The 78^th Venice International Film Festival will run from Sept.1 till Sept.11.; announced the selection of the Palestinian film Amira by director Mohamed Diab to compete within the Orizzonti competition.

Amira is Mohamed Diab’s third film as a director after 678 (2010) and his hit film Clash (Eshtebak) (2016), which nabbed over 30 international awards. The film is set in Palestine and marks the first Palestinian film by an Egyptian director.

Amira, a 17-year-old Palestinian, was conceived with the smuggled sperm of her imprisoned father, Nawar. Although their relationship since birth has been restricted to prison visits, he remains her hero. His absence in her life is overcompensated with love and affection from those surrounding her. But when a failed attempt to conceive another child reveals Nawar’s infertility, Amira’s world turns upside down.

Amira features a stellar Pan-Arab cast, including Saba Mubarak, Ali Suliman, and Tara Abboud, who lands her first cinematic leading role as Amira. They will be joined by Kais Nashif and Waleed Zuaiter. The film is written by the trio Mohamed, Khaled, and Sherine Diab and edited by Ahmed Hafez, who previously worked with Mohamed Diab on Clash film.

The film is produced by Film Clinic (Mohamed Hefzy), Agora Audiovisuals (Mona Abdelwahab), Acamedia Pictures (Moez Masoud), in Co-production with Taher Media Production (Youssef El Taher), and The Imaginarium Films (Rula Nasser).

Also, Palestinian directors Hany Abu-Assad, Amira Diab, and Sarah Goher are the film’s producers. The film’s marketing is handled by MAD Solutions, which also handles the film’s distribution along with Lagoonie Film Production across the Arab world.

Held annually in Venice, Italy, Venice International Film Festival is one of the world’s most prominent film festivals that showcases the year’s most significant films. The festival’s current edition is presided by Bong Joon Ho, the Oscar-winning director of the South Korean film (Parasite).

Mohamed Diab is an award-winning writer and director whose work usually addresses issues related to Egyptian society. Diab started his career as a writer with the blockbuster Egyptian franchise El Gezira (The Island) films considered to be the highest-grossing Egyptian and Arabic films of all time. He followed that by writing several hit films, including Badal Faqed (Replacement) and 1000 Mabrouk (Congratulations).

As a director, Diab kick-started his career by directing the film 678 (2010), described by the New York Times as an “unmistakably harbinger of the revolution.” In 2016, he directed Clash (Eshtebak) that opened the Un Certain Regard section of the 69th Cannes Film Festival and was highly acclaimed by critics and many international A-list stars, including Tom Hanks.