Paris-based company Indie Sales has acquired world sales rights to Lebanese director and artist Ali Cherri’s first feature The Dam, ahead of its world premiere in Cannes Directors’ Fortnight (May 18-27).
As a first film, it is also a contender for the Caméra d’Or covering all the first films in Official Selection and the parallel sections of Directors’ Fortnight and Critics’ Week.
The drama is set against the backdrop of the 2018 Sudanese revolution, near the Merowe Dam in the north of the country. It revolves around a man who works in a traditional brickyard fed by the waters of the Nile.
Every evening, he secretly wanders off into the desert to build a mysterious construction made of mud. While the Sudanese people rise to claim their freedom, his creation slowly starts to take on a life of its own.
“Ali Cherri is fully embracing the cinematographic language in this political fable where the rise of the Sudanese people echoes the main character’s drive towards emancipation,” says Clément Chautant, head of festivals at Indie Sales.
Cherri’s short films The Disquiet (2013) and The Digger (2015) played at a number of festivals including Berlinale, Toronto, and Rotterdam.
He is also a celebrated artist. He is currently an artist in residence at the UK’s National Gallery in London, where his show If You Prick Us, Do We Not Bleed? is running until June 12. He is also participating in the Venice Biennale this year and his work has been shown at the Guggenheim, British Museum and Centre Pompidou.
Cowritten by Geoffroy Grison, in collaboration with Bertrand Bonello, the film was edited by Isabelle Manquillet and Nelly Quettier (Annette). ROB composed the original score.
The film is produced by Janja Kralj at Paris-based KinoElektron in co-production with Galerie Imane Fares (France), DGL Travel (Sudan), Twenty Twenty Vision Filmproduktion GmbH (Germany) and Trilema (Serbia).
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