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Egyptian workplace thriller THE SETTLEMENT wins Audience award at Italy’s Miworld Young Film Festival
08 April 2025
Mohamed Rashad’s riveting Egyptian workplace thriller, THE SETTLEMENT, has claimed its first accolade on the festival circuit, winning the prestigious Audience Award at the sixth Miworld Young Film Festival, held from March 24th to 31st in Milan, Italy.
Hot off its world premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival, where it garnered widespread critical acclaim, THE SETTLEMENT has embarked on an ambitious festival journey, showcasing its powerful narrative at various international festivals, including the African, Asian, and Latin American Film Festival and the Bolzano Film Festival Bozen in Italy.
Inspired by real events, THE SETTLEMENT follows two brothers — 23-year-old troublemaker Hossam and his 12-year-old brother Maro — living in a marginalized community in Alexandria who are offered jobs by the local factory after their father's untimely death in a workplace accident as compensation for their loss in lieu of pursuing legal action. As they navigate their new roles, they begin to question whether their father’s death was truly accidental.
Prompted by a story shared with him by a law school graduate whose father died at a construction site, where the company pressured the family to waive their rights in exchange for offering the son a job in its legal department, Rashad — a native of Alexandria whose father worked in textile factories for over four decades — found the story a valuable opportunity to shed light on the safety issues prevalent in some factories and the illegal practices sometimes employed by their management.
The film stars emerging talents Adham Shukr, Ziad Islam, Hajar Omar, Mohamed Abdel Hady, and Emad Ghoneim; it is lensed by cinematographer Mahmoud Lotfi and edited by Heba Othman, whose credits include the acclaimed Sudanese film GOODBYE JULIA.
A joint production involving Egypt, France, Germany, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia, THE SETTLEMENT is produced by Hala Lotfy of Hassala Films (Cairo) and co-produced by Etienne de Ricaud of Caractères Productions (Paris), Kesmat Elsayed of Seera Films GmbH (Berlin), and ART (Jeddah). MAD World manages the film's worldwide sales, while MAD Distribution oversees its distribution throughout the Arab World.
During its development phase, the film received support from a slew of prestigious international funding bodies, including the Berlinale World Cinema Fund, IFFR’s Hubert Bals Fund Script and Development Initiative along with Hubert Bals Plus Co-Production Minority Support, Doha Film Institute, Arab Fund for Arts and Culture, Red Sea Development Fund, FondsFunds Image De La Francophonie Fund, and El Gouna Film Festival’s CineGouna Funding.
ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS:
Mohamed Rashad is an Egyptian director, writer, and producer who graduated from the University of Alexandria with a degree in civil engineering. After completing a two-year filmmaking workshop at the Jesuit Cultural Film School of Alexandria, he directed two short fiction films: FROM AFAR (2005) and MAXIM (2007). He later served as an assistant director on several notable films, including COMING FORTH BY DAY, directed by Hala Lotfy, with whom he co-founded Hassala Films.
Etienne de Ricaud returned to the Berlinale with THE SETTLEMENT after his film MY FAVORITE CAKE won the festival’s FIPRESCI Prize and the Ecumenical Jury Prize, and Kesmat Elsayed of Seera Films is known for REPORTING A REVOLUTION — which also premiered at the Berlinale — and ABO ZAABAL 89, which won Best Feature Documentary at the 45th Cairo International Film Festival.
Producer Hala Lotfy's feature debut COMING FORTH BY DAY premiered at the Berlinale Forum in 2013 and won numerous awards, including the FIPRESCI Prize and Best Director from the Arab World at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival. She also served as a jury member for the 70th Berlinale’s Best First Feature Award.
Hot off its world premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival, where it garnered widespread critical acclaim, THE SETTLEMENT has embarked on an ambitious festival journey, showcasing its powerful narrative at various international festivals, including the African, Asian, and Latin American Film Festival and the Bolzano Film Festival Bozen in Italy.
Inspired by real events, THE SETTLEMENT follows two brothers — 23-year-old troublemaker Hossam and his 12-year-old brother Maro — living in a marginalized community in Alexandria who are offered jobs by the local factory after their father's untimely death in a workplace accident as compensation for their loss in lieu of pursuing legal action. As they navigate their new roles, they begin to question whether their father’s death was truly accidental.
Prompted by a story shared with him by a law school graduate whose father died at a construction site, where the company pressured the family to waive their rights in exchange for offering the son a job in its legal department, Rashad — a native of Alexandria whose father worked in textile factories for over four decades — found the story a valuable opportunity to shed light on the safety issues prevalent in some factories and the illegal practices sometimes employed by their management.
The film stars emerging talents Adham Shukr, Ziad Islam, Hajar Omar, Mohamed Abdel Hady, and Emad Ghoneim; it is lensed by cinematographer Mahmoud Lotfi and edited by Heba Othman, whose credits include the acclaimed Sudanese film GOODBYE JULIA.
A joint production involving Egypt, France, Germany, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia, THE SETTLEMENT is produced by Hala Lotfy of Hassala Films (Cairo) and co-produced by Etienne de Ricaud of Caractères Productions (Paris), Kesmat Elsayed of Seera Films GmbH (Berlin), and ART (Jeddah). MAD World manages the film's worldwide sales, while MAD Distribution oversees its distribution throughout the Arab World.
During its development phase, the film received support from a slew of prestigious international funding bodies, including the Berlinale World Cinema Fund, IFFR’s Hubert Bals Fund Script and Development Initiative along with Hubert Bals Plus Co-Production Minority Support, Doha Film Institute, Arab Fund for Arts and Culture, Red Sea Development Fund, FondsFunds Image De La Francophonie Fund, and El Gouna Film Festival’s CineGouna Funding.
ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS:
Mohamed Rashad is an Egyptian director, writer, and producer who graduated from the University of Alexandria with a degree in civil engineering. After completing a two-year filmmaking workshop at the Jesuit Cultural Film School of Alexandria, he directed two short fiction films: FROM AFAR (2005) and MAXIM (2007). He later served as an assistant director on several notable films, including COMING FORTH BY DAY, directed by Hala Lotfy, with whom he co-founded Hassala Films.
Etienne de Ricaud returned to the Berlinale with THE SETTLEMENT after his film MY FAVORITE CAKE won the festival’s FIPRESCI Prize and the Ecumenical Jury Prize, and Kesmat Elsayed of Seera Films is known for REPORTING A REVOLUTION — which also premiered at the Berlinale — and ABO ZAABAL 89, which won Best Feature Documentary at the 45th Cairo International Film Festival.
Producer Hala Lotfy's feature debut COMING FORTH BY DAY premiered at the Berlinale Forum in 2013 and won numerous awards, including the FIPRESCI Prize and Best Director from the Arab World at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival. She also served as a jury member for the 70th Berlinale’s Best First Feature Award.
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