The Emirati short film “Athel” received the Outstanding Achievement Certificate at the Berlin Flash Film Festival in Germany, a festival that celebrates short films and scripts, giving the filmmakers a creative platform to voice their art.

Athel also won the Gold Remy Award at the WorldFest – Houston International Film Festival in the United States, US. The festival aims to recognise and honour outstanding creative excellence in film and video, to validate brilliant abilities and to promote cultural tourism for Houston, to develop film production in the region and to add to the rich cultural fabric of the city of Houston. The world’s film industry giants have won festival awards, and the films of the Remy Prize winners are shown on large screens to the public.

Founded over 59 years ago as an International Film Society in August 1961, the festival is the third competitive international festival in North America, after San Francisco and New York. It is the oldest Independent Film and Video Festival in the world and evolved into a competitive International Film Festival in April 1968.

Furthermore, Athel was officially selected at the Madrid International Film Festival in Spain, one of the greatest and most popular festivals in Europe.

The festival offers great opportunities for networking among filmmakers, as well as support from professionals in all aspects of the cinema business, which fills the festival with a wealth of talent from all over the world.

Athel, a film presented by Mad Solutions, is directed by Alyazia bint Nahyan Al Nahyan, produced by Toaster Productions and Anasy Media, and starring the well-known Egyptian actress Hala Shiha and Emirati artist Mansour Alfeeli, produced by Afra Almarar and Hayfa Al Haidary and filmed by Alessando Martella.

The film deals with a new style and subtraction in a light witty drama template, about the story of the famous pre-Islamic poet Tarfa bin Al-Abd or the “murdered boy” as it became known throughout history, a poet killed at the height of his glory and bewildered many thinkers and intellectuals in relation to his fate.

The film revolves around Salma, a widely known presenter, who is filming a poetry show about Tarfa, the pre-Islamic poet. With a sand storm disrupting the episode shoot and Salma’s son being lost for days, the presenter remains calm. Perhaps too calm, her mind distantly quiet, the loud crew then drives off forgetting her at the location.