Saudi short film LAILA to internationally premiere at Zanzibar International Film Festival
20 June 2023
Saudi short film LAILA by Zakaria Al-Bashir is set to hold its international premiere at the Zanzibar International Film Festival in Tanzania, which will be running from June 24th to July 2nd.
The festival, which is one of the most significant cultural events in East Africa, will be showcasing LAILA on Monday, June 26th at 2 pm at Marumaru Fountain.
Previously, the film world premiered in its home country, Saudi Arabia, in the latest edition of the Saudi Film Festival.
Laila is a twenty-something married woman who is having marital problems with her husband Muhammad, leading her to escape into her imagination and contemplate what could have been.
Directed by Al-Bashir and co-written by Sahar Sulaiman, Mohamed Bawarith, and Hazem Saleh, LAILA stars Hams Bandar, Ammar Barashir, and Retaj Abdullah, with MAD Solutions handling worldwide sales and distribution.
Al-Bashir is a Somali filmmaker based in Saudi Arabia whose interest in film began at a young age. He initially cut his teeth in the art world by appearing in several plays before working on a number of Somali short films that were aired on Somali television.
He then attended several workshops to expand his knowledge of filmmaking, some of which were held at King Abdul Aziz University in Jeddah.