The Settlement

The blade factory witnessed their father’s death. The only compensation offered to Hossam and Maro to relinquish their legal rights is to work in the same position as their father, next to the same person who caused their father’s accidental death.

Pitch

Synopsis

In a shantytown called Al Nag', which lies in the ghostly district of Wardiyan in Alexandria, sandwiched between a grain packaging factory and an oil refinery, live Hossam and Maro, two brothers. The first is twenty-three and the latter is twelve. After their father Said accidentally gets killed in the blade factory by one of his colleagues Moustafa, the factory manager Karim convinces Said’s family to relinquish their legal rights in exchange of hiring both Hossam and Maro in the factory. Hossam feels belittled, but he decides to accept the offer out of responsibility towards his family. He is also aware that he has no skills that can make him eligible for any other job.
Hossam and Maro receive their new jobs only a month after the accident and on their way to the factory, which lies in a far place called The Settlement, they find out they will have to work hand in hand with Mustafa, the person they know to be the cause of their father's death.
In the factory, all workers are vigilant towards Hossam, especially Moustafa; they all know, beforehand from his late father, how hostile and misfit he is and that all his friends are outlaws. His bad image made everyone await Hossam’s revenge. But this is not Hossam’s only problem: his teenage brother Maro, who looks up to him, is expecting Hossam’s revenge as well, and recklessly trying to be a part of it.

Director statement

My own father works as an ironing worker in textile factories. Being close to worker's stories all my life, I relate with how the workers earn their living through patience, even if the heavy machinery literally eats their flesh.
I became more and more captivated with the workers and their world. I got closer to them, and I learned from workers and engineers in different factories that there is, indeed, a high injury and mortality rate among workers in these factories. The management usually uses money and hiring family members in their negotiations with the affected families. That's how I realised that the story of the injured and dead workers has to be told through cinema.

Through my research, I got in touch with a group of young men who live in the Al Nag slum located in my hometown, Alexandria. The story of this film is created by mixing the true stories of the workers with fiction elements that are also grounded to their reality. The film takes place in their neighbourhood (Al Nag’) that I admire, with a protagonist created from my own imagination.
 
I personally find the industrial spaces to be full of cinematic elements and visually appealing details. These spaces are fresh and new as it's very rare to see an Egyptian film that takes place in them. The film is shot in the same factory where they work, the neighbourhood where the protagonist lives which is an industrial urban space itself, and the highway connecting them. These spaces reflect the roughness these workers endure in their everyday lives.

Director biography

Mohamed Rashad (writer/director/producer) was born in Egypt and started working in filmmaking in 2005, after he was trained in a two-year workshop on filmmaking. He started the workshop in 2003 and finished it in 2005 after which he wrote and directed two short fiction films, From Afar in 2005 and Maxim in 2007. Afterwards, he worked as an assistant director in a large number of films, the most important among them is Coming Forth by Day directed by Hala Lotfy. With Hala and several other filmmakers, he founded the production company Hassala Films which is an independent production house whose focus is to produce long debut projects (fiction and documentary) by talented young artists. In 2016, he finished his first feature documentary film Little Eagles which had its premiere at the 2016 Dubai International Film Festival’s Official Selection. His first credit as the producer was on the feature documentary The Profession directed by Ramez Youssef. Rashad also participated in a number of script development and editing workshops such as the DOCmed workshop and the Documentary Campus Workshop. Rashad is currently working on the development of his first feature fiction The Settlement.

Huidige status

The project is currently in the development stage, and we are still working on the second draft of the script.

Goals

The film already has an Egyptian producer and a French co-producer, and we are interested in meeting a potential Dutch co-producer, or from any other country. We are also looking forward to meeting with possible sales agents and, most importantly, funders.