Ladder to Damascus
Spring Grant 2011 - Production Stage
Current project status: COMPLETED
Mohamad Malas / Feature Narrative / Syria, Lebanon, Qatar / 97 min / Colour / Original Language: Arabic / Interests: Drama, Romance, Social Issues, Fantasy, Women Interest
Synopsis
Ghalia moves to Damascus to study acting and rents a room in a traditional courtyard house, where other young Syrians from different regions also live. She meets Fouad, an aspiring filmmaker who is fascinated by her ambiguity. Within the confines of the house their love story blossoms, while outside, the streets are embattled with the revolution.
Credits
- Director
- Mohamad Malas
- Screenwriter
- Mohamad Malas, Samer Mohamad Ismail
- Producer
- Georges Schoucair
About the Director
Mohamad Malas was born in 1945 and studied filmmaking at VGIK in Moscow from 1969 to 1974. Soon after, he directed ‘Al Quneitra 74’ (1974) and ‘The Memory’ (1977). He went on to direct many films, including ‘The Dreams of the City’ (1984), ‘The Night’ (1992), ‘On the Sands, Under the Sun’ (1998), ‘Passion’ (2004) and ‘Al Mahhed’ (2007). ‘The Dreams of the City’ received many awards, including the Palme d'Or at the 1984 Cannes Film Festival; ‘The Night’ (1993) won awards at several festivals including the Freibourg Festival and the Bruges Festival.
Production Company Profile
Abbout Productions produces feature films and documentaries with a distinctly Arab voice, expressing the identity of the region. Since 1998, the company has managed to bring together an important network of Arab and Lebanese artists, and produced award-winning films such as Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige’s ‘A Perfect Day’ (2005), ‘I Want to See’ (2008), and ‘The Lebanese Rocket Society’ (2012); Ghassan Salhab’s ‘The Last Man’ (2006) and ‘The Valley’ (2014); Georges Hashem’s ‘Stray Bullet’ (2010); Hany Tamba’s ‘Melodrama Habibi’ (2007); Mohamad Malas’s ‘Ladder to Damascus’ (2013); and Vatche Boulghourjian’s ‘Tramontane’ (2016), ‘Panoptic’ by Rana Eid, ‘Amal’ by Mohamed Siam and ‘A Certain Nasser’ by Badih Massaad and Antoine Waked. Abbout Productions has a strong partnership with MC Distribution, a company dedicated to promoting new films from the Middle East along with direct and priority access to the sole art-house theatre in Lebanon, Metropolis Cinema. The companuy’s main objective remains to help structure Lebanese and Arab cinema craft into a solid industry.
Awards and Festival History
Festivals
Dubai International Film Festival 2013, in the Muhr Arab Feature Cateogry (UAE)