asmae cj

Source: Marrakech / Sundance

Asmae El Moudir, CJ ‘Fiery’ Obasi

Asmae El Moudir’s Holy Cow and CJ ‘Fiery’ Obasi’s La Pyramide are among 38 feature film and television projects selected for the Red Sea Souk Project Market, at Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Film Festival (December 5-14).

Selected in the ‘in development’ section, El Moudir’s Moroccan feature Holy Cow (working title) follows a truck driver transporting cattle for slaughter houses in Rabat, who becomes the scapegoat when two cows escape.

Scroll down for the full list of projects

It is a debut fiction feature for Moroccan filmmaker El Moudir, who won the best director prize at Cannes 2023 with her documentary The Mother Of All Lies.

Nigerian filmmaker Obasi participates in the Souk with La Pyramide, a co-production between the US, Brazil, Senegal, the UK and Nigeria. With the extended title La Pyramide: A Celebration of Dark Bodies, Obasi has described the film as “an extension of what I did with Mami Wata” – his 2023 thriller about a village under threat, that played at Sundance and was Nigeria’s Oscar entry.

The 38 Red Sea Souk projects are split between 12 ‘in development projects’; 12 Lodge projects, 11 of which are debut features; seven works-in-progress; and seven SeriesLab titles.

Works-in-progress include Damien Hauser’s Swiss-Kenyan co-production Memory Of Princess Mumbi, and Levan Koguashvili’s Guria, set during a civil war in the eponymous Georgian region in 1992.

Sofia Alaoui, a 2022 Screen Arab Star of Tomorrow, participates in the Lodge with Tarfaya, a thriller set in a Moroccan coastal town. The project will then go to the Les Arcs Coproduction Village after Red Sea.

“As we open our Project Market up to the whole of Asia for the first time, the 38 projects in selection this year represent some of the most original talent and stories from across the two continents,” said Red Sea Souk director Holly Daniel.

The selected projects are eligible for the Red Sea Souk and Red Sea Labs awards, which totalled over $880,000 (£696,462) at the 2023 festival.

Red Sea Souk 2024 projects 

In development

Do Re Mimi (S Arabia) dir. Fatima Al-Banawi

Farouk (Iraq-Nor) dir. Halkawt Mustafa

Haven Of Hope (Pak) dir. Seemab Gul

Holy Cow (working title) (Mor) dir. Asmae El Moudir

It’s Okay, I’m Only Human (Leb-Fr) dirs. Karim Ghorayeb, George Peter Barbari

La Pyramide (US-Braz-Sen-UK-Nig) dir. CJ ‘Fiery’ Obasi

Mother Maybe (Phi-Sing-Tai) dir. Sonny Calvento

Robbing Beirut (Leb-Fr) dir. Katia Jarjoura

Tahmina (Neth-Can-Afg-Ger) dir. Aboozar Amini

The Loneliness Of The Light Skin One (Bel-Fr-Neth-Con-S Afr) dir. Baloji Tshiani

The Sea Was Once Blue (Egy-Fr) dir. Mohamad El-Hadidi

Watch It Burn (Indonesia) dir. Makbul Mubarak

Lodge

Assa, A Fish In A Bowl (Leb) dir. Dahlia Nemlich

Blue Card (Sud-Egy) dir. Mohammed Alomda

I Didn’t Sign Up For This (Sud-Egy) dir. Lana Komsany

Hadd (S Arabia) dir. Jamal Kutbi

Close Rose Close (S Arabia) dir. Rulan Hasan

I’ll Smile In September (India) dir. Aakash Chhabra

Jaysan (Kyr) dir. Aisha Sultanbekova

The Silent Ones (Mor) dir. Jawahine Zentar

Pepo Kali (Ken) dir. Lydia Matata

Tarfaya (Mor) dir. Sofia Alaoui

Terbakar (Indonesia-Sing) dir. Shelby Kho

Manjano (Ken) dir. Omar Hamza

Works-in-Progress

A Winner Is Seen At The Start (Fr-Kaz-Neth-Lith) dir. Zhannat Alshanova

Allah Is Not Obliged (Fr-Lux-Bel-Can) dir. Zaven Najjar

Dandelion’s Odyssey (Jap-Fr-Bel) dir. Momoko Seto

Fuxi (Tai-HK) dir. Qiu Jiongjiong

Guria (Geo-Switz-Lux-Bul-Tur) dir. Levan Koguashvilil

Memory Of Princess Mumbi (Switz-Ken) dir. Damien Hauser

Vagabonds (Gha) dir. Amartei Armar

SeriesLab

B’itha (S Arabia) cres. Noorah Al Eidi, Shehreyar Ahsan

Saria Othman Needs No Man (Leb) cres. Eshtephan Khattar, Hiba Louis

Pazuzu (Iraq-S Arabia) cres. Ali Kareem, Dania Altayeb

Generation A (Ken) cres. Mona Ombogo, Louise Kamwangi

Switch (Ug) cres. Nathan Magoola, Lucky Lora Atwine

Cold Case-One (Pullukandam Murder Case) (India) cres. Nithin Lukose, Hari Kirishnan

Shani Bazaar (India) cres. Karan Kabir, Nitin Koul