'aKasha' Is the Sudanese Comedy Headed to 2 Major Film Festivals Without Its Stars
Kamal Ramadan and Mohamed Chakado will be unable to attend the Venice Film Festival world premiere and TIFF due to Uganda refusing departure.
The two stars from Sudanese filmmaker hajooj kuka's comedy, aKasha have been forced to be left behind the celebration of the film hitting the big screen at Venice Film Festival and TIFF, Deadline reports.
Kamal Ramadan and Mohamed Chakado are still in Uganda after being refused departure. According to Deadline, the Sudanese stars arrived in Kampala at the end of April and applied for refugee status in June, but have yet to be granted the necessary documents.
Rafiki producer Steven Markovitz, who also produced aKasha, has written a letter to the United Nations' Refugee Agency and is still waiting for a reply.
Markovitz and kuka explain in a statement that Ramadan and Chakado were also involved in production along with being the two male leads in the film.
"They have been through incredible difficulty making this film and we were hoping to celebrate the first public screening with them," they continue. "It is important for artists to be able to share their work with the public and it is very disappointing that the actors will not attend the world premiere in Venice nor the North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. In this time of closing borders, it's crucial that artists' work helps to open up understanding of each other."
aKasha is an offbeat comedy following a love triangle between a boy, a girl and an AK-47 in rebel-held areas of Sudan.
The synopsis from TIFF adds:
After a post-coital argument with Lina (Ekram Marcus), Adnan (Kamal Ramadan) hightails it without grabbing his gun. With his pants barely pulled up, he runs into Absi (Ganja Chakado), a young man who's not keen on rejoining the fighting. He wants to dodge the "kasha," the annual round-up of soldiers. The pair then embark on a wild 24 hours—dodging their higher-ups, elders, and romantic rivals alike—to try and get back Adnan's girl, his gun, and his dignity.
Watch the trailer below.
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