How Michael Jackson Inspired Amr Salama’s Personal Tale | TIFF 2017 | Hollywood Reporter
▻http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/toronto-hidden-gem-how-michael-jackson-inspired-an-egyptian-filmm
Amr Salama used the King of Pop’s death as the driving force behind ’Sheikh Jackson,’ a poignant meditation on identity and contradiction in the Islamic world.
A bearded hardline Islamic cleric with a secret passion for Michael Jackson — the idea seems like a goofy Ben Stiller comedy waiting to happen (and immediately offend). But it’s not actually as far-fetched as it sounds. In fact, when the concept for Sheikh Jackson — in which a strict Islamist and former King of Pop fan in Egypt suffers from a crisis of faith and identity after Jackson’s death in 2009 — was first suggested to director Amr Salama, it struck an intensely personal chord.
“The moment I heard it I thought, ‘Wow, this is like me in the past,’ ” says the award-winning Egyptian filmmaker behind 2011’s hard-hitting drama Asmaa and 2014’s darkly comic coming-of-age hit Excuse My French.
Sélectionné pour les Oscars, je prédis que le film fera aussi bien que Le Caire Confidentiel !