Cinema El Housh strives to establish itself as a hub for arts and cultural exchange. For 5 nights a week in Al Ula oasis, it screens arthouse films and world-class movies.
Gaza Mon Amour:
Recently, Palestinian film Gaza Mon Amour has been nominated for 3 awards from The Academy of Cinema Arts and Techniques (The Académie des César). The three award nominations are Best Foreign Film, Best Directing, and Best Actress for Hiam Abbass.
Gaza Mon Amour nabbed the Critics’ Choice Award at the Fribourg International Film Festival in Switzerland.
The film was Palestine's official submission to the Oscars, and it received the Best Actress award and the Best Feature film at the Critics Awards for Arab Films, an initiative organized by the Arab Cinema Center.
The film also won multiple international awards, including the Best Actor Prize for Salim Daw at the Malmo Arab Film Festival in Sweden, the NETPAC award at the Toronto International Film Festival, the Best Film award and Special Mention at the Cairo International Film Festival, the Best Actor award at the Antalya Film Festival and the Best Film and Best Script awards at the Valladolid International Film Festival.
Gaza, today, sixty-year-old fisherman Issa is secretly in love with Siham, a woman who works as a dressmaker at the market. Finally determined to propose, Issa discovers an ancient statue of Apollo in his fishing net, which he decides to hide at home.
When local authorities discover the existence of this mysterious treasure, troubles start for Issa…Will he succeed in declaring his love to Siham?
Directed by the Nasser brothers, Gaza Mon Amour features an all-star cast, including Salim Daw, Hiam Abbass, Maisa Abdelhadi, Georges Iskandar, Hitham Al Omari, and Manal Awad.
The film is produced by the French company Les Films du Tambour (delegate producer), in a co-production with Riva Filmproduktion (Germany), ZDF/Das Kleine Fernsehspiel and in collaboration with ARTE (Germany), Ukbar Filmes (Portugal), Made in Palestine Project (Palestine), and Jordan Pioneers. MAD Solutions handles the film’s distribution in the Arab world.
The Orphanage
In the late 1980s, 15-year-old Qodrat lives on the streets of Kabul and sells cinema tickets on the black market. He is a big Bollywood fan and he daydreams himself into some of his favorite movie scenes.
One day the Police bring him to the Soviet orphanage. But in Kabul the political situation is changing.
Qodrat and all the children want to defend their home.
Taking part in a number of international film festivals, including Munich International Film Festival, Chicago International Film Festival and Asia Pacific Screen Awards, the film also received the Golden Puffin: Best Film from Reykjavík International Film Festival.
Written and directed by Shahrbanoo Sadat, The Orphanage is inspired by the diaries of Anwar Hashimi, who stars in it alongside Qodratollah Qadiri, Sediqa Rasuli, Masihullah Feraji and Hasibullah Rasooli.
The film is produced by Katja Adomeit and distributed in the Arab world by MAD Solutions.
