Directed by Rowan Athale and starring Amir El-Masry, the film will mark its MENA premiere on December 4.<\/p>\n
The Red Sea International Film Festival (Red Sea IFF) has announced that Rowan Athale\u2019s Giant will open its fifth edition as the festival\u2019s Opening Night Gala film. The British-Indian filmmaker\u2019s latest work, which tells the story of British-Yemeni boxing champion Prince Naseem \u2018Naz\u2019 Hamed, will have its MENA premiere on December 4, 2025.<\/p>\n
Giant retraces the extraordinary rise of Prince Naseem \u2018Naz\u2019 Hamed \u2014 portrayed by Egyptian-British actor Amir El Masry \u2014 from his modest beginnings in Sheffield to his triumph as a world champion boxer. The film delves into Naz\u2019s transformation from an underdog into one of the sport\u2019s most dazzling showmen, while confronting the racism and Islamophobia that gripped Britain in the 1980s and 1990s. At its heart, the story explores the profound and unlikely bond between Naz and his Irish trainer, Brendan Ingle, whose mentorship proved pivotal to the boxer\u2019s success and self-discovery.<\/p>\n
Through its portrayal of courage, ambition and identity, Giant\u00a0offers a moving tribute to an athlete who defied stereotypes and inspired millions.<\/p>\n
Faisal Baltyuor, CEO of the Red Sea Film Foundation, said: \u201cOur selection of Giant as the opening film of the fifth edition embodies an artistic celebration of regional talents who have established their presence on the global film scene. Through the story of an Arab world champion in boxing, the film portrays a journey of perseverance that inspires generations and reflects pride in identity.highlighting the growing presence of Arab stars in international productions alongside global names, reaffirming that Arab cinema today stands as a powerful force in the global film landscape.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Directed by Rowan Athale and starring Amir El-Masry, the film will mark its MENA premiere on December 4.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":263939,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-263938","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-boxing","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263938"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263938\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/263939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}