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THE IDOL A Hany Abu-‐Assad Film
Inspired by incredible true story of Mohammed Assaf
European Premiere at London Film Festival: Monday 12th October 2015
In Arabic with English subtitles / From Palestine/UK/Qatar/Netherlands Shooting Format: 2k, Arri Alexa / Screening Format: DCP / RT: 100min
International Publicity :
freuds / +44 20 3003 6300
[email protected] [email protected]
SYNOPSIS
Gaza. Synonymous to so many with conflict, destruction and despair but to Mohammed Assaf, and his sister Nour, Gaza is their home and their playground. It’s where they, along with their best friends Ahmad and Omar, play music, football and dare to dream big. Their band might play on second hand, beaten up instruments but their ambitions are sky-‐high. For Mohammed and Nour, nothing less than
playing the world famous Cairo Opera Hall will do. It might take them a lifetime to get there but, as Mohammed will find out, some dreams are worth living for.
Along the way, Mohammed will experience tragedy and loss. The world around him will shatter. Through it all, however, he will somehow retain the hope that his voice will somehow deliver him from the pain that surrounds him and bring joy to others. He sings at weddings, he drives a taxi to pay for his university studies. Even as the siege around Gaza intensifies, the prison around them ever more forbidding, Mohammed knows he has a rare gift. To make people smile and forget their
troubles.
And so, in front of him on TV one evening lies an impossible dream: the auditions for Arab Idol, the most popular show in the Arab world, are taking place in Cairo. The borders are closed. There is no way out. Somehow, he finds a way and makes it in front of the judges in Egypt. From there, destiny awaits, a chance to change his life and give a voiceless people the greatest feeling of all: the freedom to love, live and
feel free.
BACKGROUND
The incredible true story of Mohammed Assaf defies belief. The 22-‐year-‐old Palestinian refugee from Gaza won the hearts of an entire region when he won Arab Idol (the Arab world’s own version of American Idol) in 2013. Overnight he became a symbol of peace and possibility. He grew up in the urban prison of Gaza, singing at weddings and driving a taxi to support his university studies. He lost friends and loved ones to life under occupation and under siege. Through it all, he never lost hope that he could make a difference. Against all the odds, he managed to escape out of Gaza and make it to Cairo for the Arab Idol auditions. He actually arrived
late for his audition and was about to be turned away. He refuses to take no for an answer, though, jumping over a security fence and somehow getting inside the hotel where the auditions were taking place. There, he sang for the fellow contestants
who actually had tickets. Once he heard Mohammed’s voice, one contestant gave up his own slot for Mohammed. The rest is history. The finale of the show was one of the most watched TV events in Arab history, with tens of millions tuning in across the entire region as the young singer from Gaza helped a region forget its problems
for a few songs every weekend and remember to smile again.
The story of Mohammed Assaf is a once in a lifetime event, an opportunity to put a human face on a people who have all too often been marginalised and
misrepresented.
At a time of unprecedented upheaval in the Arab world, with revolutions, civil wars, strife and extremism, Mohammed’s journey from humble wedding singer in Gaza, to the region’s hottest young star played out before our eyes weekly. Every Friday and Saturday night, for a few minutes, viewers could release themselves from the daily
struggles and remember how to smile again.
Mohammed Assaf represents the spirit and symbol of what might be; of dreams coming true; of the impossible becoming, for a precious moment at least, entirely
possible.
THE FILMMAKER Hany Abu-‐Assad is one of the world’s most distinctive filmmakers. The two-‐time Academy Award-‐nominated director -‐ Paradise Now (2006) and Omar (2013)-‐ has
won countless other awards including the Berlin International Film Festival’s prestigious Blue Angel award, Best Foreign Language Film at the Golden Globes and
the Special Jury Prize in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard.
He was born in Nazareth, Palestine in 1961. After having studied and worked as an airplane engineer in The Netherlands for several years, Abu-‐Assad entered the world of cinema as a producer and produced the feature film Curfew, directed by Rashid
Masharawi, in 1994.
