Key Highlights
- He was joined by his longtime French distributor and producer Alexandre Mallet-Guy, founding CEO of Paris-based Memento Distribution, as well as sales agents Jean-Christophe Simon, CEO of Films Boutique as well as Margot Hervée, head of sales agent at Totem Films.
- Related Stories Legal Jafar Panahi Sentenced In Absentia To One Year In Prison & A Two-Year Travel Ban News Charlie XCX Picture 'Erupcja' & 'The Secret Agent' Set For Red Sea; Tarik Saleh Guest Of Honor At Les Arcs & Stephen Frears Geneva Career Award - Festival Briefs Simon and Hervée talked about their experiences working with dissident Iranian filmmakers Mohammad Rasoulof on The Seed of the Sacred Fig and Maryam Moqadam and Behtash Sanaeeha on My Favourite Cake respectively.
- Watch on Deadline Saleh recounted how he had been hounded out of Egypt when on the verge of shooting the first film in the trilogy, The Nile Hotel Incident, which won Sundance’s Grand Jury prize in the World Cinema – Dramatic category in 2017.
- Set in the lead up to Egypt’s 2011 revolution, which ended Hosni Mubarak’s 30-year dictatorship, the film was inspired by the real-life 2008 murder of singer Suzanne Tamim, and murky attempts to protect the powerful real estate tycoon behind her death, who has since been pardoned by Al-Sisi.
- The film does not allude to Al-Sisi, who came to power in a military coup in 2013, before being officially elected as president in low turnout elections in 2014, but its storyline rattled the authorities, nonetheless.
