Launched at Cannes 2024 as the global sales arm of pan-Arab entertainment powerhouse MAD Solutions, MAD World has swooped on worldwide sales rights to highly regarded Tunisian filmmaker Mehdi Hmili’s revenge drama “Exile” ahead of its world premiere at August’s Locarno Film Festival.
MAD World has also shared in exclusivity with Variety a first look of the five-way co-production between Tunisia, Luxembourg, France, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia – this backing a sign of Mehdi’s building ambition and growing status in the Arab cinema world.
Lead produced by Tunisia’s Yol Film House, set up by Mehdi and producer Moufida Fedhila, “Exile” weighs in at Locarno as a social-issue revenge thriller set in an industrial world notably scarred by tragedy. It turns on Mohamed, a worker at the country’s biggest steel factory, a state concern on the brink of bankruptcy which is about to be privatised.
Mohamed survives a devastating explosion that kills his friend Adel and leaves a piece of metal lodged in his head that begins to rust slowly. Demoted to the job of security guard, marginalized by the system and deeply affected by Adel’s death, all while his physical condition deteriorates, Mohamed embarks on a harrowing journey of revenge that unravels a deeper conspiracy whose reach extends far beyond the factory walls.
“Exile” stars Ghanem Zrelli, Maram Ben Aziza, Slim Baccar, Younes Ferhi, Mohamed Kolsi and Mourad Gharsalli.
“With its timely themes and striking visual style, “Exile” marks another bold entry in Hmili’s growing body of socially charged cinema,” MAD World observed in a statement Monday.
Well reviewed off its world premiere in Locarno’s 2021 Filmmakers of the Present strand, “Streams” already yoked frenetic action and social point as a mother searches for her missing son in a oppressive nightlife demimonde. It went on to win director at Malmö, actor at Cairo, and a Kolkata Jury Prize at Kolkata, among other awards.
While “Streams” played Locarno’s Filmmakers of the Present, “Exile” now bows out of competition at the Swiss Festival, a step-up for Hmili.
“‘Exile’ is a visceral, urgent film that speaks to the human cost of industrial exploitation and systemic neglect,” said MAD Solutions co-founders Alaa Karkouti and Maher Diab. “Mehdi Hmili has crafted a powerful narrative that blends emotional depth with political resonance – exactly the kind of bold, auteur-driven storytelling we champion at MAD World.”
“Exile” is also produced by Donato Rotunno for Luxembourg’s Tarantula, which co-produced “Streams,” and Michel Balagué for France’s Volte Film. It received post-production support from Qatar’s Doha Film Institute (DFI) in its fall 2024 round of funding.
Farouk Laaridh, a cinematographer on fellow Tunisian Kaouther Ben Hania’s Oscar-nominated “Four Daughters,” serves as DP on “Exile” while Rawchen Mizouri (“Mektoub My Love”) oversaw editing. It has an original score by Amélie Legrand (“Tug of War”).
Beyond DFI, the project received support from the Film Fund Luxembourg, CNC France, CNCI Tunisia, Red Sea Fund, AFAC Fund, the Francophonie Image Fund, France TV and Cannes’ La Fabrique Cinéma where “Exile” was presented as a project in 2019.
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