Sarah Better than Earth

Egypt, France, Sweden \ 20 min

Director: Sherif Al Bendary 

Producer:  Martin Jérôme, Linda Mutawi

Synopsis:

Radwa, a 20 years old girl who lives in a university residence, goes to complain her roommate Sarah of harassing her.

Director : Sherif Al Bendary 

Sherif El Bendary, is an Egyptian film director, writer and producer ; born in 1978 in Cairo. He graduated from faculty of applied arts in 2001 and started his life as a textile engineer ; in 2002 he pursued another career path when he joined “The high Cinema institute” in Cairo to study cinema directing and graduated in 2007 ; where he got a teaching position from 2008 till now. Sherif El Bendary directed a number of shorts and documentaries that made it to numerous festivals around the world. His first short film “Rise and shine” was produced by the national film center in 2006, the film was selected in many international festivals and won a number of awards including “Tribeca film festival” in 2007. In 2011, he directed a feature length documentary “On the road to Downtown”, and among other 9 other directors, Sherif El Bendary participated with “Curfew” segment in the feature film “18 days” – official selection Cannes 2011. Sherif El Bendary won the “Robert Bosch Film Prize” at the Berlinale talent campus 2014 for his short film “Dry hot summers” – an Egyptian German coproduction – the film premiered at “Clermont Ferrand ISFF 2016”, and screened after in many festivals around the world and won a number of awards. In 2017, Sherif El Bendary released his first feature length narrative film “Ali, the Goat and Ibrahim” an Egyptian Emirati French coproduction, which won a best actor prize at Dubai IFF and was released in Egypt and France and many other countries, the same year ; Sherif El Bendary had a TV series broadcasted ; “The Brotherhood II” written by the veteran screenwriter “Wahid Hamed” ; a historical major production with political dimensions that stirred controversy at the time. Sherif El Bendary participated as a jury member in several film festivals including Cairo IFF, El Gouna FF and The Egyptian National Film Festival. Recently, Sherif El Bendary founded “Africa Films”, a film production company mainly focused on short and feature films for promising and upcoming directors making their first and second films, and will also produce his second feature film “Spray”. 

Producer: Martin Jérôme

After graduating from NEOMA Business School in France and the Netherlands in 2009, and experimented internships at France Télévision, Universal Pictures Paris and U media Belgium, Martin went to the New York Film Academy to complete his education. He then worked his way up as producer assistant on films like Cosmopolis by David Cronenberg, Horses of God by Nabil Ayouch and Racer and the Jailbird by Michaël Roskam… Since 2019, Martin works as acquisitions executive for Condor (French distributor of Enemy by Denis Villeneuve, Victoria by Sebastian Schipper, Light of my life by Casey Affleck…). He also runs Les Cigognes Films and has produced I Am Afraid to Forget Your Face directed by Sameh Alaa, which received the Palme d’Or at the 2020 Cannes Film Festival. He has also coproduced The Eagles of Carthage by director Adriano Valerio that has opened Venice International Film Critics’ Week 2020. This dual function offers a global view of the film market and a strategic link with its main players. Martin is also a reader for the Gan Foundation for Cinema.

Co-Producer: Linda Mutawi

 Linda is a film producer with a multicultural background, she has worked in the UK, Jordan, Dubai and now Sweden. Throughout her career she has worked on various types of projects ranging from Hollywood features to current affairs documentaries. She has served as a film commissioner in Jordan, managed the Jordan Film Fund, participated in the Producers Guild of America’s diversity workshop, as well mentoring an EU theatre programme. She is currently involved in various international projects as producer and co-producer. Strong themes in Linda’s work include search for identity and the concept of home.