Tarik Saleh’s Boy from Heaven won ‘Best Original Screenplay’ at Paris Film Critics Awards yesterday.

“The love our film receives is something we never dared to dream of. I feel incredibly humbled to win in this company of master filmmakers,” commented Saleh about the award, which was presented at the Cinema Le Silencio des Prés in Paris last night.

Under the title La Conspiracy du Caire, Saleh’s drama thriller has already been seen by more than half a million French cinemagoers.

The much-esteemed Dagens Nyheter’s Culture Award features both Lina Wolff, in the literary category, and Tarik Saleh, in the film category, among this year’s nominees.

In the literary category, the jury argues that Lina Wolff’s The Devil’s Grip, without any mercy, drags the reader into the darkness. The temperature is at the heights of hell and the madness is eye-opening. It takes a master like Lina Wolff to turn such damage into an irresistible drama adventure.

Lina herself describes the process of writing The Devil’s Grip being “like writing with a razorblade between your teeth”

In the film category, Tarik Saleh is nominated for his film Boy from Heaven, which saw its world premiere at Cannes film festival this year.

The jury argues that Tarek Saleh takes us on a captivating voyage through the Sunni Muslims holy centre of power in Kairo, an isolated world which also becomes the arena for a deadly showdown between religious and secular forces. Boy From Heaven is a spiritual, riveting and profoundly original thriller drama.

Tarik Saleh’s Cairo Conspiracy (Boy from Heaven) is nominated for a César Award, France’s equivalent to the Oscars, in the ‘Best Foreign Film’ category.

 The 48th edition of the César Awards will take place on February 24.

Tarik Saleh’s lauded Boy from Heaven, the political thriller set in Cairo’s Al-Azhar Mosque about the fisherman boy Adam who is thrown into a brutal power struggle between Egypt’s religious and political elite, was awarded Best Screenplay at the Swedish Guldbagge Awards last night.

The nominations for the Guldbagge Awards for the film year 2022 are out, and Tarik Saleh’s Boy from Heaven is presented with seven nominations, including ‘Best Film’, ‘Best Director’ and ‘Best Screenplay’.

The Guldbagge Awards Gala takes place at Cirkus in Stockholm on January 23, 2023.

Tarik Saleh’s Boy from Heaven won the prestigious NDR Film Prize at the 64th edition of the Nordic Film Days in Lübeck. The film also won the INTERFILM Church Prize, which was awarded during the closing ceremony. The film is Sweden’s Oscar entry for Best International Feature Film.

The NDR Film award is the festival’s biggest prize. Awarded annually since 1990, the prize goes to a “feature film of special artistic quality” which should “reflect society with an independent creative language and explore new perspectives regarding content and aesthetics”.

–It is a great honor to win the main prize in Lübeck and the Church prize. Our goal was always to make a film that wouldn’t be locked in time and space. It moves me deeply to be recognized for our hard work, says Tarik Saleh.

Boy from Heaven will open the Stockholm International Film Festival on Wednesday November 9, and will be released in Swedish theatres on November 18.

Today it was revealed that Tarik Saleh’s film Boy from Heaven is Sweden’s submission for the Best International Feature Film Academy Award. The official Academy Awards nominations will be announced on January 24, 2023.

Earlier this year, Boy from Heaven won the prestigious Best Screenplay Award at the Cannes Film Festival.

Boy from Heaven will be released at Swedish theatres on November 18.

Tarik Saleh’s Boy from Heaven, the political thriller set in Cairo’s Al-Azhar Mosque about the fisherman boy Adam (Tawfeek Barhom) who is thrown into a brutal power struggle between Egypt’s religious and political elite, was awarded Best Screenplay by the jury at the 75th Cannes International Film Festival, as well as the prestigeous Prix François Chalais Award for his film’s “dedication to the values of life affirmation and of journalism”.

The psychological thriller Boy From Heaven, written and directed by Tarik Saleh, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival last week and has received great praise from international media.

“Boy from Heaven shows a rare level of philosophical engagement with the subject, something that pays off beautifully in its articulate and nuanced last act. /…/ Saleh’s film works on many more levels than sociopolitical, delivering a sophisticated adult thriller while at the same time exploring the intense psychological dynamic of the relationship between Adam and Ibrahim, who might not be as invincible as thinks he is. It’s a strange fit for Cannes, but more festival slots surely will follow — and hopefully bigger projects for this smart, stylish director.”
Deadline (US)

“Boy From Heaven marks another solid entry from writer-director Tarik Saleh, whose 2017 feature, The Nile Hilton Incident, put him on the map as a filmmaker deftly using genre to explore the tangled state of modern-day Egypt. /…/ An intriguingly damning portrait of the corruption currently hitting Egypt on all levels.”
Hollywood Reporter (US)

“Tarik Saleh’s superbly realised paranoid nightmare /…/ Now in an era when the Arab spring has arguably become a bittersweet memory, he has brought to the Cannes competition this watchable conspiracy espionage-drama satirising the corruption of church and state. There’s an intriguing mix of scorn and paranoia here, together with a yearning for individual figures of decency halfway down the food chain – it reminded me of John le Carré. /…/ A bold piece of work.”
The Guardian (UK)

“[A] satisfying thriller. /…/ Boy From Heaven is an ambitiously complex story of religious espionage. It was conceived as a Name Of The Rose-style mystery transposed to a Muslim world, but also has much in common with Jacques Audiard’s A Prophet in its backdrop of factions and power plays and in the trajectory of its central character, from innocent greenhorn negotiating a web of alliances to jaded, compromised survivor. There’s definite commercial potential here, as evidenced by the fact that it has already sold to Picturehouse in the UK. /…/ Boy From Heaven is a handsomely shot work, with Turkey doubling persuasively for Egypt. Widescreen shots capture the sober grandeur of the institution and the tumult of the streets outside; God’s eye camera positions offer glimpses of the covert meetings and calculated campaigns of a world which is driven by the schemes and whims of powerful men.”
Screen Daily (US)

Tarik Saleh’s new film, the psychological thriller Boy From Heaven, has been selected to the main competition at the Cannes Film Festival.

Written and directed by Saleh, the film was shot in Cairo and is set in the University of Al-Azhar where young Adam finds himself in the middle of a conspiracy and power struggle. The film stars Tawfeek Barhom, Fares Fares and Sherwan Haji.

The 75th Cannes Film Festival takes place May 17–28, 2022.

Tarik Saleh’s new movie The Contractor premieres today in US theatres.

Starring Chris Pine and Ben Foster, The Contractor tells the story of discharged U.S. Special Forces sergeant James Harper (Pine) who joins a private contracting organization alongside his best friend (Foster) and under the command of a fellow veteran in order to support his family. Overseas on a covert mission, Harper must evade those trying to kill him while making his way back home.

Written by J.P. Davis, the movie also stars Gillian Jacobs, Eddie Marsan, Florian Munteanu and Kiefer Sutherland.

Tarik Saleh is the director of Thunder Road Films’ new action thriller, Violence of Action. The film sees Chris Pine in the lead role as James Harper who, after being involuntarily discharged from the Green Berets, joins a paramilitary organization in order to support his family in the only way he knows how. Harper travels to Berlin with his elite team on a black ops mission to investigate a mysterious threat. Barely into his first assignment, he finds himself alone and hunted across Europe, where he must fight to stay alive long enough to return home and uncover the true motives of those who betrayed him.

Chris Pine is joined by actors Ben Foster (Hell or High Water) and Gillian Jacobs (Community), and the script is written by J.P. Davis. The film has begun principal photography in the US, Germany and Romania.

Read more in Deadline Hollywood by clicking “Read More” below.