EXCLUSIVE: Palestinian director Hany Abu Assad is planning to reunite with some of the team behind his Oscar-nominated 2005 feature Paradise Now.

Abu-Assad said Palestine-set drama Lamya will likely be next film.

“It’s about a girl seeking her mother,” explained the director. “The story is that the mother ran away with her lover, but the girl can’t believe that a mother could leave her daughter for a man. It’s a road movie of sorts.”

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Abu-Assad said he intends to work on the film with his Paradise Now collaborators, including producers Roman Paul of Razor Film and Augustus Film from the Netherlands, as well as US duo Laura Kim and Paul Federbush [the former Warner Independent Pictures execs who distributed Paradise Now in the US] and Pretty Pictures’ James Velaise. 

The Match Factory, which also handles Omar, is on board for international sales.

Abu Assad won the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival for new thriller Omar, which also screens at the Toronto International Film Festival.

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