Strand Releasing acquired all North American rights to Mary Touzani’s “The Blue Kaftan,” which had its world premiere in Cannes and won a Fipresci Award. The film, which Films Boutique represents in international markets, will be shown for the first time in North America in Toronto in the Special Shows section.
Following Touzani’s Un Certain Regard title, “The Blue Kaftan” tells the story of Halim and Mina, a couple who run a traditional caftan shop in one of Morocco’s oldest cities. In order to keep up with demanding customers’ orders, they hired Youssef. The talented apprentice shows utmost dedication to learning the art of embroidery and sewing from Halim. Mina slowly realizes how affected her husband is by the presence of the young man.
Produced by Nabil Ayouch (“Daqat Casablanca”, “I loved a lot”), “The Blue Kaftan” starring Lubna Azbal (“Al-Hariqa”) and Saleh Bakri (“Costa Brava, Lebanon”).
Tozzani said that “The Blue Kaftan” is “above all a movie about love, about the freedom to be yourself, and to love whoever you want to love.” Meanwhile, Ayouch described the film as “accurate and contradictory.”
“Against the backdrop of tradition, the ‘Blue Kaftan’ offers a deeply poignant look at the stifling homosexuality of a man in his marriage and questions our definition of love,” Ayouch said, adding that “the story bravely addresses the forbidden indoors, but it does so in the open.”
Marcus Ho, co-founder of Strand Releasing, said the company is looking to “get the film to the audience it deserves in North America.”
Jean-Christophe Simon of Films Boutique noted that Strand was the “perfect home” for “The Blue Kaftan,” a film that the CEO described as a film “with a strong political theme that should appeal to both American audiences and artist audiences alike.”
Strand is planning a theatrical release for Spring 2023 after it hits local festivals across North America.
The film is produced by Ali n’ Productions in Morocco, Les Films du Nouveau Monde in France, Velvet in Belgium and Snowglobe in Denmark.
Films Boutique has also recently sold the film to Germany (Arsenal Filmverleih), Australia, New Zealand (Possible Films), Sweden (Folkets bio), Czech Republic and Slovakia (Artcam), Poland (Aurora Films), Portugal (Leopardo Films), Taiwan (Light Year Pictures) and the former Yugoslavia (MCF Megacom). ).
Strand’s current releases include Sundance-winning “Portrait of a Girl” by Ali Habasal, “Peter van Kant” by François Ozon, “The Line” by Ursula Mayer, “No One is a Hero” by Alain Giroudy, and “Radiance” by Rethy Banh.
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