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THANK YOU FOR BANKING WITH US! to screen this entire month at Unseen Cinema in Kenya
05 June 2025
Fresh off winning two awards in Malmo and Beirut, the hit Palestinian sister-heist flick THANK YOU FOR BANKING WITH US! is set to screen month-round, with a total of 22 screenings from June 1st to the 30th at Nairobi’s Unseen Cinema in Kenya.
THANK YOU FOR BANKING WITH US! is a sister-heist comedy with a dose of social commentary, starring Yasmine Al-Masri, Clara Khoury, Kamil Al-Basha, and Ashraf Barhoum.
A joint Palestinian-German-Qatari production—with the acclaimed Hanna Atalla on board as a producer—the film tells the tale of Mariam and Noura, whose father passes away, leaving behind a substantial inheritance. The sisters plot to claim the fortune before their brother learns of their father's death, as he is legally entitled to half the inheritance, a reality the sisters perceive as unjust.
Most notably, recently, it received an extended screening at Cairo’s designated art house cinema Zawya, and received two back-to-back awards, winning Best Fiction Feature at the eighth Beirut International Women Film Festival as well as Best Screenplay at Sweden’s 15th Malmö Arab Film Festival.
The film already had quite an extensive run at global film festivals, premiering at BFI London and winning a slew of awards since, including a Silver Alexander for Best Director at the Thessaloniki Film Festival, a Golden Star at El Gouna Film Festival, the top prize at the Golden Rooster Awards, and another Best Screenplay at the Mälmo Arab Film Festival.
Laila Abbas is a Palestinian filmmaker, producer, and academic who studied cinema in Jordan and then film and TV production at the Royal Holloway University in the UK with a Said Foundation Scholarship.
In 2013, she made a splash with her documentary ICE & DUST, which followed a young Palestinian woman who crossed the Atlantic to search for a better life in Canada. She also worked as an instructor at the Institute of Modern Media at Al-Quds University. Abbas founded the production company Young Oak Productions and was selected for the Berlin Film Festival’s Berlinale Talents Program to nurture emerging filmmakers.
Hanna Atallah is a filmmaker, producer, and cultural art manager based between Berlin and Jerusalem known for his work on UPSHOT — which world premiered at the 77th Locarno International Film Festival, where it won the Pardino d’Oro Swiss Life for Best Auteur Short Film Award and the Junior Jury Award for the Best Auteur Short Film — A HOUSE IN JERUSALEM, and STANDING ON THE WIND.
With the creation of the non-profit organization Filmlab Palestine in 2014, located in Ramallah, Atallah developed a platform to activate cinema culture and professional knowledge exchange in Palestine that opened the door for a regional and international network for Palestinian film professionals.
THANK YOU FOR BANKING WITH US! is a sister-heist comedy with a dose of social commentary, starring Yasmine Al-Masri, Clara Khoury, Kamil Al-Basha, and Ashraf Barhoum.
A joint Palestinian-German-Qatari production—with the acclaimed Hanna Atalla on board as a producer—the film tells the tale of Mariam and Noura, whose father passes away, leaving behind a substantial inheritance. The sisters plot to claim the fortune before their brother learns of their father's death, as he is legally entitled to half the inheritance, a reality the sisters perceive as unjust.
Most notably, recently, it received an extended screening at Cairo’s designated art house cinema Zawya, and received two back-to-back awards, winning Best Fiction Feature at the eighth Beirut International Women Film Festival as well as Best Screenplay at Sweden’s 15th Malmö Arab Film Festival.
The film already had quite an extensive run at global film festivals, premiering at BFI London and winning a slew of awards since, including a Silver Alexander for Best Director at the Thessaloniki Film Festival, a Golden Star at El Gouna Film Festival, the top prize at the Golden Rooster Awards, and another Best Screenplay at the Mälmo Arab Film Festival.
Laila Abbas is a Palestinian filmmaker, producer, and academic who studied cinema in Jordan and then film and TV production at the Royal Holloway University in the UK with a Said Foundation Scholarship.
In 2013, she made a splash with her documentary ICE & DUST, which followed a young Palestinian woman who crossed the Atlantic to search for a better life in Canada. She also worked as an instructor at the Institute of Modern Media at Al-Quds University. Abbas founded the production company Young Oak Productions and was selected for the Berlin Film Festival’s Berlinale Talents Program to nurture emerging filmmakers.
Hanna Atallah is a filmmaker, producer, and cultural art manager based between Berlin and Jerusalem known for his work on UPSHOT — which world premiered at the 77th Locarno International Film Festival, where it won the Pardino d’Oro Swiss Life for Best Auteur Short Film Award and the Junior Jury Award for the Best Auteur Short Film — A HOUSE IN JERUSALEM, and STANDING ON THE WIND.
With the creation of the non-profit organization Filmlab Palestine in 2014, located in Ramallah, Atallah developed a platform to activate cinema culture and professional knowledge exchange in Palestine that opened the door for a regional and international network for Palestinian film professionals.
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