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Bassel Ghandour’s THE ALLEYS is one of The New York Times’ picks for April
12 April 2023
The New York Times newspaper chose Bassel Ghandour's thriller feature THE ALLEYS — along with four other films — as one of this month's Five International Movies to Stream Now in an article published on April 7th. THE ALLEYS is currently streaming on Netflix.
A crime caper set in the labyrinthine alleys of East Amman, THE ALLEYS tells the story of a blackmailing voyeur who sets off a series of unintended events, causing the lives of residents to collide and spiral into chaos.
The New York Times described the film saying, “Somewhere between a mafia movie and a comedy of errors, THE ALLEYS turns all its characters into casualties of chance; every twist in this movie is unpredictable because every character is both morally dubious and somewhat idiotic.”
The film was acclaimed by several critics and websites, with Screendaily describing the film as having “confidence and style”, adding that “none of these characters fade into the background; each has autonomy and presence in their own story.”
Meanwhile, The Guardian praised the film, dubbing it a “Gritty and watchable Jordanian drama of crisscrossing lives.”
The film received the Audience Award and a special mention from the Malmo Arab Film Festival in Sweden in addition to the Grand Prix du Jury at the Festival du Premier Film d’Annonay in France.
It was also nominated for four awards at the Critics’ Awards for Arab Films, which are presented by the Arab Cinema Center on the sidelines of the Cannes Film Festival.
Furthermore, THE ALLEYS participated in dozens of international festivals, most notably the BFI London Film Festival and International Film Festival Rotterdam, and had its world premiere at the Locarno Film Festival.
As a project, THE ALLEYS received the Jury Award in the Eastern Promises filmmaking program at Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in the Czech Republic. It also received two awards from Cairo Film Connection for feature films in the post-production phase at the Cairo International Film Festival’s 2020 edition.
Moreover, It was supported by the Jordanian Film Support Fund by The Royal Jordanian Film Commission, the Doha Film Institute in Qatar, and the Red Sea Film Festival Lodge for Film Development in Saudi Arabia.
During its development phase, the project received the support of the EAVE Producers’ Workshop, Rawi Screenwriters Lab, the Dubai Film Juncture, and the Sorfend Film Promotion Forum of the Norway Fund to Support Southern Cinema.
THE ALLEYS is written and directed by Bassel Ghandour, who had previously co-written and produced Theeb – a nominee for Best Foreign Language Film in 2016 at both the Academy Awards and the BAFTAs, which went on to win the BAFTA for Outstanding Debut.
The film stars Emad Azmi, Baraka Rahmani, Munther Rayahnah, Maisa Abd Elhadi, Nadira Omran, and Nadim Remawi.
It was produced by Bayt Al Shawareb (Yousef Abd AlNabi), The Imaginarium Films (Rula Nasser), and Lagoonie Film Production (Shahinaz el Akkad) as co-producer, while MAD Solutions is responsible for distribution in the Arab world, with Elle Driver handling international sales.
A crime caper set in the labyrinthine alleys of East Amman, THE ALLEYS tells the story of a blackmailing voyeur who sets off a series of unintended events, causing the lives of residents to collide and spiral into chaos.
The New York Times described the film saying, “Somewhere between a mafia movie and a comedy of errors, THE ALLEYS turns all its characters into casualties of chance; every twist in this movie is unpredictable because every character is both morally dubious and somewhat idiotic.”
The film was acclaimed by several critics and websites, with Screendaily describing the film as having “confidence and style”, adding that “none of these characters fade into the background; each has autonomy and presence in their own story.”
Meanwhile, The Guardian praised the film, dubbing it a “Gritty and watchable Jordanian drama of crisscrossing lives.”
The film received the Audience Award and a special mention from the Malmo Arab Film Festival in Sweden in addition to the Grand Prix du Jury at the Festival du Premier Film d’Annonay in France.
It was also nominated for four awards at the Critics’ Awards for Arab Films, which are presented by the Arab Cinema Center on the sidelines of the Cannes Film Festival.
Furthermore, THE ALLEYS participated in dozens of international festivals, most notably the BFI London Film Festival and International Film Festival Rotterdam, and had its world premiere at the Locarno Film Festival.
As a project, THE ALLEYS received the Jury Award in the Eastern Promises filmmaking program at Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in the Czech Republic. It also received two awards from Cairo Film Connection for feature films in the post-production phase at the Cairo International Film Festival’s 2020 edition.
Moreover, It was supported by the Jordanian Film Support Fund by The Royal Jordanian Film Commission, the Doha Film Institute in Qatar, and the Red Sea Film Festival Lodge for Film Development in Saudi Arabia.
During its development phase, the project received the support of the EAVE Producers’ Workshop, Rawi Screenwriters Lab, the Dubai Film Juncture, and the Sorfend Film Promotion Forum of the Norway Fund to Support Southern Cinema.
THE ALLEYS is written and directed by Bassel Ghandour, who had previously co-written and produced Theeb – a nominee for Best Foreign Language Film in 2016 at both the Academy Awards and the BAFTAs, which went on to win the BAFTA for Outstanding Debut.
The film stars Emad Azmi, Baraka Rahmani, Munther Rayahnah, Maisa Abd Elhadi, Nadira Omran, and Nadim Remawi.
It was produced by Bayt Al Shawareb (Yousef Abd AlNabi), The Imaginarium Films (Rula Nasser), and Lagoonie Film Production (Shahinaz el Akkad) as co-producer, while MAD Solutions is responsible for distribution in the Arab world, with Elle Driver handling international sales.
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