Written by Nic Wistreich | 06 March 2009 | in news - Production

Film looks at Saddam regime's 'modern holocaust'

- second feature from Leeds based Oscar-shortlisted producers Human Film

- 400,000 bodies in mass graves found since 2003 from over 30 years of rule

- cast and crew are made up of many survivors of regime

- includes lead actress Shazada Hussein; the only woman to witness against Saddam during his trial

'If we forget the past, there is no future'
Simon Wiesenthal, KBE, Holocaust Survivor and Nazi Hunter

Son of Babylon is a Holocaust film unlike those we are familiar with. In a country embittered by decades of tyrannical rule, torture and systematic murder at the hands of Saddam’s Ba’athist party, during which an estimated one million people were displaced, a Kurdish mother and her grandson set out to discover the fate of her missing son, captured by Republican Guards 12 years earlier. Travelling across the chaotic landscape and killing fields of Iraq - paralleled by the story of her son, an Iraqi Soldier - she retraces his steps in the hope of reuniting him with his son.

Written and directed by Mohamed Al-Daradji ('Ahlaam', 2004), a Baghdad-born survivor of Saddam’s regime, having fled the country after the execution of his cousin. Produced by Isabelle Stead of Human Film (UK) & Atia Al-Daradji of Iraq Al-Rafidain (IRAQ), the film is about to wrap on location in Baghdad. The film was shot throughout Iraq and the Kurdish territories in the North of the country. Cast and crew are made up of many survivors of Saddam’s regime, including the lead actress Shazada Hussein; the only woman to witness against Saddam during his trial. Like many survivors, who lost their families to Iraq’s 30 year Holocaust, the crew of “Son of Babylon” are using this opportunity to share their experiences of suffering through this story, with the determination to prevent these atrocities from occurring again.

Since 2003, 400,000 bodies have been uncovered. The majority remain unidentified. Yet, 60 years after the Nazi Holocaust, it appears the Western world has become complacent about continuing persecutions similar in size and destruction. In a society occupied by Western Forces, millions of Iraqi, Kurds, Sunnis, and Shiites continue to search for answers to the fate of their missing amongst the mounting number of mass graves. Could this obstruction prevent peace and progression in Iraq?

NB - A press conference with cast and crew of 'Son of Babylon' will be scheduled for later Saturday, 7th March, 10am at Abo Noalse Street (opposite the Sheraton Hotel.) BAGHDAD, IRAQ - anyone reading this who could go?

Written by Nic Wistreich | 22 May 2008 | in news - Production

"Religion is something private, it's about you and your God. You respect me, I respect you - we live together this fantastic life. This is why God made us different. If he made us the same with one religion, it would make life boring. That's why he made us different: white, black, yellow, brown." 
Mohamed Al Daradji *

It was Laurence Boyce, actually, who alerted me to Ahlaam - the first fiction film to be shot in Iraq in decades, using a largely Iraqi cast and crew - and its creator, Yorkshire-based Mohamed Al Daradji. It's a relief to hear the latest news from his producer, Isabelle Stead, in Cannes on one of the most exciting and urgent voices in British cinema right now.

AL-DARADJI'S NEXT FEATURE 'UM-HUSSEIN' TRIUMPHS, BAGGING UKFC'S DEVELOPMENT FUND & GOAL POST FILM FOR WORLD SALES!

This week UM-HUSSEIN received funding from the UKFC's development fund and are in talks with the UKFC's New Cinema Fund, along with attaching Goalpost Film (Clubland) for world sales.

This intensely personal story of UM-HUSSEIN is being passionately supported by Sundance, directed by the award winning Mohamed Al-Daradji (Ahlaam, War, Love, God and Madness), produced by Human Film's Isabelle Stead (War, Love, God & Madness) and Iraq Al-Rafidain's Atia Al-Daradji (Ahlaam).  The film's executive producers include Pippa Cross (Bloody Sunday) of CrossDay Productions and the highly acclaimed Antonia Bird (Priest) of 4Way Pictures, with co-producers Dimitri de Clerq (Earth and Ashes) of CRM-114 (France) and internationally regarded filmmaker Rashid Masharawi (France/Palestine).
 
UM-HUSSEIN  is a mother's journey to bring home her son against the debris of a war torn Iraq. Told through two parallel tales we recount Hussein's turbulent life as an army deserter through the treacherous and courageous steps of his elderly mother UM-HUSSEIN and his young son Ahmed on their pilgrimage to find him.
 
The film is receiving funding from Fond Sud (CNC), Screen Yorkshire's Development Fund alongside the Kurdish and Iraqi Ministries of Culture.  After the success of Mohamed's first two films; AHLAAM,  the award winning film that that represented Iraq for Oscar and Golden Globe consideration in 2007; and WAR, LOVE, GOD & MADNESS, that recently screened at the Tribeca Film Festival, there is no doubt of the potential importance UM-HUSSEIN has to offer the current voices of  World Cinema.

see also:

• Shooting Against the Odds : Mohamed Al Daradji tells us the astonishing story of filming his first feature in Iraq
• 4 November 2006: Iraq's Oscar entrty Ahlaam gets UK premiere at Leeds
• 28 November 2006: Human Film's Ahlam picks up Golden Globe pre-selection
• 6 June 2007: Acclaimed Yorkshire film returns to Bagdhad for Screening
• 27 September 2007: Reconstructing Iraq's film industry, Human Film and Antonia Bird in Jordon
• 18 April 2008: Ahlaam gets Iraqi distribution, the Making-Of doc selected for Tribeca

Written by Nic Wistreich | 13 January 2008 | in news - Production

Prospective blockbusters are not usually built this way. From the NY Times

Rob Moore, the executive who oversees Paramount Pictures' marketing and distribution operations, had an open date in his movie schedule. He had just watched a little step-dancing film called "Stomp the Yard" clean up over last year's Martin Luther King's Birthday weekend, and he figured his company could do the same if it had some cheap popcorn fare ready for the holiday in 2008.