In 1998 he directed his first film, The Fourteenth Chick, from a script by writer Arnon Grunberg, followed by his documentary Nazareth 2000, his second feature film
Rana’s Wedding and his second documentary Ford Transit. In 2006 his film Paradise Now about two Palestinian men preparing for a suicide
attack in Tel Aviv, was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. The film won the Golden Globe for Best Foreign language film in 2006.
In 2011 Abu-‐Assad finished working on The Courier, a Hollywood movie starring Jeffery Dean Morgan, Til Schweiger and Mickey Rourke.
Most recently, Abu-‐Assad’s Omar, which featured star-‐making performances from Adam Bakri and Leem Lubany, garnered the director his second Academy Award
nomination for the edge-‐of-‐your seat thriller. The film won several worldwide prizes including the Jury Prize of Certain Regard at the Cannes Film Festival
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
I always ask myself why I want to make a movie and spend almost two years of my life working very hard to complete that movie. In the case of Arab Idol, the answer was clear and simple. The story of this young man, Muhammad Assaf, is such an
incredible story that even somebody like me who, just three weeks earlier had won the Jury Prize of Certain Regard at the Cannes Film Festival, was more excited for Assaf to win Arab Idol than for myself. I was caught on camera between thousands of people gathered in the square in Nazareth to hear the final results for Arab Idol; I was jumping in excitement like a little kid, and I have not had this kind of excitement for a very long time. When Ali Jaafar asked me to direct Muhammad Assaf’s story,
my arms were covered in goosebumps. I knew immediately that I would do everything to make this story a great movie.
I see Arab Idol as the story of fighting and the will of surviving under extreme
circumstances. It’s a story of hope and success, where a brother and a sister were able to make from their disadvantages an advantage, and from the impossible possible, who come from nowhere to overcome all odds, beating poverty,
oppression, and occupation. They have the ability to convert ugliness to beauty, which, in the end, is the power behind all art and the fuel to nurture hope.
THE PRODUCTION
Filming began in January this year. For filmmaker Hany Abu-‐Assad the key to this film has always been authenticity both in front of and behind the camera. That is why The Idol is one of the first, if not the first, international production to shoot on location in Gaza, despite the logistical difficulties to get a film crew in and out safely. Shooting amongst the devastated landscapes of a Gaza still reeling from the month-‐long bombardment in 2014, Abu-‐Assad and his crew were still able to find great
moments of beauty and surprise. The Gaza Parkour team, for example, supply their amazing acrobatic display in the most surprising way in one moment, proving that
art can thrive in even the most challenging of situations.
That desire for authenticity is also why Hany insisted on finding and employing real kids from Gaza to act in the film. The crew did a Gaza-‐wide search, holding casting sessions and rehearsals in schools across the area. Ultimately, the production was blessed to find four amazing Gazan children to star in the film, all first time actors,
and all incredible natural performers.
That is also why Hany insisted on using an overwhelmingly local Palestinian crew and also filming in entirely Palestinian locations for the Palestinian scenes, filming in Gaza and Jenin. Hany has worked with the same DP, Editor, Line Producer and Art Director on all his films. They have grown up with him and learned from him to the
point they are now top quality technicians who can work on both local and international productions. It is this approach behind the camera that also informs the on-‐screen experience. Hany also insisted on shooting on location in both Beirut and Cairo for the exterior scenes set in those cities so that the film would look and
feel real.
