MAD Solutions & Arab Cinema Center Founders Alaa Karkouti And Maher Diab Talk 15 Years Of Promoting Arab Cinema: “People Told Us We Were Crazy”

It’s a momentous Cannes for Cairo-based film professionals Alaa Karkouti and Maher Diab as they mark the 15th anniversary of the creation of marketing and distribution company MAD Solutions and the 10th anniversary of spin-off the Arab Cinema Center (ACC).

Under these banners, the pair have been at the forefront of promoting Arab cinema internationally and played a part in growing its prominence on the world stage.

ACC kicks off its 10th Cannes program on Friday with a panel entitled “The Arab New Wave: The Actors” on the market’s Plage des Palmes venue.

Speakers on the panel will include iconic Egyptian actress Yousra, MBC Studios Saudi Arabia General Manager Zeinab Abu Alsamh, top Lebanese TV presenter Raya Abi Rashed, Egyptian superstar Ahmed Malek and Yagoub Alfarhan, star of Saudi Arabia’s first film in Official Selection Norah as well as casting director Cassandra Han.

The swanky location and starry billing are a far cry from the early days of MAD Solutions which Karkouti and Diab launched in 2010 to fill a gap in the Middle East and North Africa, initially to market and distribute Arab language films across the Arab world.

“There was very little marketing strategy around building hype for a film and there was zero market for non-Egyptian films. There were two exceptions: Nadine Labaki’s Caramel (2006) and Hany Abu-Assad’s Paradise Now (2005).”

The idea for the company was born out of their experiences working in publishing, film distribution and even trying their hand at acting.

“We could see what was missing in the film industry,” says Karkouti.

Diab likens this period to a voyage of discovery. “When we started out it was a virgin market. No-one had ever focused on the Arab world before. We were unravelling one country after another.”

Early MENA distribution acquisitions include Yahya Alabdallah’s The Last Fridaywhich was the first Jordanian film to play in the Berlinale in 2011, and Sanctitywhich was the first Saudi film to play in the festival in 2013.

“We forget how recent it was and we’re still in a period of firsts such as the first Jordanian film (Inshallah It’s A Boy) in Cannes last year or first Yemeni film (The Burdened) in the Berlinale.”

One key development was the high-profile festival and awards season run for Jordanian director Naji Abu Nowar’s drama Yeswhich began with a world premiere in the Venice’s Horizon’s sidebar in 2014 and culminated in an Oscar nomination in the 2016 Academy Awards.

“It changed things and helped a lot because for first time ever we had a film in cinemas across the Arab world, even if it was a limited release. That had never happened before for a non-Egyptian film,” says Karkouti.

One of the biggest challenges in the early days was selling the concept of paying for marketing work.

“When we started setting fees for our marketing, people were like, ‘What?’,” recalls Diab.

“They’d never had marketing budgets before,” said Karkouti. “I remember people telling us that we were crazy, that there was zero business and that it wouldn’t work. It wasn’t easy in the early days financially.”

Another innovation was the decision to subtitle all the MENA releases with Arabic subtitles taking into account the fact that spoken Arabic differs from country to country.

“Some people were surprised by this, but it makes sense when you consider all the accents across the Arab world,” says Karkouti.

MAD Solutions’ activities quickly moved into promoting Arab cinema outside of MENA.

The creation of the Arab Cinema Centre in 2015 was prompted by their early experiences at markets and festivals and the realization that Arab cinema lacked a promotional body, in the vein of bodies supporting cinema out of Europe, Asia or Latin America.

“By being in the marketplace, we just kept seeing gaps,” says Karkouti.

Based out of Berlin, the non-profit platform provides an umbrella stand and talks program at key markets and is funded by orgs from the MENA region that sign-up for partnerships across the year.

The ACC’s first outing was the Berlinale’s European Film Market in 2015. That same year, long-time collaborator Colin Brown also joined MAD Solutions as an official senior partner.

Alongside the market activities, the ACC also oversees the annual Critics Awards for Arab Films, which were launched in 2017 to celebrate high profile Arab films across the year and are voted on by a jury of 200 international film critics.

This year’s winners will be announced on Saturday in Cannes with Four Daughters and Goodbye Julia as front-runners in the nominations.

Today, Mad Solutions operates across five key poles: MAD Distribution, talent and management agency MAD Celebrity, MAD Content, MAD Marketing and international sales company MAD World, which makes its debut this Cannes.

The 500-title MAD Distribution MENA rights library bears testimony to the work of the last 15 years featuring films by a host of Arab filmmakers who have made their market internationally.

These include Oscar nominee Kaouther Ben Hania (Challet of Tunis), Hala Lotfy (Coming Forth By Day), Myriam Al Hajj (Diaries From Lebanon), Wissam Charif (Dirty, Difficult Dangerous), Najwa Najjar (Between Heaven And Earth), Tarzan and Arab Nasser (Gaza My Love), Mohamed Kordofani (Goodbye Julia), Mohamed Ben Attia (Hedi), Amjad Al-Rasheed (Inshallah A Boy), Rana Kazkaz and Anas Khalaf (Mare Nostrum), Ismael Ferroukhi (Mika), Ahmad Abdulla (Rags and Tatters) to name but a few.

MAD Celebrity launched in December 2022 with Kareem Samy as its executive director to represent of all Arab cinema professionals from actors to directors and producers as well as top technicians.

“It’s the first time there has been one website bringing together the crème de la crème of Arab cinema talent,” says Diab.

He notes that as well as negotiating film and TV work, the department has also become involved in working with brands to secure contracts for its clients with the likes of Cartier, Chanel and Gucci.

“This activity has really taken off,” he says.

The MAD Solutions’ journey has taken place against a backdrop of immense change in the Arab world as well as political upheaval, with major events shaking the region including 2010 and 2011 Arab uprisings, Lebanon’s October 17 Revolution of 2019, the ongoing Sudanese Civil War and recent Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza.

MAD Solutions’ roster of filmmakers and talents are often impacted but Karkouti says the Arab filmmaking community has no choice but to adapt to these different storms.

“We live here. We have no other option,” he says.

“Last year, we had the first Sudanese film in Cannes (Goodbye Julia)at the same time as the country was descending into Civil War, but we’re still working on a couple of projects by Sudanese filmmakers who moved to Cairo. It’s not just about war, it’s also those unexpected actions by governments and societies, but we just have to find solutions.”

In a timely panel, the ACC’s Cannes program features a discussion entitled “Displacement: Cinematic Perspectives”, in collaboration with IEFTA (International Emerging Film Talent Association) and UNHCR. Other panels a focus on leading MENA region technicians and a case study on Jordan as a shooting location.