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Jordan’s Royal Film Commission has pulled Egyptian director Mohamed Diab’s drama “Amira” – which was filmed in Jordan and is set in the Palestinian West Bank – as its submission to the 2022 international feature Oscar race following a storm of social media controversy against the film.

Pic, which takes its cue from real-life instances of Palestinian children conceived behind bars in Israeli jails with smuggled sperm, has suddenly prompted a rapidly increasing number of Palestinian activists to protest on Twiter and other social media. The film premiered in Venice in September and subsequently played at the El Gouna fest in Egypt and the Carthage fest in Tunisia.

Since 2012, more than 100 children have been conceived using the smuggled sperm of incarcerated Palestinians, according to the end titles of the film which revolves around a teenage girl who believes she was conceived from the sperm of a Palestinian activist serving a life sentence.

Film revolves around a West Bank teenager conceived via the smuggled sperm of a Palestinian prisoner.

Jordan’s Royal Film Commission has withdrawn Egyptian director Mohamed Diab’s drama Amira as its submission to the 2022 international feature Oscar race following a local backlash against the film.

Filmed in Jordan and set in the Palestinian West Bank, the film was inspired by the true phenomenon of children conceived using the smuggled sperm of Palestinian prisoners imprisoned in Israeli jails.

It revolves around the fictional tale of a teenage girl who believes she was conceived from the sperm of a famous Palestinian activist serving a life term.

Includes new films from Ann Hui, Mohamed Diab and Kaouther Ben Hania.Asia

Love After Love (China)

Dir. Ann Hui

Hong Kong filmmaker Ann Hui revisits the work of Eileen Chang with this adaptation of 1943 novella Aloeswood Incense about a young woman from Shanghai who heads to Hong Kong to continue her studies, but ends up working for her aunt, seducing rich and powerful men. The cast features Eddie Peng, Ma Sichun and Faye Yu. Hui is regularly feted on the Asian festival circuit but has not been selected for an A-list European event since 2011 when A Simple Life played in competition in Venice.

It is the third feature by Egyptian director Mohamed Diab after ’678’ and ’Clash’.

Paris-based Pyramide International has acquired international rights to Mohamed Diab’s coming of age drama Amira, excluding Arab-language territories and Israel. CAA Media Finance is handling Us rights.

The film wrapped shooting in Jordan this week.

Sister company Pyramide Films will handle the French release, having previously handled Diab’s Clash and 678.

The Palestine-set drama marks the feature debut of actress Tara Abboud who stars as a bubbly 17-year-old who has grown-up believing she was conceived with the smuggled sperm of her imprisoned father.

Her sense of...

A film based on the terror attacks on Christchurch mosques in New Zealand that killed 51 people is to be directed by Egyptian filmmaker and academic Moez Masoud.

Titled Hello Brother,?the film will follow a family facing death and destruction in Afghanistan who escape with their lives. Their story meshes with that of the recent attacks by a 28-year-old white supremacist on the Al Noor Mosque and Linwood Islamic center, reports variety.com.

The shootings at the mosques claimed the lives of 51 worshipers and were partly live-streamed on social media. The title of the project is based upon the words of one of the victims.

Masoud is a producer, Cambridge scholar and noted public speaker. His movie Clash?was the opening film in Cannes' Un Certain Regard in 2016.

"In Christchurch, on March 15, the world witnessed an unspeakable crime against humanity. The story that?Hello Brother will bring to audiences is...

Hello, Brother – named after a victim’s last words – was announced at Cannes film festival by Egyptian director Moez Masoud

A film about the Christchurch mosque shootings, in which 51 people died, is to be directed by Egyptian film-maker and academic Moez Masoud.

According to Variety the film’s title will be Hello, Brother, the words spoken by 71-year-old victim Hati Mohammed Daoud Nabi, who opened the door to the gunman of Al Noor mosque, where 42 people died. The central characters are “a family facing death and destruction in Afghanistan who escape with their lives”.

Moez Masoud will helm “Hello Brother,” a movie about the deadly terror attacks on two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand.

The film will follow a family facing death and destruction in Afghanistan who escape with their lives. Their story meshes with that of the recent attacks by a 28-year-old white supremacist on the Al Noor Mosque and Linwood Islamic center. The shootings claimed the lives of 51 worshipers and were partly live-streamed on social media. The title of the project is based upon the words of the gunman as he entered the first mosque.

Masoud is a producer, Cambridge scholar and noted public speaker. His movie, “Clash,” was the opening film in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard in 2016.

“In Christchurch, on March 15, the world witnessed an unspeakable crime against humanity,” Masoud said. “The story that ‘Hello Brother’ will bring to audiences is just one step in the healing process, so that we...