Hany Abu-Assad: Q&A Your previous films have been hard hitting social dramas, a suicide bomber in ‘Paradise Now,’ a frustrated Palestinian youth in ‘Omar’, and here we have an uplifting musical drama, so what made you want to make The Idol? It’s actually the realisation that the core of art is to make from ugliness something beautiful and look to all the things that one loves in art, they are in their content, ugly stories, but in their form, they are beautiful, touching and emotionally involving. So it’s my job to make from such a sad story, a beautiful and moving story. Mohammed Assaf was about to make beauty out of ugliness, was that why you were interested in bringing his amazing life story to the screen? There are two levels to Mohammed’s story, one is the story of hope and stubborness and there is also the story of success. 60 years of Palestinian history have defeated stories, we don’t have winning stories, we don’t have soccer teams that ever win football matches, the Palestinian revolution in the sixties failed, but here we have a kind of success story that we all, as a population, were so hungry about. This is what is so interesting about the story of Mohammed Assaf, it’s the story of winning. And the other part of the film is about being able to fulfill dreams? It’s also very interesting to me dramatically, because it’s the story of a brother and sister and the relationship between them, where the sister wants her brother to live her dream. On the other side, he wants to help her with getting a kidney, and he
failed. Now in order to have redemption, he has to live her sister’s dream, dramatically that’s so exciting and interesting. When did you first meet Mohammed? I first met him in Jordan in 2014. They asked me if I was interested in directing the film, and I went to Jordan to meet him. My first impression was what an incredible and magnificent guy, who can make anybody fall in love with him. So given how bowled over you were by Mohammed and his aura, how did you go about casting Mohammed, both as the adult we saw on television and the child that we see at the start of the film? The most difficult process in the whole film was to find an actor. First he has to look like Mohammed, then he has to sing line Mohammed and that is impossible. This is why we took decisions that it won’t necessarily be a physical lookalike, but it’s about finding someone who can give the emotional arc that you can live with it till the end. So what was it about Tawfeek Barhom that made you believe him as Mohammed? I don’t want to spoil the story, but let’s just say he had a kind of sadness in his eyes that would create this arc of someone overcoming a great loss
Credits - Crew
Director of Photography Ehab Assal Production Designer Nael Kanj Editor Eyas Salman Original Music Composer Habib Shehadeh Hanna Casting Director Amer Hlehel Costume Designer Hamada Attallah Location Manager Wajde Odeh Line Producer (Palestine) Laura Hawa Line Producer (Jordan) Rula Nasser Co-‐producer Fadi Ismail Co-‐producer Baher Agbariya Co-‐producers Hanneke Niens Hans de Wolf Pim Hermeling Co-‐producers Maya Sanbar Sawsan Asfari Mohammed Hefzy Executive Producers Hamed Mokhtar Hamed Mokhtar Tiziana Sousou Tiziana Sousou Bashar Masri Badr Jafar Executive Producers Khalil Amiouni Bashar Masri Gisel Kordestani Badr Jafar Mufid Shawwa Wafic Said Executive Producers Khaled Said Harold Van Lier Anick Poirier Written by Hany Abu-‐Assad with Sameh Zoabi Produced by Ali Jaafar Amira Diab Directed by Hany Abu-‐Assad
Credits – Cast
Young Mohammed Assaf Qais Attallah
Nour Hiba Attahllah
Young Ahmad Ahmad Qassim
Young Omar Abdalkarim Abubaraka
Young Amal Teya Hussein
Mohammed Assaf Tawfeek Barhom
Amal Dima Awawdeh
Omar Ahmad Rokh
Ahmad Saber Shreim
Kamal Amer Hlehel
Mother of Mohammed Assaf Manal Awwad
Father of Mohammed Assaf Waleed Abd Elsalem
Ali Eyad Hourani
Smuggler Ashraf Barhoum
Shadia Nadine Labaki
Said Ali Suliman
Ali Jaber Ali Jaber
Host Dima Al-‐Jamel Abu-‐Assad
Hiba Maisa Abd-‐Elhadi
Taxi Customer Hussein Nakhleh
Border Officer Husam Al-‐Azza
Doctor 1 Baher Agbariya
Doctor 2 Nabil Al Raee
Cameraman Ameer Abu Elrub
Abu-‐Khaled Jamal Khalaily
Samir Hany Abu-‐Assad
Groom Sobhi Hosary
Angry Woman Em Mouhamad
Generator boy Hadi Abu Sini
Rand Jana Zeineddine
Ismael Azmi Al Hasani
Female Contestant Raneem Al Dawood
Male Contestant Kawa Shekho
Contestant Sanad Haddadin
Head Guard Shady Habashy
Security Guard Ahmad Al Ajarma
Assistant Producer Yaser Haddad
Kareem Adeeb Hadi
Beirut Doctor Rami Yasin
Press Rania Al Nimer
Costume Designer Mohammad Atallah
Special Appearance by Sandy Habashneh
Brass Band Greek Catholic Scout
Johnnie Matar
Bshara Khazen
Firas Mansour
Justin Nijim
Amir Bathish
Ranin Bathish
Child playing drums Wadia Ghassan AbuTanin
Mohammed Assaf As himself
