14 August 2022:
The feature film THE ALLEYS by Bassel Ghandour will be screened twice at The Rainbow theater in Jordan, resuming its release in its homeland that started last June. The film will be screened on Saturday 20th and Tuesday 23rd August. The film was released in 21 theaters in Saudi Arabia and is expected to be released soon in other Arab countries.
Recently, the film received the audience award and special mention from Malmo Arab Film Festival, Sweden. In addition, it received The Grand Prix du Jury at the Festival du Premier Film d’Annonay, France. It was nominated for four awards in Critics’ Awards for Arab Films that is presented by Arab Cinema Center on the sidelines of the current Cannes Festival.
THE ALLEYS was widely acclaimed during its screening tour in which it participated in dozens of international festivals; the most notably are BFI London Film Festival and International Film Festival Rotterdam. Also, its Arab premiere was at Red Sea International Film Festival, while its international premiere was at one of the most prestigious international festivals which is Locarno Film Festival at Piazza Grande competition, becoming the first Jordanian feature film to participate in this festival.
Film critic Khaled Sameh wrote about the film in the Jordanian Addustor website saying that “Jordanian film, THE ALLEYS, is a bold expression of social dilemmas within a context of brutal realism.” While Esraa Al Radaideh wrote in the Jordanian Alghad website that “In THE ALLEYS we see these narrow alleys overflowing with twists and reflections, the lines of conspiracy in a film built on powerful script tells a complex network of individual yet interconnected stories.”
THE ALLEYS also received critical acclaim and praise from international critics and websites including Screen Daily, Backseat Mafia, the famous American website PopMatters, the British website The Upcoming, the Swiss newspaper Corriere Del Ticino and others who described the film as fascinating, impressive, epic and exciting that will stuck in your mind for so long.
In a gossip-ridden, violent neighborhood in East Amman, a young hustler will stop at nothing to be with his secret lover, but her mother will not have it. When an extortionist’s camera captures a video of the couple in the act, the mother solicits a gangster to put a stop to it all, but things do not go as planned.
THE ALLEYS film project received The Jury Award in the filmmaking programme Eastern Promises at Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in Czech Republic. It also received two awards from Cairo Film Connection for feature films in post-production phase at Cairo International film festival. It was also supported by the Jordanian film support fund by The Royal Jordanian Film Commission and Doha Film Institute (Qatar) and Red Sea Film Festival Lodge for film development (Saudi). During the development phase, the project received the support of EAVE producers’ workshop and Rawi Screenwriters Lab and Dubai Film juncture and Sorfend Film Promotion Forum of the Norway Fund to Support Southern Cinema.
THE ALLEYS is written and directed by Bassel Ghandour, starring Emad Azmi, Baraka Rahmani, Munther Rayahnah, Maisa Abd Elhadi, Nadira Omran and Nadim Remawi. Produced by Bayt Al Shawareb (Yousef Abd AlNabi), The Imaginarium Films (Rula Nasser) and Lagoonie Film Production (Shahinaz el Akkad) as co-producer. MAD Solutions is responsible for distribution in the Arab world, while the French company Elle Driver handles sales in the rest of the world.
Bassel Ghandour co-wrote and produced Theeb, the nominee for Best Foreign Language Film at both the Academy Awards and the BAFTAs. It received the BAFTAs award for the first feature work in 2016. THE ALLEYS is his first directorial experience, he’s also the screenwriter and its world premiere was at the Locarno International Film Festival.