J. J. Abrams, meanwhile, had a theory. Best known as one of the creators of the television series "Lost," Mr. Abrams figured he could make the modern-day equivalent of "Godzilla" for $25 million or less, if he hired a bunch of no-name actors, shot much of the movie with a single $1,500 hand-held camera and threw the rest of his cash into special effects.

And Brad Grey, chairman of the Paramount Motion Picture Group, had an itch. Imagining himself following in the footsteps of the movie moguls Lew Wasserman and Sidney Sheinberg in the days when they took a budding Steven Spielberg and his fledgling company under their wing at Universal, Mr. Grey remembers telling Mr. Abrams: "I'm going to be Sid and Lew, and you're going to be Steven."

Written by James MacGregor | 14 August 2007 | in news - Production

The BBC has joined forces with French film studio Pathe to co-produce a $50m (£24.8m) movie based on Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book. The film will be shot as live action and CGI techniques will be used to appear to make the animals in the story talk. Director is to be BBC natural history filmmaker John Downer, who filmed the Emmy-nominated drama documentary Pride. Michelle Fox will produce for John Downer Productions.

Written by iceni's Andi Jepson | 02 August 2007 | in news - Production

iceni, a Midlands business video production and broadcast design agency, is celebrating after scooping two awards at the prestigious US International Film and Video Festival in Hollywood. This takes the company’s worldwide award haul to fifteen in 2006 and 2007. 

The Staffordshire based production company received Certificates of Creative Excellence in the Advertising / Marketing category for promotional work for Teka and the Environmental Issues and Concerns category for a creative energy saving drama produced for Birmingham City Council. The awards from Hollywood join trophies from the New York Film and Video Festival and the CiB*, a coveted IVCA** award, and an Every Child Matters and Creative Curriculum award from the government’s Creative Partnerships programme.

Written by Andi Jepson | 05 April 2007 | in news - Production

Written by Nic Wistreich | 21 March 2007 | in news - Production

After Devils Gate, The Blackening finally set to shoot in April, with possibly two more to come from Fresh Paint Pictures 

Leslie Lowes, tireless champion of both British indie film and the Shetland Islands should be celebrating a double win with the announcement of a new HiDef feature to be shot on the Islands over the next year after producer Alec Bruce completed financing on The Blackening, with two more films slated.

Development on The Blackening by Leslie's Penultimate Productions and Bruce's London-based Fresh Paint Pictures  was funded by Scottish Screen's NewFoundLands scheme four years ago and was featured in the first Film Funding Book (the Banana Book). Now as I'm putting the finishing touches to a new funding book, to see the film finally materialise, alongside a possible further two films is just fantastic news, and a great credit to Lowes and Bruce and indeed the scheme. Funding is coming from Sweden, Norway and the UK with a US major lined up for distribution. The three films will shoot on HiDef, without which the location may have been to remote to be cost effective with the cost of sending daily film rushes back to the mainland.

The films are to be produced  at a low-cost production centre in the former RAF base in the northernmost Shetland island of Unst. Shetland producer Leslie Lowes says Penultimate is pleased to have worked closely with Fresh Paint for several years to realise the company’s plans and says it demonstrates that with the right encouragement and support, film companies are keen to locate productions in Shetland.

“Including Devils Gate, which we located to Shetland in 2001 and now Fresh Paint’s slate of  The Blackening, Little Dallas and Kinky Cottage, we have managed to attract almost £4m of film production into the islands. This confirms what we have always maintained: Shetland’s landscapes, seascapes and skyscapes are very attractive to international filmmakers, despite the reservations of some agencies that could be helping them locate here,”  Mr Lowes said. “Marketing Shetland as a film location is most effective when it is done from Shetland from a base of real local knowledge.

Written by James MacGregor | 18 February 2007 | in news - Production

Not content with their first feature film, Gypo raking in a number of awards and international critical acclaim, releasing on DVD  February 12^th, Medb films have opened their new post production studios in Ramsgate, Kent, just an hour and half from London and for qouta purposes, beyond that crucial M25 ring road.

"We wanted to create a one stop shop for other small indie companies like ourselves needing the all important last part of the puzzle by creating a low cost, high end facility aimed at other people like us" explains producer, Elaine Wickham.

Written by Ashvin Kumar - from his blog | 14 January 2007 | in news - Production

Oscar-nominated filmmaker Ashvin Kumar as in the final throes of finishing his latest film, The Forest. And by all accounts it should be a top-notch thriller, but it offers much, much more than rising hairs on the back of the neck as his Ashvin Kumar's personal blog shows...

The Forest is a thriller with an environmental conscience. Instead of preaching to the converted (as wildlife documentaries do), I thought that I need to / could do something significant about the wildlife crisis that is staring us in the face, not only global warming and devastating effects of destruction on the planet, but focus on the most callous destruction of all - poaching, killing animals for skins and bones - to satisfy some ancient quirk of distant Chinese and Tibetan patrons.

Written by Sandra Kawar Samain | 13 January 2007 | in news - Production

Jordan, hemmed in between Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Palestine is facing many challenges, since our country is growing in many sectors and fields, such as the economy, and filmmaking, where the country is witnessing the birth of digital filmmaking, with the media industry in Jordan adapting to the new technology to achieve the highest standards.

Sandra Kawar Samain a Producer & Director from Jordan tells us more...