Jordanian director Zaid Abu Hamdan is set to launch the follow up to his female empowerment drama “Daughters of Abdulrahman,” the gritty crime thriller “Boomah,” set to soon bow from the Shanghai International Film Festival that is becoming an increasingly prominent launching pad for Arab cinema.
Shot in Jordan during an especially challenging period for the war-torn region, “Boomah” segues from Hamdan’s dramedy about four semi-estranged sisters who join forces to contend with the Jordanian patriarchy with what is being described in promotional materials as “a raw, emotionally charged crime thriller about survival, motherhood and the people society leaves behind” that captures a side of Jordan rarely seen on screen.
With “Boomah” the Jordanian helmer continues to explore the female empowerment space with this tale of a notorious and knife-savvy female gang member, the film’s titular character, who becomes embroiled in a power struggle between street thugs and religious extremists while battling the traumas of her harrowing orphaned past.
Leading “Boomah” is Jordanian actress Rakeen Saad, known for her central roles in Netflix hit original series “AlRawabi School for Girls” and “The Giza Killer” and who also has a part in Terrence Malick’s long-gestating biblical drama “The Way of the Wind.” Saad is joined by Majd Eid (“Once Upon a Time in Gaza”), Joanna Arida (“AlRawabi School for Girls”), and Hanan Hilo (“Daughters of Abdulrahman”).
“Boomah was born from very local wounds, but its heart is universal: the need to belong, the pain of being unseen, and what happens when survival and pain become a language,” said Zaid Abu Hamdan in a statement for Variety. “I was inspired by stories of real women in Jordan who were feared, judged, and misunderstood, but rarely truly seen. To have the film meet the world for the first time at the Shanghai International Film Festival is a profound honor,” he added.
“Boomah” is about people at the very bottom of the food chain, the ones society ignores until it needs them, uses them or punishes them,” noted the film’s producer Gianluca Chakra. “These are people surviving on the margins, trying to force their way into a system that was never built for them.”
“Crime here is not glamour. It is labour, currency and survival. What drew us to the film was not the violence, but the humanity underneath it. Beneath the crime thriller is a story about motherhood, belonging and people fighting to carve out a place for themselves in a world that has already decided they don’t matter. That is why the film travels beyond Jordan. These people exist everywhere,” Chakra continued.
“Boomah” was produced by Chakra’s Front Row Productions, the production arm of Front Row Filmed Entertainment, in collaboration with Bounce Productions. The film received support from the Red Sea Fund and the Royal Film Commission – Jordan. Front Row Filmed Entertainment holds global rights to “Boomah” and place to release the film across the MENA region in the fourth quarter of this year.
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