EXCLUSIVE: MAD Celebrity, the talent management and promotion arm of Cairo-based MAD Solutions, has Sudanese actress Islam Mubarak and Egyptian actor Adham Shukr as they touch down at the Berlin Film Festival.
Mubarak, made her name with her breakout performance in the Venice prize-winning 2019 drama You Will Die At Twenty.
She is in Berlin with Karim El Shennawy’s The Tale Of Daye’s Family, which world premiered in Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea International Film last December and now makes its European premiere in Berlin’s Generation 14plus sidebar.
Shukr, stars in Mohamed Rashad’s workplace thriller The Settlement which world premieres on Tuesday as part of the new competitive Perspectives section aimed at first films.
He will be represented by MAD Rising Celebrity, the division that promotes the careers of burgeoning talents.
The two Berlinale stars join a growing clientele that spans established superstars and emerging talents.Other recent signings include seasoned actors Samer Ismail, Nour Ali, Mohammed Hatem, and Dorra Zarrouk; writers Wael Hamdy and Rana Abu El Rish; directors Zena Ashraf Abdel Baky, Kareem El Adl, and Wissam Smayra; along with rising actors Ali El Sabaa, Kira Yaghnam, Ward Ajeeb, Jayda Mansour, Khaled Shbat, Amro Salah, Moe Latouf, Gehad Hossam El Din, Reem Khoury, and Enjy Kiwan.
“While adding more than twenty new clients may sound daunting, but we see this just as the start of building a pan-Arab entertainment powerhouse”, said MAD Solutions co-heads Alaa Karkouti and Maher Diab.
Kareem Samy, Managing Partner and Executive Director of MAD Celebrity, said the company had been following Mubarak since You Will Die At Twenty.
“Given the success of her latest outing at the Red Sea, we felt it was high time for us to get on her team and set her up for further success… there’s going to be a strong demand for talented Sudanese actors and actresses in the coming years, and we want Islam to lead that charge with us,” he said.
Of Shukr, Samy said: “After we saw his performance in his first leading role in The Settlement, I just knew that we had to approach him and see what MAD can do to ensure he goes far in this industry of ours.”
