Venice Final Cut lab projects include Morad Mostafa’s ‘Aisha Can’t Fly Away’

By Ben Dalton2024-07-11T11:30:00+01:00

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Morad Mostafa_Arab SOT 2023_Credit Eamonn M. McCormack-Getty Images for Film AlUla copy

Source: Eamonn M. McCormack / Getty Images for Film AlUla copy

Morad Mostafa

Morad Mostafa’s Aisha Can’t Fly Away is among seven projects selected for the Final Cut in Venice lab for work-in-progress titles from Africa and the Middle East.

The film, which is gearing up to shoot this summer, tells the story of a Somali woman who cares for her elderly parents while witnessing the tensions between the different groups who make up her city’s African society.

Scroll down for the full list of projects

It will be a feature debut for Egyptian filmmaker Mostafa, who was selected as a Screen Arab Star of Tomorrow last year.

Aisha Can’t Fly Away is an Egypt-Tunisia-Saudi Arabia-Qatar-France co-production, and has previously been through the Doha Film Institute’s Qumra lab.

Also selected for Final Cut in Venice is Ancestral Visions of the Future, the new docufiction feature from Mosotho filmmaker Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese, whose This Is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection played at Venice in 2019. Mosese’s new film is adapted from a performance art work interrogating collective identities of the pan-African community.

The Final Cut in Venice lab will run from September 1-3 as part of the Venice Production Bridge industry offering at the 81^st Venice International Film Festival (August 28-September 7). The first two days are devoted to the screenings, with the third day for one-to-one meetings between the project teams and accredited professionals.

Work-in-progress copies of the seven selected films will play to producers, buyers, distributors, post-production companies and festival programmers.

The Biennale di Venezia will present a €5,000 prize to the best film in post-production, while over €100,000 of independent prizes from commercial partners is available for the selected films.

Final Cut in Venice is open to films from all African countries, and Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine and Syria.