EXCLUSIVE: The Pool Films is launching international sales at TIFF on Birthday, the debut feature from Lebanese Canadian writer/director Lara Zeidan, which began shooting in Jordan on Thursday (September 10).
Set in Beirut in May 2008, as a political crisis erupts into armed clashes across Lebanon, the coming-of-age drama follows a girl whose 14th birthday plans are disrupted when gun battles break out across the city, but remains determined to celebrate despite the violence erupting around her.
Newcomer Lana Hilan stars alongside Yara Abou Haidar (The Sea Ahead), Raymond Tarabay (The Empress) and Syrian actor Abdel Hadi Al Sabbagh.
Birthday is a Germany-Canada-France-Jordan-Lebanon co-production in association with Saudi Arabia, produced by Germany’s Mayana Films, France’s Sevana Films, Canada’s Couronne Nord, Lebanon’s Road2Films and Jordan’s Tabi360. Mohamed Siam of Siam Films is co-producing, with Khaled Haddad and 1vision Films serving as executive producers.
Birthday has already gathered momentum on the development circuit, winning the CNC Development Award at Thessaloniki’s co-production forum, the Rotterdam Lab Award at Beirut Cinema Platform and a special mention at Red Sea Souk. It was also selected for the Sundance Institute Producers Summit.
Zeidan’s short Three Centimetres premiered in Berlinale Generation in 2018, winning the Teddy Award for best short film.
The Pool Films co-founders Tim Belda and Gilles Sousa said: “Birthday is intimate, vibrant and deeply cinematic, while speaking to audiences far beyond Lebanon. We immediately connected with Lara’s very personal way of telling this story – looking at a moment of political violence through the eyes of a teenage girl who is simply trying to live her life.”
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