Jordan, Arabic - 100 min
Feature Narrative Film
TOTAL BUDGET
US $ 650,000
CONFIRMED FINANCING
US $ 177,000
Primary Contact
meriame.deghedi@mad-solutions.com
+201200192426
Years after escaping their oppressive past, four estranged and offbeat sisters are forced to come together to find their suddenly-missing father.
In a lower middle-class neighborhood in Amman, single and middle-aged Zainab lives a dreary existence as a local seamstress. She looks after her father—a stubborn and distant old man who is going blind. Her father accidentally sees her in a wedding dress she is altering for her cousin. Soon afterward, Zainab wakes up one morning and finds her father, the man who gave reason for her existence, missing. Zainab must now reunite with her three estranged sisters at the old family bookshop to figure out how to find their old man.
It doesn’t take long for Zainab to realize that she has unwillingly created a recipe for disaster. Cold, cynical and rich Samah argues with Amaal, who is poor, extremely religious, and wears the niqab. In turn, they clash with their liberal, stubborn and independent little sister Khitam, the one that ran away.
Along the way, the sisters discover, through fights and laughter, that their strict father was a lot like them; a victim of cultural conformity. Only by uniting will they be able to overcome their differences, find their father, and realize who they truly want to be. Daughters of Abdul-Rahman is a universal family drama about women making choices in a patriarchal society. It is a realistic and uplifting tale about four very different sisters who confront the truth about themselves in the most unlikely of situations.
In 2001, I left my family and life in Jordan to explore the world, and pursue a career in film. I was eager to explore what is outside my comfort zone, and broaden my horizons. Throughout the years, I discovered the home I was seeking outside Amman, and learned more about the world I left behind. I became more critical, more aware, and started to touch the imperfections in a place I loved.
Ten years later, in 2011, as I was showing my accolades to my mother, a desolate look in her eyes, hard to overlook, unsettled me. That day I realized that the woman I love most in life was not genuinely happy. She had to give up her own goals and dreams at every stage of her life, first as an eldest daughter, then a wife, then a mother in an Arab society. This realization led me to start observing traditions, analyzing behaviors through meeting women with different experiences, and earning their trust to hear their intimate stories of life, love and career. One question kept popping in my head: are we trapped in a cycle of oppressed women and unhappy men? Why do we have this reputation of being angry? Being the eldest of four brothers, it made me wonder... what if we were four sisters instead? That is when I realized that this subject needed to be observed, unapologetically.
As a Jordanian producer, nothing brings joy to my heart as much as working on an authentic story that reflects the reality of our communities. I have been involved in this project for almost two years now, and since the very first day when I read the script and met those beautifully written characters, I could not help but feel like I know them.
They’re my aunts, neighbors, and friends. As Arabs—moreover, as a woman myself— this film brings different aspects of the diversity present in our daily life, in addition to the struggles women face in our societies. All of this is reflected in the encounters and journeys of those four sisters.
Pan East Media is a Jordanian production house owned and managed by Saba Mubarak.
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