Annual Top Films Lists

Top 100 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2022: #53. Soudade Kaadan’s Nezouh

Published on January 10, 2022

Nezouh

Been spotting French-born Syrian filmmaker Soudade Kaadan‘s fourth feature film (and second consecutive fiction) project a little bit everywhere for the past couple of years workshopped at Athina Rachel Tsangari’s Oxbelly Writers & Directors Lab 2020, was a TorinoFilmLab invite, and selected for Cannes’ Cinefondation that same year. The Day I Lost My Shadow was selected for the Orizzonti section at Venice (where she won the Lion of the Future award), and was further showcased at TIFF and Rotterdam. Quickly after that epic year, she submitted her short Aziza to Sundance and got an invite. Kaadan began production on Nezouh (which means the displacement of souls and people in Arabic) in July of last year with French cinematographer Hélène Louvart (her solid 2021 included Murina, The Lost Daughter) onboard. Sister Amira Kaadan produced the project along with Yu-Fai Suen, Marc Bordure, Peter Luo, and Donna Gigliotti.

Gist: Set against the backdrop of the Syrian conflict in Damascus where a young woman named Zena and her family reside in a zone that is about to be bombed. Her father takes the firm stance to stay home. With little time left, Zena and her mother Hara face a very tough decision.

Release Date/Prediction: Despite receiving support from Cannes we think this would return to Venice and compete for the Golden Lion.

Eric Lavallée

Eric Lavallée is the founder, CEO, editor-in-chief, film journalist and critic at IONCINEMA.com (founded in 2000). Eric is a regular at Sundance, Cannes and TIFF. He has a BFA in Film Studies at the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema. In 2013 he served as a Narrative Competition Jury Member at the SXSW Film Festival. He was an associate producer on Mark Jackson's This Teacher (2018 LA Film Festival, 2018 BFI London). In 2022 he served as a New Flesh Comp for Best First Feature at the 2022 Fantasia Intl. Film Festival. Current top films for 2022 include 1976 (Manuela Martelli), Godland (Hlynur Pálmason), Corsage (Marie Kreutzer), All That Breathes (Shaunak Sen).