SOUK PROJECT MARKET
The Red Sea Souk Project Market 2024 features a selection of 38 projects including 24 feature films in development or production and 7 works-in-progress.
New for 2024, the selection also presents 7 episodic projects which are being developed through the Red Sea SeriesLab, in partnership with Film Independent.
Taking place from December 7–11, the Project Market is designed to bolster international co-productions and grant access to new projects and talent. This year the call for projects was opened out to include projects by directors from across the Arab World, Africa, and Asia.
12 of the feature projects in development are part of the 2024 Lodge projects and are currently advancing through intensive workshops in collaboration with TorinoFilmLab. Projects will compete for the Red Sea Souk and Red Sea Labs cash awards, provided by the Red Sea Fund and granted by the Project Market juries.
Participating projects are also eligible for additional awards provided by the Red Sea Souk award partners.
Please read the rules and regulations before applying.
The Lodge Projects
Assa, a Fish in a Bowl
Director & Writer: Dahlia Nemlich
Producer: Marine Vaillant
In Beirut, Yasmine, an Ethiopian live-in maid, faces a crisis as her son goes missing back home. Trapped by her inextricable role and without her passport, she must find a way to escape.
Blue Card
Director: Mohammed Alomda
Producer: Amjad Abu Alala
Writer: Paula Thabet
A guilt-ridden Sudanese refugee in Egypt takes a demeaning job while awaiting resettlement, but an unexpected bond with an Egyptian street food vendor pushes him to confront his past and reshape his future.
Close Rose Close
Director & Writer: Rulan Hasan
Producer: Fahad Samman
Newlywed’s Rawan marriage begins to crumble as a dark shadow presence reemerges from her forgotten past, threatening her pursuit of a normal life and forcing her to confront long-buried secrets.
Hadd
Director: Jamal Kutbi
Writer: Mohammed Juayd
Producer: Abdulrahman Alkilany
Despite immense tribal pressure, Saeed refuses a ten-million-riyal offer to forgive his son’s killer. As a conspiracy threatens his daughter’s wedding, he makes a daring, last-minute move at the execution ground to outsmart the corrupt and reclaim his family’s honor.
I Didn’t Sign Up for This
Director & Writer: Lana Komsany
Producer: Hadeel Moharram
Nadene, a dazzling superheroine in her universe, navigates the challenges of single motherhood while confronting the heartache she thought she had long buried.
I’ll Smile in September
Director & Writer: Aakash Chhabra
Producer: Sanjay Gulati, Fran Borgia
After a heart-wrenching separation from the love of his life and a brutal altercation in the aftermath in which he loses his front teeth, a young brass band player in Old Delhi attempts to move on in his life by getting his smile back.
Jaysan
Director: Aisha Sultanbekova
Writer: Asel Imankulova Myrzabaeva
Producer: Saltanat Imankulova
Jaysan, a lively 6-year-old boy, is left with his grandparents in a village emptied by labor migration. Amid the joy of new friendships and the harsh realities of loss, his carefree childhood quietly fades away too soon.
Manjano
Director & Writer: Omar Hamza
Producer: June Wairegi
Fresh out of high school, a young man assembles a group of misfits to pull off a heist to fund his elopement with a girl promised to someone else.
Pepo Kali
Director & Writer: Lydia Matata
Producer: Debra Aroko
After a biker dies in a motorcycle accident, a grieving mother learns how to ride a motorcycle, determined to complete the trip her daughter was on when she died.
Tarfaya
Director & Writer: Sofia Alaoui
Producer: Meryem Hamdi, Margaux Lorier
In the near future, Earth undergoes climate upheavals. In the city of Tarfaya, in the south of Morocco, sandstorms are frequent. The people there have resigned themselves to this reality. Meryem is a dedicated and solitary doctor at the regional hospital where she works when she encounters mysterious and unexplained medical cases that plunge people into a deep sleep.
Terbakar
Director & Writer: Shelby Kho
Producer: Si En Tan
Catalyzed by suicides, snakes, and a local revolution, Girl confronts her fire manipulation abilities as she witnesses the tendency for non-communication and sexual and physical abuse in town just as she does at home, bringing her to an emotional height that forces her to decide how she wants to live the rest of her life.
The Silent Ones
Director & Writer: Jawahine Zentar
Producer: Emmanuelle Lattorette, Fabrice Préel-Cléach
Struggling with her six-year-old son’s scary behaviors, a mother decides to go dig into her unknown roots in Morocco with him. They follow a road that the kid mysteriously seems to know about.
Red Sea Souk Projects-in-Development
DO RE MIMI
Director: Fatima Al-Banawi
Producer: Jawaher Alamri
In a world of societal pressure, secretive Quran teacher, Ms. Lamia, helps bullied 10-year-old Mariam unleash her voice, only to discover an underlying musical genius. As Mariam’s dreams soar, Ms. Lamia confronts haunting promises that could change everything.
Farouk
Director : Halkawt Mustafa
Producer: Janne Hjeltnes
A journey through the life of Farouk Al-Kasim, a geologist with a great understanding of the Earth and its resources. His knowledge helped shape Norway’s oil success and gives us important lessons about our connection with nature, global politics, and the future of sustainable development.
Haven Of Hope
Director: Seemab Gul
Producer: Margaux Juvenal
Three inmates from a Pakistani shelter home for women dare to venture into the outside world for a day. It transpires that their families would rather conveniently brand them lunatics than to give them their rights.
Holy Cow (Working Title)
Director: Asmae El Moudir
Producer: Asmae El Moudir
An unemployed truck driver’s delivery mishap leads to diplomatic chaos, public uproar, and a revenge plot as justice proves elusive.
It’s Okay, I’m Only Human
Director: Karim Ghorayeb, George Peter Barbari
Producer: Christelle Younes
Documenting the preparation of a theatrical production featuring intellectually and physically disabled individuals, the film unfolds within a community center, chronicling their journey of self-acceptance and the universal quest for genuine connections.
La Pyramide
Director : Cj ‘Fiery’ Obasi
Producer: Abbas Nokhasteh, Andres Borda, Oge Obasi
Stories from three enchanted cities exploring characters in search of the divine, linked through space, time and culture.
Mother, Maybe
Director: Sonny Calvento
Producer: Sheron Dayoc, Arden Rod Condez
A son is reunited with his mother in Tokyo as he joins a high-stakes Japanese game show, but his joy turns to horror as he discovers that at night, his mother becomes a monster.
Robbing Beirut
Director: Katia Jarjoura
Producer: Michel Zana
In Beirut, Joyce, a 30-year-old event planner, is struggling to gather enough money to save her younger sister who is battling leukemia. In a desperate act, she plans to rob her own bank to reclaim her savings frozen by the banking system since the country’s economic collapse. But the heist takes an unexpected turn.
Tahmina
Director: Aboozar Amini
Producer: Jia Zhao
A corpse must be whole for the soil to accept it, believes Tahmina, a goddess of the Hindu Kush Mountains, who scours the explosion sites for human organs. She reassembles the blown-up bodies to allow their souls to pass onto the afterworld. But things find a way to go wrong…
The Loneliness Of The Light Skin One
Director : BALOJI
Producer: Emmanuel Lupia
Billie is considered one of the future great South African sprinters. As the sole financial support for her family, her career is interrupted after being diagnosed with hyperandrogenism. Prohibited from racing, she undergoes hormonal treatment that profoundly disrupts her life.
The Sea Was Once Blue
Director: Mohamad El-Hadidi
Producer: Charles Meresse
In the shadow of the Egyptian revolution, Reem is celebrating her last night with her lover Ossama, drifting through Alexandria’s deserted streets, caught between dreams and waking life.
Watch It Burn
Director: Makbul Mubarak
Producer: Yulia Evina Bhara
In a remote Indonesian mining town, Alma (35), a devoted wife, is trying to raise her son following the arrest of her husband. Disappointed by the arrest, however, one night, her son sets a mining excavator on fire, kicking off a violent chain of events.
Red Sea Souk Works-in-Progress
A Winner Is Seen At The Start
Director: Zhannat Alshanova
Producer: Jean-Laurent Csinidis
Mila, 17, joins an unconventional swimming team with an experimental method, managed by mysterious and charismatic Vlad. How far will she be ready to go in the competition once she discovers its darker side?
