THE SEA NEEDS TO HEAVE
Feature / Development Funding
Jordan, Sweden \ Arabic \ 90 minutes
Director: Zain Duraie
Producer: Alaa Alasad
Production Company: Tabi3Sixty – Together: Above & Beyond Innovation
Swedish Co-producer: Helene Granqvist
Production Company: Nordic Factory Film & TV Sweden
Synopsis:
Nadia and Jalal have lost their former familiar relationship. They are forced into extremely difficult circumstances when their eldest son, Basil attempts suicide in his last year of school, causing an immediate disruption and an emotional shock in the family. Nadia and Jalal clash over their different perceptions of their son’s case, causing more tension and confusing the lives of their youngest son and daughter, who are deeply affected by the situation. Under such extreme pressures, Nadia and Jalal must hide their son from a judgmental and highly codified society instantly destabilizing all their perceived conventions and traditional order.
Zain Duraie
Zain Duraie has worked on several local and international productions in many different roles. She graduated from the Toronto Film School in 2009 where she wrote and directed two short films as part of her graduation project. In 2010, Duraie began work as a trainee at Philistine Films with prestigious filmmaker Annemarie Jacir and acclaimed producer Ossama Bawardi. Projects include “When I Saw You” where she worked from preproduction to post-production as well as several other productions including “The Rendezvous”, “Thank You for Bombing” and “Wajib”. Philistine Films also produced Horizon, Duraie’s debut film which had its world premiere at Palm Springs Shorts (Fest Selects’s best film award), Montreal World Film Fest, Cannes Short Corner, and many more. Duraie was selected in 2017 to work with acclaimed Bosnian filmmaker Aida Begić in Turkey/ Sanliurfa on her latest film “Never Leave Me”. Duraie afterwards began developing her feature film screenplay which was selected out of 70 countries to be developed with the prestigious Asia Pacific Screen Academy in addition to its selection at Meditalents Residence and Torino Film Lab. Duraie just finished shooting her recent short film “Give up the Ghost” which will be released in early summer of 2019 and won a special mention at the Malmo Film Market (2018).
Alaa Alasad
Alaa is the founder and owner of Tabi360 ( Tabi3Sixty), where he is presently producing the feature films, “Baghdad Perfume” directed by Roua Alazzawi, and the Jordanian film “On The Edge” directe by Bassam Alasad, and “The Sea Needs To Heave” By Zain Duraie 2021. Alasad Has co-produced with Michael Wrenn the Australian film “Slam”, directed by Partho Sen-Gupta, the Saudi-Spanish film “Born A King” with the award winning producer; Andres Vicente Gomez, directed by Agusti Villaronga. Alaa also co-produced the Spanish documentary “The Other Kids”. He has a couple of upcoming Projects with ALjazeera Documentary, including an interactive Documentary “Champions Without Borders” and more recently, the Documentary “The Borrowed Dress” with Leen Faisal. He worked as a producer and DOP on Bassam Alasad’s experimental short documentary, “Life For Rent” as well as the award winning short film, “Black Out”.
Helene Granqvist
Helene is an award winning producer who has worked in film and television for more than 30 years. She has produced several feature films, a web TV channel, an array of public events, a dozen shorts and about as many documentaries. Helene has been the president of WIFT Sweden since 2013 and as of 2018, she also became the president for “Women in Film & Television International”. She’s a member of EFA and also works as a pitch coach all over Europe.