Pedigreed Palestinian producer May Odeh (“Aisha Can’t Fly Away,” “A Useful Ghost,” “Hanging Gardens,”“200 Meters”) has added Jordan’s Rina Khoury from Arab Media Network ‘s Abu-Lughod Studios to her early list of backers of “Chentian,” helmed by “Lemon Tree” and “The Syrian Bride” scribe Suha Arraf.
The buzzy project, now in development, scooped the €35,000 ($41,650) Tin Post-Production Award at this year’s Göteborg Film Festival Nordic Film Market. It will next be pitched June 10 at the ECAM Forum co-production market in Madrid.
Odeh, who received the Variety MENA Talent Award in 2000, is producing for Odeh Films in Palestine and Germany’s Mayana Films, co-founded with Zorana Mušiki. The film is produced in association with German producer Lena Zimmerhackel and with support from the Arab Cultural Fund.
Set in “an isolated farming Palestinian village inside Israel” according to the logline, “Chentian” centers on two sisters, Nabila and Shams, bound by an exchange marriage to two brothers. When her husband dies in a tractor accident, Nabila who lives trapped in the same household as Shams and her husband Walid, starts to develop a forbidden desire for her brother-in-law. As Israeli authorities begin confiscating their land, personal tensions collide with political pressure.
