East of Noon premieres at the Quinzaine des Cinéastes, Cannes 2024
Dutch feature fiction East of Noon is selected for Cannes’ Quinzaine des Cinéastes | Directors’ Fortnight. The film is written and directed by Hala Elkoussy, and is produced by vriza productions (NL) and seriousFilm (NL), in co-production with Nu’ta Films (EG). East of Noon is supported by De Verbeelding (The Imagination), a co-operation between the Mondriaan Fund and the Netherlands Film Fund, Alwan (EG), Fonds 21, Amsterdam Fund for the Arts, and Doha Film Institute.
Set in a confined world outside time, East of Noon is the fable of prodigy ABDO (19) who uses music to rebel against his elders: showman SHAWKY (70), an eccentric showman who rules with a mix of performance and fear, and storyteller JALALA (75), who provides relief with stories of the Sea, which no one else has seen. East of Noon is a satire on the inner workings of an ailing autocracy and its inherent vulnerability to youth’s unchained vision of a better world.