24 November 2022:
GIVE UP THE GHOST – a film by Zain Duraie – will be screened for free on November 29th at 7:30 pm at Notre Dame University - Louaize's Issam Fares Hall in Lebanon as part of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) Film Days’ Masarouna Project.
The SRHR Film Days will screen short films from the MENA and other regions that will offer an intersectional, all-inclusive feminist understanding of SRHR.
Additionally, The SRHR Film Days is organized in collaboration with the American University of Beirut's (AUB) Asfari Institute, Oxfam, and the Beirut Film Society, as well as the Beirut Shorts’ section of the Notre Dame University International Film Festival.
GIVE UP THE GHOST tells the story of Salam, whose dreams of becoming a mother shatter when she finds out that she is unable to have children with her husband. A lifetime of convictions and beliefs are put to the test as Salam realizes she must make a choice.
On another note, the film won the Vimeo Staff Pick Award at the Palm Springs International Short Festival, the Gouna Star for the Best Arab Short at the Gouna Film Festival, and the Jury Award at the Indian World Film Festival.
Since its world premiere at the Venice International Film Festival, GIVE UP THE GHOST has been screening at several film festivals, including the Sudan Independent Film Festival, the Haifa Independent Film Festival in Palestine, the Rabat International Author Film Festival (FICAR), the Tripoli Film Festival, the Palestine Arts Film Festival in Zurich, and the Fribourg International Film Festival.
Moreover, it screened at the Indian World Film Festival, the Salamindanaw Asian Film Festival, the Helsinki International Film Festival - Love & Anarchy, the Festival Cinéma de la Paix in Tunisia, the Alexandria Short Film Festival, and the Women and Youth Film Festival.
Written and directed by Zain Duraie and produced by Tabi360 (Alaa Alasad), the film is headlined by Maria Zurek and Zaid Bakri and is lensed by DOP Benoit Chamaillard. MAD Solutions handles the film's distribution in the Arab world.
Zain Duraie graduated from the Toronto Film School in 2010. She started off her training with acclaimed filmmaker Annemarire Jacir on her second feature WHEN I SAW YOU.
Jacir's production company Philistine Films produced Duraie's debut film HORIZON, which had its world premiere in 2013 at the Palm Springs Shorts Fest and won as Best of the Fest Selects.
Duraie afterwards began developing her feature film screenplay abroad, which was selected to be developed with the prestigious Asia Pacific Screen Academy in parallel with its selection at Meditalents Residence and Torino Film Lab.
