DUBAI – Saudi film “Barakah Meets Barakah” was released in cinemas across the UAE this week, and will be released throughout the Arab world in the future, according to the distributors.
At the end of August, “Barakah Meets Barakah,” the debut film by Saudi director Mahmoud Sabbagh, was selected to represent Saudi Arabia at the 2017 Academy Awards in the Best Foreign-Language Film category.
MAD Solutions, a film distribution and PR company, which is collaborating with Film Clinic-Indie Film Distribution (FCIFD) to distribute the film, announced the film’s release in a press release and said it had finalized agreements with five prominent Arab media organisations, including Sayidaty, Aljarida (Kuwait), Al-Akhbar (Lebanon), FilFan website and Empire Arabic magazine.
“Barakah Meets Barakah” tells the story of “wo lovers who are united in an environment hostile to dating of any kind. He is Barakah, the municipal civil servant from Jeddah, who is also an amateur actor in a theatrical troupe. She is Barakah, a wild beauty, who functions as a crowd-puller for her stylish mother’s boutique and runs her own widely-seen vlog. They both defy customs and traditions, as well as the religious police, using modern communication technologies and traditional dating methods.
The film had its world premiere at the 66th Berlin International Film Festival in February 2016 where it won the Ecumenical Jury Prize within the Forum section.
Written and directed by Mahmoud Sabbagh, Barakah Meets Barakah stars Fatima Al Banawi, Hisham Fageeh, Sami Hifny, Abdulmajeed Alruhaidi and Khairia Nazmi.
