NABIL, a ten-year-old orphan, is chosen to play the hero in a propaganda film by Malik, a charismatic film director. As the production goes on, Nabil makes his best effort to give an astonishing performance for his director, and by doing so he slowly earns the fatherly love he desires. But as the film they are making reaches its climax, which involves literally killing enemy soldiers who are forced to act for them, Nabil begins to psychologically suffer, questioning if he is able to take these men’s lives. As the night before the execution scene darkens, Nabil is faced with a choice: to stay and become the hero for his people, gaining a family that will shelter him, or leave and become a lost child in a brutal world.
In recent decades, Imagery generated by extreme terrorist organizations have haunted the public’s minds and psyches. ISIS, the most notorious, exercises new frontiers of innovative and violent propaganda.
Two years ago, I left the Middle East to study filmmaking in the entertainment capital of the world. I could never have imagined the similarities between Hollywood production and ISIS propaganda. Hollywood’s entertainment industry and marketing machines promote violence, sexism and utilize pop culture as influence. A staggering realization of the same techniques used in ISIS propaganda. This phenomenon begs the question of two diametrically opposing cultures – How could the liberal idealism of Hollywood so radically inspire Islam fundamentalist propaganda?
ISIS’ employs an intricate mechanism of cinema production, Hollywood-like visual imagery, creative editing, special effects and storytelling techniques that are torn from American film, television and news production. How? Remains a mystery to the western world. The origins of the people/filmmakers who direct, act, crew, produce and disseminate these propaganda materials are shrouded in secrecy. This is a film that examines the inspiration by Hollywood on ISIS’ filmmaking. An examination inside ourselves and the culture around us. Questioning that which we truly fear, and the possible discovery of our true nature.
Islamic State’s self-promotion bears all the markers of Western pop culture, in a shrewd and deliberate ploy to captivate its target audience. It’s a highly effective strategy, which no such apocalyptic movement has ever done before. ISIS is selling a sleek brand of jihad on the internet, aimed entirely at the seduction of Western youths.
Unsurprisingly, the majority of media commentary has highlighted the most public and dramatic roles played by children, namely as executioners in firing squads or beheadings. However, the presence and participation of children in the comprehensive corpus of Islamic State propaganda extends beyond ultra-violence. Indeed, on an almost daily basis, children are featured in multiple contexts, from highly publicized executions and training camps to Qur’an memorization fairs and Dawa caravans.
We will be updating this as cast and crew come onboard, but for now, meet the filmmakers at the core.
Dan Bronfeld is an Israeli Director based in LA. He currently attends the prestigious American Film Institute Conservatory as a Directing Fellow. He majored Film & Digital Media while studying undergrad at the Bezalel Academy for Art and Design. He served as a documentary photographer in the Israeli Defense Forces Spokesperson's Unit. Later on, he worked with the renowned Israeli director Amos Gitai as photographer and production manager. Before his MFA in AFI, he directed and shot two Documentaries Apollonian Story and Mountain Men, which screened in venues such as Full Frame, AFI Docs, Doc-Aviv, The Jerusalem International Film Festival and The Guangzhou Documentary Film Festival and have been picked up for distribution by the Israeli Documentary Channel. Bronfeld is also the recipient of numerous awards and grants such as The Israeli Film Fund Grant, The Haifa Film Festival Young Documentarians Accelerator.
Elena Aksenova is a graduate of UCLA, where she studied Film Producing and Business and Management of Entertainment. She has produced near a dozen short films that have played at film festivals throughout the world and won numerous awards. Elena is currently producing two feature films, a romantic comedy ‘Love on Tap’ (dir. Matthew Harrison, Sundance Jury Prize winner) and an American/Korean relationship drama ‘Blue. Then You’ (dir. Jaime Lee). In addition to producing, Elena works as a Director of Administration and Publicity at a Los Angeles based film festival, Film Crash. She is also a Senior Programmer and Board of Directors member at Downtown Film Festival Los Angeles.
Matthew Pancer is a writer/director/producer who is currently doing his Master of Fine Arts at the American Film Institute. His films have competed at a multitude of festivals, including the Austin, Oaxaca, and Cannes Film Festivals. He graduated with honors from Toronto’s York University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Film Directing. Matthew has also been mentored by AWAY FROM HER’s acclaimed cinematographer Luc Montpellier and, while at AFI, was taught by dozens of prestigious filmmakers, including Billy Ray (CAPTAIN PHILLIPS), Anna Thomas (FRIDA, EL NORTE), and Asghar Fahardi (A SEPARATION, THE PAST). Matthew is currently working on the scripts for two feature films, a TV pilot, and three short films that he plans to direct after graduation.
Kaushal Shah is a Filmmaker/Cinematographer from Mumbai,India. He started assisting cinematographers in the Indian film industry at an early age of 17 gaining experience on commercials,feature films and television shows. Wanting to focus on narrative cinematography, he joined film school two years later, for a post graduate cinematography program. Post the school in Mumbai, India he started freelancing as a Cinematographer and worked in India for almost 3 years shooting commercials, Television shows, Documentary and primarily narrative shorts. He moved to Los Angeles, California post that, and is currently pursuing his Masters of Fine Arts Degree in Cinematography at the American Film Institute.
Gaby Zamora, an international student from Argentina, graduated from Washington and Lee University with a BS in Physics. After graduation, Gaby worked as a research assistant in the Biophysics Department at Washington and Lee University, where she contributed to two published papers on biophysics. While deciding whether to pursue a PhD in Astrophysics, Gaby completed a six-week editing workshop in New York City. As a result of that experience, she chose to forego a PhD in Astrophysics and to study Image and Sound Design at the Universidad de Palermo in Buenos Aires. Aspiring to work in the American film industry, Gaby decided to leave Argentina and applied to schools in the United States. She is now an Editing Fellow at AFI.
AFI provides incredible resources for mentorship and production but fellows are responsible for raising all funds needed to get our films made. We are lucky enough to have a significant portion of our funding in place; however, we still need to raise $10 000, and now is the time when we need your help.
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