EXCLUSIVE: Riyadh-based Habbar Film Marketing (HFM) has come on board Sudanese director and producer Mohammed Aloma’s upcoming film Blue Card as a co-producer in its first foray into international co-production.
Billed as an exploration of the plight of Sudanese refugees deciding between settling into their current spaces or waiting to be relocated yet again, Blue Card follows Abdullah after he escapes the war in Sudan and flees alone to Egypt.
Compelled to work in a nursing home in Cairo, he is forced to confront his past and make life altering decisions.
The drama marks Alomda’s feature directorial debut, and is produced by his long-time collaborator Amjad Abu Alala, who is best-known as the director of You Will Die At Twenty, which premiered at Venice in 2019 and won the Lion of the Future Award.
Currently based in Cairo, the pair are co-founders of Station Films. The company was at the forefront of Sudan’s burgeoning film industry, which started to take root in the wake of dictator Omar al-Bashir ousting in 2019, but now lies in tatters due to the country’s civil war.
Station Films also produced Mohamed Kordofani’s Goodbye Julia, the first ever Sudanese feature to screen at Cannes, where it won the Freedom Prize in Un Certain Regard in 2023, while Alomda also produced Yemeni drama The Burdened by Amr Gamal, which premiered at the Berlinale in 2023 and received the Amnesty International Film Prize.
Habbar Film Marketing was launched late last year by top Saudi creative agency Habbar.
Its founding mission was to connect homegrown and international movies with Saudi audiences, by tapping into its parent company’s knowledge of local consumer habits gleaned over a decade of creating advertising and marketing campaigns for the territory.
The company is additionally interested in getting involved in Saudi Arabia‘s burgeoning film industry, and the wider MENA ecosystem.
“This is exactly the kind of story Habbar stands for,” the company said. “With Blue Card, Habbar Film Marketing formally opens its international co-production chapter, stepping from film marketing into global filmmaking partnerships.”
The company has previously lent support to Saudi filmmakers through its participation in the Red Sea Film Festival’s Red Sea Souk project incubator with a prize, offering a $10,000 cash award and $40,000 in marketing services, the inaugural edition of which went to Saudi director Khaled Zidan’s Green Corpse.
On Blue Card, Habbar Film Marketing joins a strong lineup of international partners with co-producers including May Odeh (Mayana Films, Germany), Georges Schoucair and Christian Eid (Player Films, France), and Ingrid Lill Høgtun (Barentsfilm, Norway) alongside Saudi participation through Red Sea Lodge and MBC Studios.
MAD World is attached as the film’s international sales agent and distributor, while the film has also received the backing of the El Gouna Film Festival’s CineGouna initiative as well as the Berlinale’s World Cinema Fund, and the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture (AFAC).
The project was to been due to be presented at the Berlinale Co-Production Market earlier this month, but Alomda and Abu Alala withdrew the project after they were denied visas to enter Germany