Mona Deeley – Writer/Director
Author
I am a writer/director working on the development of my feature fiction film 'Dark Side Of The Moon'. The treatment was selected for Torino Film Lab and I have written a first draft with the input of my French producer Melanie Anstey of Quince Media. Previously, I have produced/directed/written several documentaries for the BBC and 250 episodes of the Alternative Cinema programme broadcast at primetime weekly on BBC Arabic TV. I have been programming films for festivals and TV for the last 15 years, and have bought 500 international short films and commissioned as many A list and independent talent interviews for broadcast on the BBC.
The film is one of the first futurist feature films from the UK and Middle East to put a strong secular Arab woman at the heart of our shared future. Set 50 years from now, its futurist setting transcends specificities of place and conflict. The failed state of Lebanon is replaced by NeoBeirut, a prosperous British owned corporate city with its original inhabitants pushed to its Highlands. In Britain, the elected Prime Minister heads a government made up of corporations, and British citizens receive dividends as shareholders in their corporate state. Salma tries to use her position as power insider in NeoBeirut to achieve peace with the Highlands, and would have accepted failure if it was not for the disappearance of her dissident brother. Finding him and finding peace become intertwined. Salma’s story combines the perspectives of power and resistance, evoking deep seated grief over the loss of country, identity, and loved ones; with self-realisation coming from finding out what we should let go of and what deserves our loyalty.
