“The Reports on Saleem and Sarah” premiers at the International Film Festival Rotterdam

“The Reports on Saleem and Sarah” screened from January 24 to the February 4 at the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR), as it was the international premier for Muayad Alayan’s Film.

The film and the director have been nominated for two of the 2018 awards at the (IFFR), including the Hivos Tiger film award awarded to upcoming talents in film direction. The film was nominated for the latter along with other seven movies that the jury believed worth the nomination.

The second award that the film has been nominated to is the KNF award, which is given by The Circle of Dutch Film Journalists to a Dutch production or Dutch co-production. “The Reports on Saleem and Sarah” has also been nominated for that award for the existence of the KEYFilm Dutch production company as a co-producer of the film, along with two other companies from Germany and Mexico.

The storyline centers on an affair taking place between a married Palestinian man and another Israeli woman who has been caught in the wrong place and at the wrong time, which resulted in more than an ordinary family issue for both, but its political angle took the case way beyond their expectations.

Murad Alayan is a Palestinian director who was born in Kuwait. After studying filmmaking in San Francisco, he returned to his home to expose his vision and launched filming projects about and by Palestinians and their struggles. Alyan’s movies were written by his brother, Rami Musa Alayan. The pair have produced, written and directed six films including full, short and documentary movies. Previously, they made it to nomination in many important festival such as the Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF) and Berlin International Film Festival.

The International Film Festival Rotterdam started in 1972, and is considered one of the largest audience base and industry-driven festival in the world. It targets the encouragement and support of young talents in filmmaking field for fiction and documentary movies whether it is featured, short films and media arts.