Cannes Movie ‘Rebel’ From ‘Bad Boys For Life’ Directors Adil El Arbi, Bilall Fallah, Sells to Yellow Veil for North America (EXCLUSIVE)

Arthouse genre distribution company Yellow Veil Pictures has acquired North American rights “Rebel,” a music-filled thriller by the Belgian directing duo Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah. The pair broke into Hollywood with “Bad Boys for Life” starring Will Smith and Martin Lawrence and are set to direct the sequel for Sony Pictures.

“Rebel” was produced by Caviar, the banner behind the Oscar-winning film “Sound of Metal” as well as “War Pony.” It world premiered at Cannes last year in the Midnight section and be theatrically released later this year.

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“Rebel” follows Kamal, a young man seeking meaning for his life, who leaves Belgium to help war victims in Syria. Once there, he is forced to join ISIS and discovers the propaganda, manipulation, and atrocity the militia is responsible for. Back home, Kamal’s brother Nassim is slowly indoctrinated by radical recruiters and persuaded to join Kamal in Syria, while their mother fights to keep what’s left of her family together.

The film is based on the experiences and observations of the Moroccan-born pair while living in Belgium between 2012 to 2014.

“Rebel” earned warm reviews upon premiering at Cannes and went on to win best narrative feature at the Philadelphia Film Festival, as well as Boston Underground Film Festival. The film also won best original score at the Magritte Awards, the Belgian Oscars.

The cast is led by Aboubakr Bensaihi, who starred in the directors’ sophomore feature “Black,” and award-winning Belgian actress Lubna Azabal (“Incendies”), as well as Amir El Arbi.

“Adil and Bilall took what they learned in Hollywood and brought it back to independent cinema to create a truly memorable experience that we can’t wait to share with audiences,” said Yellow Veil Pictures’ co-founder Joe Yanick. “If there is such a thing as a blockbuster independent, ‘Rebel’ is it,” Yanick continued.

The helmers said, “We’re absolutely thrilled that Yellow Veil Pictures will bring ‘Rebel’ to the U.S. this Fall. We’re looking forward to collaborating on what we consider to be our most personal and best movie to date.”

The deal was negotiated by Yellow Veil Pictures Co-Founders Hugues Barbier, Justin Timms and Yanick, with Goodfellas’s head of sales Eva Diederix.

The film was produced by Bert Hamelinck and Dimitri Verbeeck for Caviar and co-produced by Jesus Gonzalez for Calach Films, Marc Dujardin, Vincent Maraval and Brahim Chioua for Le Collectif 64 and Diana Elbaum for Beluga Tree. Executive producers are Adil El Arbi, Bilall Fallah, Michael Sagol and Robin Kerremans.

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