Succession star Hiam Abbass is set to lead psychological war-horror The Shelter from French-Moroccan filmmaker Talal Selhami (Achoura).
According to Variety, who debuted the news exclusively earlier today, The Shelter is already being talked up as one of the buzz movies to be pitched at Fantasia’s Frontières International Co-Production Market, and is produced by Lamia Chraibi's La Prod.
Per Variety, Abbass will play Leila, a former concert pianist from Aleppo, Syria, a city that was hit hard in the Syrian Civil War (2011-24). Now living in exile in Paris, she works as a caregiver for Georges, a diplomat nearing the end of his life:
“Within the confines of his opulent apartment, filled with relics of colonial memory, Leila begins to experience ghostly visitations from her late husband and son […] At first tender, these apparitions gradually take on a sinister form, blurring the lines between trauma and madness, memory and haunting. As the echo of distant bombs returns, the walls between Georges’s apartment and Leila’s lost home begin to collapse.”
Speaking with Variety, Abbass, who is of Palestinian descent, revealed more about what drew her to the intense but necessary film:
“When I read Talal’s script for Le Refuge/The Shelter, I was moved by its poignant portrayal of trauma, grief, and what is means to be exiled. It’s a raw, human, and deeply universal story. One that is sadly lived by many. The psychological intensity of the film pushes its characters to the edge of their humanity, navigating a visceral type of horror. It’s not just a story of survival, it’s an immersion into the darkest corners of the tormented human psyche.
Selhami is no stranger to horror, with his second feature, the fantasy horror Achoura, taking home a Special Jury Mention back at Sitges in 2019.
Look out for more on The Shelter as we get it.
