Tripoli, 5 October 2013:
For the first time since the revolution a Libyan media company has made a film about one of the early major figures of the uprising. Ziu, made by Nu Horizon is about the last days of Mahdi Ziu, the middle aged, middle-class and unlikely hero of the revolution who, on Sunday 20 February 2011, took his Kia car packed with gas canisters to the gates of Qaddafi’s seemingly impregnable katiba headquarters in Benghazi and blew up himself, the car, and the gates wide apart, enabling the barracks to be taken over by the revolutionaries.
Written by acclaimed Scottish script writer Nick Bain, the short film was shot in Lebanon. It was directed by by International Emmy award-winning director and Berlin Film festival winner Bassem Breish, who hails from Lebanon.
The CEO of Nu Horizon Ahmed Al-Ghazali said to the Libya Herald: ” We are proud of this film and and proud of all our fallen heroes who fought for this country. We were just happy to be able to express ourselves and tell the stories through film that so much of the outside world hasn’t heard about”.
He continued: “The reception from the Culture Minister Habib Al-Amin after viewing the movie at a private screening at the Ministry of Culture was tremendous and the support he offered us was outstanding”.
The film has been submitted for inclusion in the 2014 Berlin Film Festival and 25th Annual Palm Springs International Film Festival which runs 3-13 January next year.
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