BACKSTAGE
Afef Ben Mahmoud & Khalil Benkirane
Lycia Productions (MA, TN, QA, BE, NO, FR), fiction
During a dance performance in a small Atlas town, AIDA provokes her life and stage partner HEDI, who injures her on stage, triggering a series of events on the way to the next village's doctor.
AIDA, a member of a Tunisian contemporary dance troupe, provokes HEDI who injures her. They leave in a hurry to seek medical help and take the road to the next village where the only doctor in the area resides. Under the light of a full moon following an accident, the group continues on foot through a dense forest. This sudden situation creates an opportunity to delve into each individual and the links that bind them.
AFEF BEN MAHMOUD / IMDB
Following studies in management at the Ecole Supérieure des Sciences Economiques et Commerciales (ESSEC) in Tunis, AFEF BEN MAHMOUD obtained a diploma in scriptwriting and directing in 2008, then a master of research in image design at the Ecole Supérieure des Sciences et Technologies du Design de Tunis. In parallel to her studies, Afef started directing films, three short films and a documentary, while having already devoted herself, from a very young age, to an artistic career as a dancer and actress. She began her journey by taking part in musical shows such as LA NOUBA and EL HADHRA under the direction of Fadhel Jaziri. Since then, Afef has devoted herself to her acting career and has participated in numerous theatre, film and television productions. Afef has held leading roles under the direction of great Tunisian directors such as in MAKING OFF by Nouri Bouzid, awarded at many international festivals. Recently, Afef created Mésanges Films, a production company, and produced Nouri Bouzid's latest film, THE SCARECROWS, in which she also plays one of the lead roles. The film had its world premiere in official selection at the 2019 Venice Film Festival in the Sconfini section, where it won the Human Rights Award. Since then, Mésanges Films has been in post-production of the film BACKSTAGE, which she is co-directing and co-producing.
KHALIL BENKIRANE / IMDB
At a young age, KHALIL BENKIRANE left Morocco for the United States, where he lived and worked for over twenty years. After studying cinema at San Francisco State University, he oversaw Cinemayaat, the San Francisco Arab Film Festival, from 1998 to 2002. He then returned to Morocco and directed his first feature-length documentary, THE WHITE THREAD, which he also produced, about Cheb i Sabbah, a world music DJ who takes Moroccan traditional music through a contemporization process to bring it back to life, in a revisited form for new audiences, in both West and East. In 2008, he moved to Qatar and worked for Al Jazeera Children Channel where he produced 76 documentary and fiction films. In 2011, Khalil joined the Doha Film Institute to set up the film grant programme, which he has been overseeing ever since. Through Lycia Productions, Khalil is currently in post-production of BACKSTAGE, a feature-length fiction film he is co-directing with Afef Ben Mahmoud.
Director’s statement:
Afef spent much of her youth as a professional on stage between dance and theatre. From stage to stage, from one country to another, she was lucky to have several families. Travelling together, eating, sleeping, crying, laughing... Unforgettable moments in life that made an imprint on her forever. As Afef was writing the script and discussing it together, we realised that we were driven by the same directing ideas, sharing a complementary cinematic vision and a common interest in the different subjects dealt with in BACKSTAGE. Our desire to co-direct was thus born very naturally. In Backstage, we wanted to recreate this singular dance troupe life, significantly through a very particular aspect of the world of the stage. We were intrigued by the settling of scores between partners, which under no circumstances can ever be seen by either the spectator or the director. Since the show must always go on, the real drama plays out mainly offstage, which is why we decided to put our camera there to delve into the life of a troupe.
Where are we at?
Total budget: 1.250.000,00 EUR
Financing in place: 900.000,00 EUR
Sales agent: /
Territories available: World, With The Exception Of Mena
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Production company profile:
LYCIA PRODUCTIONS was created to produce films, focusing on contemporary subjects, through a clear strategy to develop and produce bold, independent projects by pushing artistic limits, with sincerity and creative freedom. The first project initiated by Lycia Productions is BACKSTAGE, currently in post-production. Lycia Productions contributed to Ali Essafi's feature documentary BEFORE THE DYING OF THE LIGHT, an archival project that reveals the artistic creativity of 1970s Morocco, supported by the testimonies of three victims of repression of that dark period known as the Years of Lead. The film had its World premiere in 2020 at the National Film Festival in Tangier where it won the Best Documentary award and had its international premiere in competition at IDFA. And in early 2019, Lycia partnered with Mesanges Films to co-produce THE SCARECROWS, the latest film by Tunisian director Nouri Bouzid. The film had its world premiere at the 2019 Venice Film Festival in the official selection, in the Sconfini section and received the Human Rights Award. Lycia is currently in post production of Backstage.