Do-it-yourself Movies Brings New Tasks to Venice, Boards Mahdi Fleifel’s ‘Males within the Solar’

Greece’s Homemade Films has boarded Mahdi Fleifel’s upcoming function “Males within the Solar,” at the moment within the remaining phases of improvement. The story, set in Athens, will cope with masculinity, exile and loss, exhibiting younger refugees of their 20s hustling to outlive within the city stress cooker.

The corporate can be prepared to begin taking pictures Sofia Exarchou’s “Animal,” co-producing with Nabis Filmgroup, Ars Ltd., Digital Dice and Felony Productions.

Moreover, its founder Maria Drandaki not too long ago introduced new tasks at Venice Hole-Financing Market. “Arcadia,” directed by Yorgos Zois, will see Do-it-yourself Movies becoming a member of forces with Foss Manufacturing and Purple Carpet. “Titanic Ocean” by Konstantina Kotzamani will likely be shot in Japan and Singapore in 2023.

“I’m very excited to be working with this group of administrators on quite a lot of completely different genres that span from drama to fantasy and thriller,” says Drandaki. She added that she may be very keen on working with worldwide filmmakers like Dubai-born Fleifel, who lives and works between Denmark, England and Greece.

“All of them have already taken their first, assured steps and with their upcoming movies they may affirm their presence as among the most promising administrators from Europe. All these movies supply unpredictable factors of view, creating new cinematic landscapes.”

“I’m at all times within the surprising, unique and non-conventional,” she provides. “I can’t wait to see these movies on the large display screen.”

In 2012, Fleifel shot the acclaimed documentary “A World Not Ours,” awarded in Berlin. Later, he was nominated for a BAFTA for his quick “A Drowning Man.”

“Males within the Solar,” co-written by Fleifel and Jason McColgan, is produced by Inside Out Movies’ Geoff Arbourne, with Maarten Van der Ven, Layla Meijman and Frank Barat co-producing alongside Drandaki.

“All through the final decade spent documenting the streets of Athens, I’ve change into intimately aware of my characters’ universe: the basement flats, squats, crowded streets. It’s an unruly metropolis, stuffed with vitality and visible noise, which makes it an interesting setting,” says the helmer.

Exploring a friendship that steadily dissolves underneath stress, Fleifel borrowed the title from Ghassan Kanafani’s novella about Palestinian refugees touring to Kuwait and hoping to search out work.

“You might say that my movie is spiritually related to Kanafani, whose different title ‘A World Not Ours’ I additionally borrowed. However will probably be a free, trendy adaptation the place Athens turns into an city desert,” he says, mentioning “Lord of the Flies” and Larry Clark’s “Children” as vital inspiration, in addition to his personal background.

“I’m the son of refugees myself. I used to be solely 9 years previous when my household fled war-torn Lebanon for a safer life in Scandinavia. My work at all times offers with themes of exile. However ‘Males within the Solar’ is against the law thriller, and that’s one thing I haven’t seen earlier than,” he states.

“This style is our place to begin. It represents a typical language the viewers acknowledges, in order that they know what to anticipate. My position as a filmmaker, nonetheless, is to show issues the wrong way up,” he provides.

“It’s the exiles and the undesirable versus the natives, the nationalists and fascists in present-day Europe.” However he isn’t solely in battle.

“I want to suppose that regardless of what looks like an eternity of hopelessness, there may be nonetheless humor [in the film]. These youngsters are vigorous and so they possess a playful vitality that insists on dwelling. With out this, how else might they survive? I need to go away the viewers with the sensation that hope exists, even in essentially the most hopeless circumstances.”

In the end, Fleifel is hoping for the movie to enter the pageant circuit, but additionally to take pleasure in a “fruitful, industrial life.”

“So long as I can fulfill my very own cinematic style, in addition to that of my pricey mom, I can say I’ve succeeded,” he jokes.