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EXCLUSIVE: MENA film distribution and marketing company and talent agency MAD Solutions has acquired worldwide rights to the short film The Last Miracle ahead of its world premiere as the opener of Egypt’s El Gouna Film Festival later this month.
Its subsidiary MAD Distribution will handle its release across Arab-speaking territories, while the company’s recently-launched sales arm MAD World will look after sales in all other territories.
The Egyptian short is directed by Abdelwahab Shawky, whose previous credits include assistant director on Sudanese breakout feature You Will Die At 20 by Amjad Abu Alala.
Popular actor Khaled Kamal (The Blue Elephant, Clash) plays 40-year-old Yahya, who receives a surprising phone call from a deceased Sheikh at a bar. Little does he know he’s about to go on a spiritual journey with an unexpected conclusion.
It is based on a tale in a short story collection titled ‘The Tavern Of The Black Cat’ by the late Nobel Prize-winning author Naguib Mahfouz.
Kamal is joined in the cast by Ahmed Siam and Abed Anani, with a special guest appearance by Ghada Adel, the Egyptian actress known for a two-decade string of cult films and box office smashes, including Mohamed Khan’s In The Heliopolis Flat.
Sudanese Egypt-based director and producer Abu Alala produced the short under the banner of his company Station Films.
Egyptian producer Mark Lotfy, who co-wrote the screenplay, is also on board with his company Fig Leaf Studios, the recent credits of which include Cannes doc prize-winner Mother Of All Lies and I Am Afraid To Forget Your Face.
Further production partners are Baho Bakhsh and Safei Eldin Mahmoud at Red Star Films (Goodbye Julia), Adel Abdullah’s Key Films, and Shoft Studios, with the support of the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture (AFAC).
The acquisition marks the second consecutive year that MAD has picked up the world sales rights to El Gouna’s opening film. Last year, the company acquired Amr Salama’s Egyptian film 60 Pounds, the first ever short in history to open an Arab film festival.
MAD Distribution, will handle distribution of the short across Arab-speaking territories; while MAD World will handle its sale in all other territories.
The El Gouna Film Festival runs from from October 24 to November 1.
