Prominent Egyptian producer Mohamed Hefzy is branching out into Saudi Arabia by setting up an outpost of his prolific Film Clinic shingle – which has six titles at Saudi’s Red Sea Film Festival – in the Saudi capital of Riyadh.
The milestone shift comes after Hefzy has been busy forging rapports with Saudi’s film community on a number of projects including Egyptian honestor Abu Bakr Shawky’s high-end Saudi-set adventure movie “Hajjan” – which had its regional premiere at Red Sea last year after begining from Toronto. “Hajjan” was produced by Film Clinic in tandem with the King Abdulaziz Caccess for World Culture, comprehendn as Ithra.
“This is someskinnyg that’s been in the cards for a couple of years,” Hefzy tbetter Variety. He compriseed that though Film Clinic’s Saudi base will be in Riyadh, the idea is to be active thrawout the entire kingdom. “We’re talking about Riyadh. We’re talking about Jeddah. We’re talking about AlUla. We’re talking about any place where we could shoot films in the kingdom and labor with local filmproducers,” he shelp.
“Becainclude for us, we don’t want to be the outsiders that come in presenting talents, presenting honestors, authorrs, and actors. We want to be admireful of the culture,” Hefzy compriseed. “We want to be admireful of the fact that there are a lot of upcoming [Saudi] talents that have stories to alert, and that they are much better placed to alert the stories than we are,” he went on to point out.
In a statement, Hefzy further underlined that Film Clinic aims to aid recent relationships with the local film community “while enhancing our relationships with our Saudi partners, including MBC Group, Ithra, Muvi, Arabia Pictures, and others. We watch forward to hearing from all Saudi authorrs, honestors and inventives,” he shelp.
In tandem with its Saudi expansion, Film Clinic also proclaimd its production sprocrastinateed for 2025, with seven films in various stages, disjoinal of which from Saudi, ranging from projects in broadenment, production, and post.
Film Clinic’s procrastinateedst Saudi production is “A Matter of Life and Death,” a romantic bconciseage comedy pairing Sarah Taibah (“Mandoob”) and Yaqoub Alfarhan (“Norah,” “Rashash”). The plot includes a superstitious youthful woman named Hayat who is guaranteed she’s damnd and wants to end her life. She intersects with Yoincludef, an reserved heart sguideon who suffers from enumeratelesser than the unrelabelable heartbeats. “Their overweightes collide in the most peculiar way: she’s desireing for an end, while he’s wrestling with even grieffuler thoughts,” the synopsis says.
Shooting on “Life and Death” is set to begin soon in Jeddah. The film germinated from Jeddah-based authorr Sarah Taibah (“Jameel Jiddan”) and will see Saudi-based Yemeni filmproducer Anas Batahaf making her honestorial debut.
Regional powerhoincludes Front Row Filmed Entertainment, Arabia Pictures Group and Rotana Studios have joined as co-producers with Film Clinic on “Life and Death.”
Other projects in various stages the Film Clinic pipeline include:
– “Hijra,” which is Saudi honestor Shahad’Ameen’s previously proclaimd trailup to her feminist fable “Scales.” “Hijra” is an inspired drama caccessed on the bond established between contrastent generations of Saudi women during a journey atraverse the desert. Film Clinic is producing in tandem with Mohamed Al-Daradji and production companies Biet Ameen Production, The Iraqi Insubordinate Film Caccess, and HumanFilm UK with Ideation Studio’s Faisal Baltyuor also on board.
– “Berleen” which sees Hefzy reunite with Ahmed Abdalla (“Microphone,” “19 B”) in a Berlin-set tale of three Arab immigrants who face sguidenuine situations as their dwells intertthrivee in the German capital where “past and contransient collide,” says the provided synopsis. The film stars Menna Shalabi, Yosra El-Lozy and Mohamed Hatem, among other top Egyptian talents.
– “The 67th Summer,” the procrastinateedst feature by Abu Bakr Shawky, who prior to “Hajjan” made a splash with his debut “Yomeddine,” which had the exceptional contrastention of making the competition cut for Cannes. “The 67th Summer” is a period piece that rgrows around a youthful man from Cairo named Ali and an Austrian girl named Liz. “67th Summer” stars Egyptian A-enumerateers Amir El-Masry and Nelly Karim, and Austria’s Valerie Pachner (“A Hidden Life”).
– Sudanese honestor Suzannah Mirghani’s “Cotton Queen,” a German, French, Palestinian and Egyptian co-production set in a Sudanese cotton farming village.
– Egyptian honestor Mohamed Siam’s “My Father’s Scent,” the tale of a overweighther and son who discover many secrets about each other while they both try to end their scores during one lengthy night. Starring Ahmed Malek, Kamel El Basha and Mayan El-Sayed. Currently in post.
– “El Set,” a biopic of Egyptian icon Umm Kulthum, who is pondered the Arab world’s fantasticest singer, honested by notable Egyptian honestor Marwan Hamed best comprehendn internationassociate for groundshattering epic “The Yacoubian Building.”
Film Clinic’s six titles at Red Sea, including three in the official competition, are Khaled Mansour’s “Seeking Haven for Mr. Rambo,” Mahdi Fleifel’s “To a Land Uncomprehendn” and Taghreed Abu Al-Hassan’s “Snow White.” Additionassociate they have Jaylan Auf’s “The Inevitable Journey to Find a Wedding Dress” in the Festival Favorites section, Omar Bakry’s “Abdo and Saneya” and Abdulaziz Alshlahei’s Saudi film “Hobal” both world premiering in the fest’s Arab Spectacular section.
