EXCLUSIVE: Palestinian Producer Hanna Atallah and Lebanese-American writer-director Darine Hotait are joining forces on multi-format development and production company Route 243, with the aim of championing underrepresented voices and narratives with global resonance.
Projects on its inaugural slate include Hotait’s feature Tallahassee, adapted from Hala Alyan’s eponymous short story about a woman who has recently been released from a psychiatric facility. It extends Hotait’s 2021 short film which featured the author Alyan, Leila Buck and Cherien Dabis in the cast.
The studio is also developing Palestinian American Sama’an Ashrawi’s period musical The Blooms, exploring the rise of Palestine’s first rock band Al-Bara’em in the 1960s, which was led by Ashrawi’s father and uncle.
Ashrawi has collaborated with a wide range of notable figures in music and entertainment, including Megan Thee Stallion, Drake, Kendrick Lamar, J. Cole, Chris Rock, and Pharrell.
Further projects include psychological thriller The Olive Press, set in the mystic world of the Druze community in Mount Lebanon, from writer and director Samah El Kadi, and co-written by Nadim Chammas.
It’s an extension of El Kadi’s short film Baadarane, which is also produced by Route 243 and is currently in post-production.
The company is also completing post-production on Hotait’s L.A-set short Like The Tide, starring Iman Karram, known for her roles in It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and Glow on Netflix, and former WWE wrestler turned bestselling author and actor AJ Mendez.
The company takes its name from the 243 kilometers, as the bird flies, between Atallah and Hotait’s respective birthplaces of Jerusalem and Beirut, and an imagined road trip between the two cities. Such a journey has been impossible for decades due to both Israel’s control of the border and travel restrictions imposed on Palestinians living in the occupied West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem.
“Route 243 is a home for stories that don’t fit the mold but have the power to change it. We are here to make genre a tool of cultural resistance and imagination. This studio is about amplifying voices that have long been sidelined while embracing a truly international scope,” said the Route 243 co-founders.
Hotait is known for writing and directing over a dozen award-winning short films and was recently named on Disney’s List of Directors on The Rise. Under the banner of her company Cinephilia Productions, she has developed and supported films like Goodbye Julia, You Will Die at Twenty, Satisfaction, Dead Dog , Their Algeria.
Atallah is the founder of Filmlab Palestine and August Films, which have both nurtured emerging filmmakers in Palestine and across the Arab world.
His recent producing credits include Upshot by Maha Haj, which won Best Short Film and garnered a director special mention at the Locarno Film Festival in 2024, and Thank You for Banking with Us by Laila Abbas, which played multiple festivals including the BFI London Film Festival.
They are joined in the venture by Amina Abodoma, a former consultant at Idris Elba’s Green Door Pictures and creative and development director/producer on several TV series, including Echoes of the Past , Without Prior Notice and the adaptation of The Killing, Monataf Khatar.
The company will operate around three poles: The Originals Think Tank, The Development Studio and The Consulting Station.
The Originals Think Tank will focus on developing projects around existing IP, with the aim of reimagining iconic classics, contemporary works, and comic literature for the screen. It has already struck partnerships with publishers such as Cairo’s Diwan Publishing House.
The Development Studio will focus on developing original work, with the aim of delivering commercially viable, production-ready screenplays for film and television. It will operate in-house writing rooms and tap into a network of top-tier writers,
The Consulting Station will offer tailored development consulting and creative infrastructure for talent and studios. Services include script coverage with expert analysis, live online consultations for personalized guidance, meticulous script revisions, and comprehensive project packaging.
Further projects on the company’s slate include genre-bending time travel fantasy Hotait’s Like Salt; Mokeb, a feature adaptation of Pakistani-American playwright Hana Fatima Dehradunwala’s off-Broadway comedy about a millennial’s spiritual journey on Iraq’s Arbaeen pilgrimage from Najaf to Karbala, and Palestinian filmmaker Wisam Al Jafari’s dramedy The Hearse to the Final House of Happiness.
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