the history of the festival.
It is the first Arab film to participate in the Piazza Grande section since 2008 when Youssef Chahine’s film The Destiny was honoured at the show.
The film will be shown on the terrace of Piazza Grande, which has a giant screen and a capacity of 8,000 viewers.
The Jordanian film “The Alleys” is competing for three awards: the Audience Award, the Variety Piazza Grande Award, which is offered by the American magazine Variety to help films launch their international careers, and the Swatch Award for Best First Work since The Alleys was the first directing experience for Basel Ghandour after he helped write and produce “Theeb”.
The Locarno Film Festival is one of the oldest film festivals in the world and was founded in 1946. Its activities start annually in August for 11 days in the Swiss city of Locarno, where thousands of film lovers and makers gather.
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