The Source
Picturehouse Entertainment, the recently established distribution arm of City Screen/Picturehouse Cinemas, announced today that Radu Mihaileanu’s Cannes competition title The Source, starring Leila Bekhti will open across the country on 18 May.
Following his delightful 2009 hit The Concert, director Radu Mihaileanu returns with his most ambitious film to date. Set in a remote North African village, The Source focuses on the plight of women in the small community, forced to fetch water from a high mountain spring in the blazing heat.
After a tragedy strikes, feisty young bride Leila (rising star Leila Bekhti - Sheitan, Mesrine, A Prophet, winner of the César for Most Promising Newcomer in 2009 for Tout ce qui brille, and L’Oreal’s new face of 2011) encourages the women to launch a love strike against their husbands - they will get no more sex until the men pipe running water into the village.
The ensuing battle of the sexes is by turns funny, moving and ultimately uplifting as Mihaileanu’s film deftly explores issues of women’s place in Muslim society, the collision between old worlds and new, and the universal theme of gender division. Aside from Leila Bekhti, the film stars Hafsia Herzi, Hiam Abbass, and Saleh Bakri.
Picturehouse Entertainment, sister company to City Screen (owner and operator of the Picturehouse Cinemas circuit ) is a recently established distribution outfit that has enjoyed great success with its releases to date: Jean Becker's My Afternoons with Margueritte, the record-breaking Werner Herzog 3D documentary feature, Cave of Forgotten Dreams, and Miranda July’s The Future and Jean-Pierre Améris’ Romantics Anonymous.
The joint acquisition of three titles with Revolver Entertainment was recently announced - Sundance hits Liberal Arts (Josh Radnor) and Bart Layton’s The Imposter, plus Rebecca Thomas’ Electrick Children from Berlin.