Palestinan director Sameh Zoabi has started shooting his new feature film, “TEL AVIV ON FIRE”, a comedy about the shooting of a famous soap-opera in occupied banks of Ramallah.

“TEL AVIV ON FIRE” is a co-production between SAMSA FILM (Bernard Michaux - Luxembourg), LAMA FILM (Amir Harel – Israël), TS PRODUCTIONS (Milena Poylo and Gilles Sacuto - France) ARTEMIS PRODUCTIONS (Patrick Quinet – Belgium), Be tv and SHELTER PROD (Belgium). The 26 days shooting started in Luxembourg on 12 September where most of the sequences are filmed in studio. Then cast and crew will leave Luxembourg for Israël where the wrap is scheduled on 23 October.

Sameh Zoabi’s unique voice was recognised by Filmmaker Magazine and he was named one of the “Top 25 New Faces of Independent Cinema.” Furthermore, his work has been shown in many international film festivals such as Cannes, Berlin, Locarno, Sundance, Karlovy Vary, Palm Springs, Dubai, and New York Film Festival.

His feature film debut, “Man Without a Cell Phone” (2010), won several audience awards as well as the Golden Antigone at the 2011 Montpellier Film Festival. He is also the recipient of prestigious residencies at the Cannes Festival Cinefondation as well as the Sundance Screenwriters Lab.

The main cast of “TEL AVIV ON FIRE” includes, e.g. Kais Nashef (“Paradise Now” by Hany Abu-Assad), Lubna Azabal (“Incendies” by Denis Villeneuve), Yaniv Biton (“The Time that remains” by Elia Suleiman) and Nadim Sawalha (“Syriana” by Stephen Gaghan).

The film has been supported by the Film Fund Luxembourg, the Israël Film Fund, Eurimages and in association with taxshelter.be and ING. International sales agent INDIE SALES is attached for the film’s world sales.

Synopsis: Taking place nowadays in Ramallah where everybody watches the successful soap opera "Tel Aviv on Fire" in which a Palestinian female spy has a love affair with an Israeli General in 1967, the film tells the story of Salam, a charming 30-year-old Palestinian living in East Jerusalem, working as an intern on the show in Ramallah. Every day, he has to pass by the check-point to reach the studios. He encounters the check-point Commander Assi, whose wife is a huge fan of the soap. In order to please her, Assi puts pressure on Salam to influence the story of the show. Salam soon understands Assi’s creative vision can get him a promotion as a screenwriter, at least until Assi and the show’s financial backers start disagreeing on how it should all end, leaving Salam uncomfortably caught in the middle…