Vienna-based documentary sales outfit Autlook has snapped up world rights for The Mother Of All Lies, which will receive its world premiere in Un Certain Regard at this month’s Cannes Film Festival.
The documentary is directed by Moroccan filmmaker Asmae El Moudir. In the film, El Moudir painstakingly recreates her Casablanca neighbourhood on a handmade set, enlisting family and friends to help solve the troubling mysteries of her childhood.
Autlook Filmsales acquired global rights, not including all rights on the MENA region and France.
“The audience and the market is constantly asking for new voices and perspectives, and the team in Cannes has now found Asmae El Moudir. Her inventiveness and storytelling skills are impressive. Using hybrid elements, she transforms a complex event into a compelling and mesmerising narrative,” Autlook´s CEO Salma Abdalla commented of the pick-up.
The Mother Of All Lies is produced by Insightfilms in Morocco, in co-production with Al Jazeera, the Red Sea Fund and Fig Leaf, with the support of Doha Film Institute, IDFA Bertha Fund, Hot Docs Blue Ice Documentary Fun, Docs Up Fund, AFAC - The Arab Fund for Arts and Culture, Centre National du Cinéma et de L’image Animée, Région Île de France, Scam, Institut Français du Maroc, International Media Support (IMS). The film has also received a Netflix development grant and a Venice Final Cut Lab Award.
Asmae El Moudir is a Rabat and Paris-based filmmaker; whose production company is based in Morocco.
The new acquisition follows the tradition of Autlook films from the Middle East that have played at Cannes. The company also handled Oscar nominated For Sama by Waad Al Kateab and Edward Watts which won the best documentary award in Cannes in 2019.
Another new Autlook project, Draw For Change, from showrunners Guillaume Vandenberghe and Vincent Coen, won best documentary series at Canneséries in May. This is in six episodes, all featuring female cartoonists in different parts of the world. The films reflect on the cartoonists’ work as well as on their fight for gender equality.
The first of the series’ six episodes, Behind The Lines, is directed by Alisar Hassan and Alaa Amer, and produced by by Hanne Phlypo (Clin d’Oeil Films). It profiles cartoon artist Amany Al-Ali throughout 2020-2022 from her home in Idlib, Syria amid devastating bombing attacks during the war. Its feature film version premiered recently at Visions Du Réel.
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