10 Days Before the Wedding
Directed by	Amr Gamal
Screenplay by	Amr Gamal Mazen Refa'at
Produced by	Mohsen Alkhalifi Amr Gamal
Cinematography	Aimen Almekhlafi
Edited by	Aimen Almekhlafi
Music by	Salem Fadaq
Production company	Adenium Production
Release date	21 August 2018 (2018-08-21) Aden
Running time	120 minutes
Country	Yemen
Language	Arabic

10 Days Before the Wedding is a 2018 Yemeni romantic comedy film directed by Amr Gamal. It was Yemen's official submission for the 91st Academy Award for Best International Feature Film. ^[1]

The film premiered in Aden City on August 21, 2018, becoming the first film to be commercially released in Yemen in four decades. ^[2]

10 Days Before The Wedding ^[3] was a big commercial success in Yemen and received widespread critical acclaim. It was screened at a number of film festivals such as the Jaipur International Film Festival, Pune International Film Festival, ^[4] Zanzibar International Film Festival, ^[5] San Diego Arab Film Festival, ^[6] Casablanca Arab Film Festival, ^[7] and Aswan International Women's Film Festival. ^[8]

Plot

A number of obstacles stand in the way of a young Yemeni couple, as only 10 days are left before their wedding. Each obstacle is, in one way or another, caused by the aftermath of the 2015 war in Yemen. ^[9]

Rasha and Ma'moon, a young Yemeni couple, ^[10] were set to get married, but the war of 2015 stood in the way of their wedding. ^[11] After so much suffering, they tried the best they could to make it happen in 2018. Yet again, obstacles appear, but this time it's not the war; it's the aftermath. ^[12]

Starting from searching for an apartment at a reasonable price, having to deal with war dealers who control the city, clashing with armed militias, and facing the suffocating economic crisis in Yemen, ^[13] the couple races against time to make sure that the wedding, ^[14] which is scheduled to take place in 10 days, takes place on time. ^[15]

Cast

• Sali Hamada as Rasha
• Khaled Hamdan as Ma'amon
• Mh'd Nagi Break as Salim
• Qassem Rashad as Mushtaq
• Bakkar Basaraheel as Waleed
• Abeer AbdulKareem as Samar

Production

In the spring of 2018, Director Amr Gamal began the production of his first feature film, 10 Days Before the Wedding. The film premiered in Aden during the summer of the same year, becoming the first film to be commercially released in Yemen in four decades. ^[16]

As a result of the destruction of the infrastructure in Aden due to successive wars and the deterioration of cinemas due to negligence, ^[17] the producers had no choice but to rent two wedding halls to screen the movie inside. ^[18]

The film was shot on a budget of $33,000. It was sponsored by Yemeni businessmen in return for playing their advertisements on the screen before the beginning of the film.

The film was shot entirely in Aden City, and filming lasted only one month. ^[19]

Release

The premiere of the film took place in Aden City on August 21, 2018. ^[20] The film achieved great commercial success, as the screenings lasted for more than eight months. The film also participated in a number of international and Arab festivals and won a number of awards. ^{[21] [22]}

All attempts by the production team to screen the film in other Yemeni cities outside Aden failed. In Taiz City, extremists opposed the idea of screening the film in Taiz through mosque pulpits and threatened the production team. Armed extremists also burned posters of the film in the streets of the city. ^{[23] [24]}

All attempts to show the film in Hadhramaut and Sana'a also failed. ^{[25] [26] [27]}

The film opened commercially in the United Arab Emirates ^[28] on March 7, 2019. ^[29]

Later, the film became Yemen's official submission for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film ^[30] 2019. ^{[31] [32]}

Reception

The film achieved great commercial success in Aden City, as the screenings lasted for more than eight months and 70,000 tickets were Sold.

The film received great critical acclaim, as all Yemeni newspapers wrote about it, and many local and international television channels were keen to cover the screenings, which were described at the time as unexpected and surprising. ^[33]

Awards and nominations

See also

• List of submissions to the 91st Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film
• List of Yemeni submissions for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
• The Burdened

References

External links

• 10 Days Before the Wedding at IMDb
• 10 Days Before the Wedding at Rottentomatoes
• 10 Days Before the Wedding at FilmAffinity