Films in production or post-production
Feathers
Synopsis
When a magician’s trick goes wrong at six-year-old Mando’s birthday party, an avalanche of coincidental absurdities befalls the boy’s family. The magician turns Sami, the authoritative father, into a chicken and fails to bring him back. This mysterious transformation of the father sets the family on a tragically absurd adventure of self-discovery to survive without him.
Rasha, until now a passive mother, is suddenly responsible for the family. She slowly transforms into a stronger woman and mother. Ramadan, the 9 years old son, is forced to take up his father’s job in order to earn some money for the family. Mando struggles without his father but finds solace in his older brother. When the father returns an invalid, he is more of a burden. His long-awaited return brings nothing but disappointment.
Kamal Samy
Hisham Saqr
Domiana Nassar, Sami Bassuiny
Film Clinic (Egypt)
Mohamed Hefzy
Kepler Film (The Netherlands)
Derk-Jan Warrink
Koji Nelissen
Heretic (Greece)
Giorgos Karnavas
Konstantinos Kontovrakis
Biographies
Omar El Zohairy studied at the Cairo Higher Institute of Cinema and has worked as an assistant director alongside some of Egypt’s most celebrated filmmakers, among them Youssef Chahine and Yousry Nasrallah. His short film Breathe Out (2011) had its premiere at the Dubai International Film Festival, where it won the Special Jury Prize. His second short, The Aftermath of the Inauguration of the Public Toilet at Kilometer 375 (2014), was the first Egyptian film selected for the Cinéfondation of the Festival de Cannes. It went on to win awards worldwide. El Zohairy is currently shooting his first feature-length film, Feathers of a Father. The project was awarded the Baumi Development Award and was developed with the support of the TorinoFilmLab Feature Lab and the residency of the Cinéfondation.
Juliette Lepoutre began producing films after fifteen years in the high tech industry. She co-founded MPM Film, where she co-produced work by directors including Panos Koutras, Adrian Sitaru and Béla Tarr.
Pierre Menahem started his career in the film industry in 1997 working at Celluloid Dreams as Director of Sales and Acquisitions.
In 2015, Lepoutre and Menahem co-founded Still Moving, which has produced Maya Da Rin’s The Fever (2019), which was in competition at the Locarno Festival; and Ala Eddine Slim’s Tlamess (2019), which was presented in the Directors’ Fortnight at the Festival de Cannes. Projects currently in process include Julia Murat’s Regra34 (in post-production), Omar El Zohairy’s Feathers of a Father (in production), as well as Maha Haj’s Mediterranean Fever and Pedro Pinho’s Tomorrow (both in financing).
€720 000
€570 000
Aide aux cinémas du monde, Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie, Hubert Bals Fund Development, HBF+Netherlands Film Fund, World Cinema Fund Europe, Greek Film Center, Film Clinic Distribution
October, November 2020, Cairo, Egypt
May 2021
Shooting in process
International Sales, distributor
