Screen can unveil a first look at Mohamed Rashad’s The Settlement, which is set to world premiere in the new competitive Perspectives strand at the upcoming Berlin International Film Festival.

Inspired by true events, the story follows two brothers — a 23-year-old troublemaker and his 12-year-old brother — who live in a marginalised community of Alexandria, Egypt. The pair are offered jobs by the local factory after their father’s death in the workplace as compensation for their loss and in lieu of pursuing legal action. But as they navigate their new roles, they begin to question whether their father’s death was truly accidental.

The cast of newcomers and real factory workers includes Adham Shoukry and Ziad Islam as the two brothers alongside Hanaday Abd El Khaleh and Emad Ghoniem.

The film marks the narrative feature debut of Rashad, following his 2016 documentary Little Eagles exploring 1970s left-wing activism in Egypt from the perspective of his own family history.

“Working on The Settlement took five years, and throughout the journey of the film, I was able to fulfil my ambitions, such as casting completely unknown actors and involving real workers in important roles and groups,” said the director. “I also filmed in real locations, capturing scenes in Alexandria that closely matched what I had envisioned along with the industrial atmosphere that I find artistically rich.”

The Arabic-language film is a Egypt-France-Germany-Qatar-Saudi Arabia co-production.

Producer is Hala Lofty for Egypt’s Hassala Films and co-producers are Etienne de Ricaud for France’s Caracteres Productions, Kesmat Elsayed for Germany’s Seera Films, and Jeddah-based ART.

International sales are handled by MAD World and Arab sales and distribution by MAD Distribution.

Finance was secured from a raft of funds including the Berlinale World Cinema Fund, IFFR’s Hubert Bals Fund, Doha Film Institute, Arab Fund for Arts and Culture, Red Sea Development Fund, Fonds Image de la Francophonie Fund and CineGouna Funding.

 

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