Arab acting sensation Kinda Alloush's latest two films — Wendy Bednarz’s YELLOW BUS and Soudade Kaadan’s NEZOUH — made waves at this year’s edition of Abu Dhabi’s CineMAS Film Festival.
The festival, which ran from May 20th to May 26th at Manarat Al Saadiyat, held a screening for NEZOUH on May 24th and another for YELLOW BUS, which marked its UAE premiere, on May 26th, which was followed by a Q&A session in which director Bednarz and producer Nadia Eliewat shared with the audience some exclusive behind-the-scenes stories about their journey while making the film.
In YELLOW BUS, Kinda Alloush stars as the school principal who is responsible for an accident in which a child died on a school bus. Trying to protect her school from the scandal, she offers blood money to the child’s family and gets close to the surviving sister of the deceased child, perhaps as a way to relieve herself from her unbearable guilt.
Now playing in cinemas across Saudi Arabia, YELLOW BUS — which is OSN's first original feature and will soon get its theatrical release across cinemas in UAE — won the prestigious Global Vision Award (Jury Award for Best Feature Film) at the Cinquest Film & Creativity Film Festival. Before that, the film snagged the top prize at South Africa’s Joburg Film Festival, marking its first award in a festival tour that started with a banging world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Written and directed by American filmmaker Wendy Bednarz, the film stars Kinda Alloush alongside Bollywood Indian star Tannishtha Chatterjee, who won the Best Actress Award at several international festivals, including the British Independent Film Awards for her role in the British film BRICK LANE; as well as Bollywood star Amit Sial, known for the famous series INSIDE EDGE that was nominated for the International Emmy Awards in 2018; and Aarushi Laud, who plays the child that puts everything in motion.
The film is a co-production between the US, India, Jordan, and the UAE that is written and directed by American filmmaker Wendy Bednarz and produced by Jordanian producer and founder of Screen Project Nadia Eliewat—who worked on the award-winning film WHEN MONALIZA SMILED—alongside Founder of Sikhya Entertainment Guneet Monga, whose short documentary THE ELEPHANT WHISPERER won an Academy Award.
On the other hand, in NEZOUH, Kinda plays the role of the mother of 14-year-old Zina, whose room’s ceiling is destroyed by a missile during the Syrian conflict, forcing her to sleep for the first time under the stars and make friends with Amer — the boy next door. When the violence escalates, Hala — Zeina's mother — decides to leave, getting into an argument with her husband, Motaz, who refuses to become a refugee and tries everything to stop her and Zina from leaving their house.
Right after its world premiere at the Orizzonti Extra Competition of the Venice International Film Festival, where it won the Audience and Lanterna Magica Award, the film went on to make its mark on the festival circuit, screening at over 20 prestigious international film festivals and winning awards including the Amnesty International Award at the MedFilm Festival.
NEZOUH was also nominated for Best Film at the BFI London Film Festival, along with Best Effects and Best Lead Performance for Hala Zein at the British Independent Film Awards. Moreover, the film went on to have a successful commercial release in Arab-speaking countries, including Egypt and Qatar.
Written and directed by Soudade Kaadan — who also co-produced it with Yu-Fai Suen — the film stars Alloush, Samir Al-Masri, Hala Zein, and Nizar Alani and is produced by Berkeley Media Group Limited, KAF Production, and Agat Films & Cie.
Syrian superstar Kina Alloush has had an auspicious career that stretches back almost two decades, during which she starred in many notable films and TV series hits, reigned supreme in the hearts of millions of fans in Egypt and the Arab world, and left an indelible mark in the entertainment industry.
Among her notable TV works are AHL CAIRO, for which she won the Murex d’Or Award for Best Actress in 2010; NIRAN SADEEKA, for which she won the Excellence Award at the Oscar ART in 2013; and AL AHD (EL KALAM EL MOBAH).
As for her most remarkable films, they include Netflix’s THE SWIMMERS; the Jordanian film THE STRANGERS; the Egyptian blockbusters WELAD EL-AMM, AL-MASLAHA, EXCUSE MY FRENCH, and the highest-grossing romantic film in the history of Egyptian cinema, HEPTA: THE LAST LECTURE (2016), to name but a few.
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