Hassiba & Kenton Freiha-Oxley’s FARAH premiered successfully yesterday Monday, November 28th at VOX cinema in Mall of the Emirates.
This came ahead of its commercial release on the 1st of December in UAE in VOX cinemas in Dubai’s Mall of the Emirates and Abu Dhabi’s YAS Mall.
The movie’s cast members Stephanie Atala, Majdi Machmouchi, and Youssef Boulos, along with the directors Hassiba & Kenton Freiha-Oxley, and the producer Reine Issa were present at the premiere, which was also attended by the most prominent media outlets, celebrities, influencers, and art critics.
Previously, the film’s official trailer was released by MAD Solutions – the film’s distributor in the Arab world – which you can watch through the following link https://www.facebook.com/FarahMovie/videos/668711174772648/.
Recently, the film won the Best Arab Film and Best Art Direction Awards (Nazir Nassar and Moussa Baydoun) at the Alexandria Mediterranean Film Festival, where it competed in the Nour El-Sherif Competition for Arabic Feature Films.
FARAH also won the Best Feature Film Award (audience poll) at the Lebanese Film Festival in Canada and received a Special 10th Anniversary Award (jury award) at the Chelsea Film Festival in the US.
Before that, FARAH world premiered at the Beirut International Women Film Festival and screened at the San Diego Arab Film Festival.
Furthermore, FARAH received much critical acclaim, with critic Dr Khalid Ali saying, “while dealing with hard-hitting subjects such as the stigma of mental illness, the limitations of ‘drug therapy’, Big Pharma, the clever script written by Hassiba still portrays an intimate character study of a troubled family.”
The film follows Lina – a pre-med student – who is sent home to Beirut after severe nightmares ruin her life. An antidepressant named ‘Xapa’ – also known as ‘Joy’ – is then prescribed to help her recover.
However, as Lina’s terrifying nightmares worsen and a link between them and her birth mother, Farah, becomes clear, she embarks on a quest to uncover a web of family secrets that will reveal a shattering truth.
Written by Hassiba Freiha – who co-directed it with Kenton Oxley – FARAH stars Stephanie Atala, Majdi Machmouchi, Freiha, and Youssef Boulos. The film is lensed by Elias Trad and edited by Marcus D’Arcy. MAD Solutions is also managing the film’s distribution in the Arab world.
Freiha is a writer and filmmaker who has worked on various short films, including TEMPERANCE, which was screened at the Middle East International Film Festival and the Cannes Film Festival’s Short Film Corner. An independent online platform later acquired the film’s distribution rights.
She also worked on the feature film CITY ISLAND with Andy Garcia and Alan Arkin and the National Wildlife Federation’s Campus Chillout project with former vice president Al-Gore, Oscar-winning producer and philanthropist Jeff Skoll, and Oscar-winning producer Lawrence Bender.
Following these achievements, Freiha co-produced, co-directed, and starred in the short film WAHDON (ALONE), which screened at film festivals worldwide.
After acting in several short films, Freiha was hired by Twofour54 Abu Dhabi – a government-backed media services company – to join their post-production team as a booking manager. Soon after, she became the manager of the whole department. Meanwhile, she continued to hone her filmmaking skills and post-produced two feature films.
Kenton Oxley has carved a successful global career in the television and film industry. As a producer and CEO of his own production services company – Knockout Production Services – Kenton worked on multi-million-dollar blockbuster projects.
At the age of 20, he became the youngest-ever director for ITV and worked for media-related government companies in Abu Dhabi and Malaysia. For six years, he headed the Production & Global Trade Department at Twofour54.
Oxley also gained vast experience working on international projects such as Left Bank Pictures’ STRIKE BACK, TOP GEAR, and Bollywood blockbuster BANG BANG.
