Family Honor

Hisham Suliman, Sari Bisharat

Producer

Yoav Halevy

Lab Edition

2025

Production

Open Doors Films

Country

Israel

SYNOPSIS

Sharif (40), an Arab police investigator in Nazareth, is drawn into a painful and personal murder case when the body of 18 - year -old Wajud Al-Ali is found. His deep ties to her village—his own hometown—complicate the investigation, especially as he faces tensions with his wife, daughter, father, and a social worker holding crucial information. As he digs deeper, Sharif confronts his community’s code of silence—and ultimately his beliefs and his life. "Family Honor" explores the cost of defying tradition and the dilemmas that arise when honor becomes a matter of life and death.

DIRECTOR'S NOTE

“Family Honor” is a painful reality we know intimately. Although the values of honor, pride, and family are deeply rooted in the society we grew up in, we realize how these concepts—meant to protect—can also destroy. The film, which explores the silence surrounding honor killings, will be shot in Nazareth and an Arab village, blending raw realism with lyrical visuals, city's harshness with the village’s deceptive calm, actors alongside local non- actors. Through the eyes of the protagonist, the film examines the emotional cost of breaking tradition, redefining honor as empathy and acceptance.

ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS

○ Hisham Suliman:
Born 1978. Graduated at the Yoram Levinstein institute for acting & theatrical Arts in Tel Aviv, Israel. Written, directed, and acted in many films, TV series & theaters. Artist director of the Umn Al-Fahm Arabic theater and the theater & drama school in Nazareth. As an actor, acted in prestigious TV series and films such as: "Fauda", “Two Minutes to Paradise”, "Munich", "Independence Day", "Another Day", "Bethlehem" and many more. