BARA EL MANHAG CLOSING FILM FOR THE RED SEA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

The Red Sea International Film Festival (RedSeaIFF) in partnership with VOX Cinemas, MBC GROUP and Saudia Airlines debuted yesterday the closing night’s film, Bara El Manhag. The world premiere of the film Bara El Manhag featured a special Gala screening following a dazzling red carpet with director Amr Salama and young cast member Omar Chareef gracing the festival’s red carpet.

Antoine Khalife, Director of Arab Programs & Film Classics at the RedSeaIFF, said: “Following a fantastic line up of Arab film classics and creative next generation movies, we are thrilled to close the festival on a high note with the world premiere of Bara El Manhag, magic emanates from this film! The meeting of the great actor who is Maged El Kedawany with this child who tries to prove his strength is a lesson of tenderness full of emotion. After all, the Egyptian film industry is a giant among the Arab cinema scene, and we are honoured to be screening this great cinematic work for the first time at the Red Sea International Film Festival.”

Ignace Lahoud, Chief Executive Officer, Majid Al Futtaim Leisure, Entertainment & Cinemas said: “VOX Cinemas is at the forefront of the regional cinema industry and, as such, we were proud to be Festival Partner of the first ever Red Sea International Film Festival. In addition to celebrating cinema, the festival marked a historic moment for the Kingdom’s fledgling film industry and was a major accomplishment for everyone involved in organising it. As an advocate of Arabic film and, following our recently announced commitment to produce 25 homegrown movies in the next five years, we were delighted to see an Arabic film selected as the closing film.”

The feature fiction film’s story revolves around Nour, a 13-year-old orphan living in the countryside in the early 1980s. He is smart but is also a compulsive liar with vision problems and wears eyeglasses that don't quite remedy his weakened eyesight. To gain the respect of his fellow classmates, he ventures inside a haunted house right in front of the school, one that all the kids are afraid to enter. Inside, he finds a solitary old man who's hiding from the world. A friendship and apprenticeship are born between the boy and the old man, initiating a journey of self-discovery that lies at the very heart of this light-hearted drama.