Top Middle East and North African independent distributor and talent agency MAD Solutions is adding a new string to its bow with the launch of Arab cinema-focused international sales company MAD World.
The Dubai-based company will make its market debut in Cannes.
Titles on its packed inaugural slate include French-Egyptian-Palestinian director Rani Massalha’s The Return of the Prodigal Son and Palestinian filmmaker Laila Abbas’s Thank You For Banking With Us. (scroll down for full line-up).
MAD World will be spearheaded by MAD Solutions co-founders Alaa Karkouti and Maher Diab, as well as third Managing Partner, Colin Brown, who will all assume Co-President titles.
“Until now, Arab filmmakers have been at the mercy of an international sales ecosystem with preconceived notions about what Arab cinema should be in order to travel,” commented Brown.
“We intend to challenge those limitations, exploring all manner of distribution options around the world, even unconventional ones, in order to expand the global audience for a wider range of Arab storytellers.”
The trio will be joined by two European executives experienced in the international licensing arena.
Edin De Liancourt, whose experience includes stints at Allrites, Film Seekers and Goodfellas, has been hired as VP Sales and Acquisitions. He will be assisted by Jeanne Deny, who previously gained in sales and acquisitions at French companies SND and Federation Studios, in the position of Director Sales and Acquisitions.
The official move into international film sales builds on MAD Solutions’ success with Goodbye Julia, which made history last year as the first Sudanese film to play in Official Selection in Cannes when it world premiered Un Certain Regard.
The company scored a raft of sales to territories including France, Benelux, Italy, Switzerland, Sweden, Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan and German-speaking territories, while it mounted a successful theatrical release across Arab world.
The company also enjoyed success last year with 2023 Directors’ Fortnight short film The Red Sea Makes Me Wanna Cry, which became the first Jordanian film ever sold to global streaming platform Mubi.
In addition to acquiring worldwide rights to more international co-productions, the Cairo-based studio has become increasingly involved in packaging Arabic projects with international market potential.
Headquartered in Cairo, MAD Solutions is also operational in the UAE, Lisbon and New York, with representatives in Tunisia, Morocco, Palestine, Jordan and Lebanon.
Founded in 2010, MAD Solutions has a rights library of more than 500 film titles, and is also involved in financing, production, packaging, sales, marketing and releasing of Arab entertainment that spans the gamut from festival prize-winners to commercial blockbusters.
As well as working with new titles, MAD World will handle sales on the library featuring recent festival award-winners, documentary features, shorts, back-catalog titles, and regional box office and streaming successes, many of which have not been seen by audiences outside of MENA.
“With the creation of MAD World we have created a dedicated platform for exporting Arabic cinema in all its diversity, both in terms of subject matter and local sensibilities,” said Karkouti and Diab. “MAD has a 15-year history of breaking new ground for Arab films; MAD World will take that boundary-pushing spirit to a whole new international level.”.
The inaugural MAD World line-up (synopses provided by MAD World)
The Return Of The Prodigal Son (Egypt/Tunisia/France) – the winner of the top project prize at the most recent Red Sea Souk, Rani Massalha’s film tells the story of an Egyptian pig farmer whose Coptic Christian community is thrown into turmoil during the swine flu epidemic that broke out during the Mubarak regime. In pre-production.
Thank You For Banking With Us (Palestine/Germany/Qatar) – After making a splash with her documentary Ice & Dust, Palestinian filmmaker Laila Abbas returns with this female-empowerment drama about two sisters who concoct a scheme to divert their father’s inheritance in defiance of sexist bequeathal rules dictated by Sharia Law.
The Last Exorcist (Saudi Arabia) – Directed by award-winning Saudi writer Asim Altokhais, this horror feature is adapted from his own comic book about the battles of an exorcist to save a tribal leader’s kidnapped daughter from the clutches of the djinn underworld spirits in 1890 Saudi Arabia. In pre-production.
Blue Card (Sudan) – Debut film of Mohammed Alomda, from creators of You Will Die At Twenty and Goodbye Julia comes another tale of Sudanese resilience in the face of war and displacement. Blue Card follows a recently-settled Sudanese refugee attempting to make ends meet in a nursing home in Cairo until his application for asylum in Europe goes through. In pre-production.
A Bird From Paradise (Tunisia) – An exploration of the at times comically bizarre practices surrounding Tunisian weddings from the perspective of an outsider, now in post-production. It is directed by Murad Ben Cheikh, whose debut feature documentary No More Fear was selected as a Special Screening at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival.
Yellow Bus (India/Jordan/UAE/US) – Wendy Bednarz’s completed — and already on the festival trail — feature narrative debut sheds light on the difficulties expats living in the UAE face in the wake of crises, following a mother shattered by grief in the aftermath of the loss of her daughter at the hands of her school’s gross negligence.
La Zone (Tunisia/Germany/France/Luxembourg) – set in the murky underbelly of modern Tunisia, Lassaad Dkhili’s completed thriller follows a cop whose small-town life is turned upside down when a gangster’s girlfriend steals his gun.
The Last Rehearsal (Morocco) – Yassine Fennane’s completed drama lifts the curtain on both mental illness and show-business life. Tensions escalate when a stage director starts taking antidepressants ahead of the play’s scheduled performance in front of a producer and a cultural manager from the French embassy.
This Is My Night (Syria/UAE) – Written, directed, produced and acted by young Syrian talent Jafra Younes, this completed film tackles what it is like to lose security after the Syrian revolution – all shot in a single take.
Girl Of Wind (Tunisia) – transgression is a prevailing theme in Moufida Fedhila’s female-driven coming-of-age film which follows a veiled teenage skateboarder faced with making life-changing choices when her ex-jihadist father suddenly reappears. In pre-production.
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