The Station (Al Mahattah), the debut function of Yemeni-Scottish filmmaker Sara Ishaq, has gained the highest prize on the Ultimate Reduce awards for tasks in post-production on the Venice Movie Competition’s business platform Venice Manufacturing Bridge.
The Station centres on Layal, who runs a women-only gasoline station in a segregated war-torn city in Yemen, the place she is confronted together with her 12-year-old brother’s rising need to interrupt free and turn into a ‘man’. When Layal’s estranged sister unexpectedly exhibits up with a proposition for his or her brother, the siblings’ relationship is put to the check.
The Station gained the La Biennale di Venezia Prize for finest movie in post-production, which comes with a €5,000 award.
The producers are Jordan’s Display Undertaking and The Imaginarium Movies, France’s Georges Movies, Germany’s One Two Movies, the Netherlands’ Keplerfilm and Norway’s Barentsfilm. Memento Movies handles gross sales.
The Station got here up via the 2020 Cannes L’Atelier and 2024 Venice Hole Financing Market, and wrapped manufacturing this summer season.
Ishaq’s debut brief movie, Karama Has No Partitions (2012), filmed throughout Yemen’s Arab Spring, was Oscar-nominated. She later directed the award-winning function documentary The Mulberry Home (2013), which premiered at IDFA.
The Ultimate Reduce jury was composed of the European Movie Academy’s Fatih Abay, Kinology’s Nathalie Jeung and Maestro Distribution’s Claudio Rapino.
In a press release, they stated: “This movie demonstrates genuine gender empowerment, displaying girls as complicated, succesful people navigating their realities with company and dignity. It challenges the standard Western gaze towards areas usually decreased to simplistic narratives, as an alternative revealing the complete spectrum of human expertise—the ingenuity, humor, energy, and hope that flourish even in difficult circumstances.”
The movie additionally gained quite a lot of different in-kind post-production awards from Paris’s Titra Movie, London’s Sub-Ti, and Turin’s Sub-Ti Entry. Rai Cinema is providing € 5,000 for a primary negotiation proper for the acquisition of free TV rights in Italy.
Different winners within the Ultimate Reduce line-up included Angolan function My Semba (Meu Semba) by Hugo Salvaterra, which gained in-kind awards from Rome’s Laser Movie, Ajaccio’s Studio A Fabrica, Paris’ Cinémathèque Afrique of the Institut Français, and Competition Worldwide du Movie de Fribourg.
The Home Of The Wind (La Maison Du Vent) by Auguste Kouemo Yanghu, a Cameroon-Benin-France-Belgium co-production, gained in-kind help from M74 and Mnemonica.
Let’s Play Troopers (working title) by Mariam Al-Dhubhani, a Yemen-Qatar-Norway-France co-production, gained prizes from MAD Options and El Gouna Movie Competition.
Out Of Faculty (La Cour Des Grands) by Hind Bensari, a Morocco-Denmark co-production, gained prizes from the Pink Sea Fund (Pink Sea Movie Basis) and Competition Worldwide du Movie d’Amiens.
Yesterday The Eye Didn’t Sleep by Rakan Mayasi, a Belgium-Lebanon-Palestine co-production, gained help from Oticons.
Standing At The Ruins (Al Woqoof Ala El Atlal) by Saeed Taji Farouky, an Egypt-UK co-production, was supported by Rome’s 196-MEDIA.
Legacy (Soleil, Lune, Étoiles) by Mamadou Dia, a Senegal-France co-production, was supported by Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie.