Allah Is Not Obliged
Director : Zaven Najjar
Producer: Sebastien Onomo
Birahima, a Guinean orphan, tells with the help of four dictionaries and a lot of irony how he becomes a child soldier when he tries to join his aunt in Liberia.
Dandelion’s Odyssey
Director: Momoko Seto
Producer: Pierre Baussaron
Two dandelion balls are the only survivors of a series of nuclear explosions that destroy the Earth. At the end of their odyssey, they will manage to find a new soil that will allow their species to survive.
Fuxi
Director: Jiongjiong Qiu
Producer: Ningyuan Ding, Jin Zhao
In a circus tent, a ragtag film crew is busy shooting a gourmet film—spanning four millennia, and told in four chapters. Through four festivities, it invites us to feast with the living, the dying, the dead, and the long dead.
Guria
Director: Levan Koguashvili
Producer: Olena Yershova
A raging civil war, a local “beauty contest” serves as background for ups and downs of the lyrical relationships of Zuriko with the teacher and his son with the classmate. Kidnapping, surgery without electricity, a funeral with singing and crying, fighting and falling in love are the dynamics of Gurian life.
Memory Of Princess Mumbi
Director: Damien Hauser
Producer: Damien Hauser
In 2094, young director Kuve sets out to make a documentary about the Great War, but actress Mumbi challenges him to create it without AI.
Vagabonds
Director: Amartei Armar
Producer: Yemoh Ike
A headstrong teenager, Owusu (15), and his perceptive “sister,” Adobea (7), flee their orphanage and brave the Ghanaian countryside on a quest to find their last legitimate relative in the colorful chaotic streets of Accra.
SeriesLab Projects
B’itha
Screenwriter: Noorah Al-Eidi
Producer: Sheheryar Ahsan
Three Saudi students struggle to navigate college life, co-ed classes and halal romances after coming to the U.S. on scholarships, post 9/11.
Cold Case-One (Pullukandam Murder Case)
Scriptwriter: Nithin Lukose
Co-writer: Hari Krishnan
Two ‘incompetent’ police officers, Abubaker(52) and Naveen(32) come across a rare cold case when Diana John Devassi(33) an NRI, claims that her father was killed by his own siblings for wealth. The two policemen struggle to figure out the real intentions of Diana and prove themselves as competent policemen by finding the truth in the thirty year old murder case.
Generation A
Screenwriter: Mona Ombogo
Producer: Louise Kamwangi
To escape their dysfunctional destinies, a group of troubled teens reluctantly enroll in a supernatural experiment aimed at creating an alternate East Africa where the West never showed up.
Pazuzu
Screenwriter/Producer: Ali Kareem
Co-writer: Dania Altayeb
After a failed lawsuit against major European museums over stolen Iraqi artifacts, archaeologist Hassan returns to Iraq. He settles on his parents’ farm, where he confronts unresolved traumas and fragmented memories. His return pulls him into Iraq’s artifact-smuggling underworld, putting both his life and the country’s heritage at risk.
Saria Othman Needs No Man
Screenwriter: Estephan Khattar
Producer: Hiba Louis
On her 47th birthday, after struggling to sustain a family, succeed in her career, and fulfill her love, Saria Othman decides to give herself a second chance. She secretly enrolls in acting school to pursue her long-held dream of becoming a successful actress.
Shani Bazaar
Scriptwriter: Karan Kabir
Co-writer: Nitin Koul
In the northern part of India, a 32-year-old upper-caste man named Subodh desperately fakes his caste to become a manual scavenger for the survival of his family, uncovering a criminal underbelly in the mythical village of Harnandi, Ghaziabad. Subodh sparks a revolution against the deep-rooted prejudices, becoming an unlikely David against a ruthless Goliath in a battle that shakes the foundations of the caste system.
Switch
Screenwriter/Producer: Nathan Magoola
Co-writer: Lucky Lola Atwine
A man’s quest for a better life in the Middle East results in a lifetime prison sentence, followed by an unexpected pardon. After 15 years, Shafic (50s) returns to Kampala, only to find that his family moved on. Struggling to reclaim his life, he is drawn into the criminal underworld, seeking redemption again.