UK sales outfit Mister Smith Entertainment has boarded international sales on The Strangers’ Case, with WME Independent overseeing North American sales, ahead of its world premiere as a Berlinale Special Gala.
Yasmine Al Massri, Yahya Mahayni, Omar Sy, Ziad Bakri, Constantine Markoulakis and Jason Beghe star in the feature directorial debut of veteran US producer Brandt Andersen, whose credits include Everest, Lone Survivor and Broken City.
Tragedy strikes a Syrian family in Aleppo, starting a chain reaction of events involving five different families in four different countries. The drama interweaves personal stories to illuminate the bravery and heartbreak of the refugee experience.
Andersen adapted the screenplay from his 2020 short, Refugee, starring Sy, Al Massri, and Beghe. Andersen also produced the feature with Ossama Bawardi through Jordan’s Philistine Films, alongside Ryan Busse and Charlie Endean. The film is shot in Jordan.
”We were moved to tears when we first saw Brandt’s incredible film, and the extraordinarily powerful performances elicited from this amazing international cast,” said Mister Smith’s founder and CEO, David Garrett. ”Brandt has spent more than a decade working all over Europe and the Middle East, supporting refugees across the continent. His experiences, and those of all he encountered along the way, have enabled him to bring this uniquely emotional and visceral story to the big screen. We - together with the filmmakers, cast and crew - cannot wait to share this with audiences in Berlin.”
Filmmaker Andersen is also an activist. In November 2023, he joined the Jordanian Airforce on humanitarian aid drops over Gaza. In 2019, Andersen visited and filmed hospitals outside of Aleppo, Syria with aid organisation CanDo. Andersen has organised film camps for refugees in Jordan and Turkey on behalf of international humanitarian agency CARE. He has visited and filmed the living conditions in refugee camps in Jordan, Greece, Italy and Turkey with the United Nations’ refugee agency, UNHCR.
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