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‘The Sand Castle’ Producer on the Nadine Labaki Film’s Timely Parallels With Events in Syria and Gaza: ‘Everybody Is Just Looking for a Home’
The U.S. producer of Nadine Labaki-starrer 'The Sand Castle' discusses timely parallels between the Netflix film and events in Syria and Gaza.
U.S. director Matty Brown’s allegorical drama “ The Sand Castle,” which sees Lebanese multi-hyphenate Nadine Labaki reunite on screen with young “Capernaum” siblings Zain and Reman Al Rafeea – who are both Syrian refugees – will be released globally on Jan. 24 by Netflix at a critical time in the Middle East. With Israel-Hamas ceasefire talks currently underway and uncertainties still looming for Syrian refugees after the fall of long-time ruler Bashar al-Assad, the fable-like film, which is told from the perspective of children, “has many interesting parallels with what’s happening not only on Syria but also in Palestine,” says New York-based producer Mandy Ward. Labaki had cast Zain Al Rafeea – then a 12-year-old living in the slums of Beirut with his family that had been forced to flee from the city of Daraa in southwestern Syria – as the young protagonist who sues his parents for giving him a life of neglect and poverty.
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