DIFF-supported movie set for world premiere in Venice

A Gaza love story, supported by Enjaaz, the post-production fund of the Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF), will make its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival later this month. Habibi Rasak Kharban will also make its North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in early September, DIFF said in a statement on Tuesday. Launched in 2009, the Enjaaz programme has supported more than 10 Arab and Arab-origin films including Egypt’s Cairo Exit, the UAE’s Hamama and Iraq’s Leaving Baghdad. Set in Gaza in 2001, Habibi Rasak Kharban (Darling, Something’s Wrong with Your Head) is a modern retelling of the famous Sufi parable Majnun Layla and its related body of poetry dating back to the 7th century and Bedouin poet Qaysibn al-Mulawwah. Directed, written, edited and produced by Susan Youssef, the story of forbidden love won a coveted berth in the Enjaaz programme in 2010. The fund awards up to $100,000 each for up to 15 documentary and fiction feature films in development every year.The programme works via two funding cycles, with deadlines in February 1 and August 1. The new Enjaaz shortlist will be announced later this year. Masoud Amralla Al Ali, artistic director, Dubai International Film Festival, said: “The international acclaim earned by films identified and supported by DIFF underlines the quality of our selection process, our dedication to Arab, Asian and African filmmakers the world over, our reputation as a springboard to global success for these deserving films and our success as a destination for discovery of pan-Arab and regional cinema. "It is an honour for us to raise the UAE’s flag high as a true supporter of Arab cinema around the world.”Director Susan Youssef said: “Habibi is made 100 percent through grants, donations and supporters including Enjaaz, and we are deeply indebted to the Dubai International Film Festival and the Dubai Film Market team for their unstinting support and belief in this project.”For Youssef, named one of Filmmaker magazine’s “25 New Faces” to watch, the film marks her debut as a feature director. Her previous five short films have also been screened at a spectrum of festivals from Sundance to the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York. The eighth edition of DIFF will be held from December 7-14. From / Arabian Business News