Luxembourgish-Egyptian director Adolf El Assal has signed Lebanese-German actor Kida Khodr Ramadan and pioneering Egypt-born, Germany-raised actress Tua El Fawwal for his new feature Hooped.
It is El Assal’s third feature after 2019 comedy drama Sawah, starring Egyptian actor Karim Kassem as a Cairo-based DJ who loses his papers while on tour in Europe, which was acquired by Netflix for 46 territories in 2020.
Like that film, Hooped will combine a European and Middle East storyline, revolving around an aspiring entrepreneur and basketball whiz whose dreams take him from Luxembourg to Egypt via Canada.
Actor and producer Ramadan moved to Germany from Beirut as a child. He is best known for his lead roles in The Man From Beirut, Kanun and 4 Blocks. El Fawwal also grew up in Germany where she pushed boundaries in the film and TV world as one of the country’s first hijab-wearing actresses.
“I am happy and proud to have the two stars, Kida Khodr Ramadan and Tua El Fawwal within the cast of my next film because they are considered the new generation of talented actors of immigrant origins to Europe, and both of them, through their work, have broken the stereotype more than once,” commented El Assal.
Casting is still underway for the young protagonist in the film.
El Assal was also involved in the recent Belgian comedy-drama Baraki, while his short film Full Memory is currently playing at the Luxembourg Pavilion of the Dubai Expo 2020.
It stars Syrian actor Mazen Haj Kassem plays a young man living in Europe who left Syria a decade ago due to the civil war, who finds dark truths from the past stirred up when his brother comes to visit.
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