THE DEER’S TOOTH earns Special Mention for Best Palestinian Film at 45th Cairo International Film Festival

With a story from the heart of the Dheisheh Camp, Saif Hammash’s Palestinian short THE DEER’S TOOTH has won a Special Mention and a certificate of appreciation for the director as part of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation States Broadcasting Union awards for Best Palestinian Film at the just-concluded 45th Cairo International Film Festival (CIFF).

The film screened as part of the Spotlight on Palestinian Cinema Program at the 45th CIFF, in tandem with being one of five Palestinian films screened as part of the 12th Asian World Film Festival’s Short Films Program.

The film held a brilliant world premiere at the 77th Cannes Film Festival’s Cinéfondation Section, then kicked off a long festival tour that included several prestigious destinations like the Oran Arab — where it held its Arab World premiere — Boston Palestine, Edinburgh Short, and Cyprus film festivals.

THE DEER’S TOOTH centers around a young man from a refugee camp who embarks on a perilous journey in order to fulfill his little brother’s wish: To throw his milk tooth into the sea.

The film was shot in the Dheisheh refugee camp, which was established in 1949 on an area of 0.31 square kilometers within the municipality of Bethlehem in the West Bank. Dheisheh is one of 68 Palestinian refugee camps scattered across the region and neighboring countries, housing residents who originally came from over 45 villages west of Jerusalem and Hebron.

THE DEER’S TOOTH was lensed by Ibrahim Handal, with music by Victor Kawwas, and sound by Saliba Rishmawi. The film stars Wisam Al-Jafari, Reada Ghazaleh, Yasmin Shalaldeh, and Jacir Abedrabou.

In terms of the bigger companies at play, the film was supervised by Majdi El-Omari, and produced by Dar Al Kalima, with MAD World handling the film’s worldwide sales and MAD Distribution handling both sales and distribution in the Arab-speaking region.

Saif Hammash is a Palestinian filmmaking student based in the Dheisheh Refugee Camp in Bethlehem.

While pursuing his degree, he directed a short fiction film as well as an experimental and documentary film. He has also worked on several other films as a scriptwriter, assistant director, editor, and camera assistant, and on the third edition of the Palestinian Refugees Film Festival as an editor in September 2022.

Saif’s filmography includes ESCAPE ATTEMPT and CLICK OF A BUTTON.