icflix to co-produce latest Nouraddine Lakhmari film


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Rebecca Hawkes

| 23 November 2015




Dubai-based online streaming service icflix is embarking on a co-production with Moroccan director Nouraddine Lakhmari for an original film called Burn Out.



The film will have a cinema release in 2016 as well as its exclusive online distribution to subscribers of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) video-on-demand (VOD) service icflix.

Noureddine Lakhmari has won critical acclaim for his previous films, which include Casanegra and Zero.

Burn Out centres around three characters from different social backgrounds: a rich man who drives a Maserati through the streets of Casablanca; a 13-year-old boy who shines shoes to earn enough money to pay for a foot prosthesis for his mother; and a young student who is a call girl by night.

“icflix is an opportunity for us artists in Morocco and the Arab world, because not only do we have a free platform where we can show and express our art and creativity but also it will allow us to grow and exist in the market,” said Noureddine Lakhmari. “Usually it was state TVs and French distributors who were making the rules, now icflix will democratise the whole game and I am happy for that. I’m also happy that many talented filmmakers from our countries will get much more attention.”

Carlos Tibi, co-founder and CEO, icflix, added: “Burn Out will be icflix’s first co-production from Morocco and is a powerful story set in the rich and poor zones of the country’s largest metropolis, Casablanca. We are delighted to be working with an award-winning director and are certain the movie will achieve great success globally.”

This is the “first of many cinematic productions” planned from Morocco, icflix says, and follows the company’s own productions HIV, Al Makida and the soon-to-premiere animation Dunia.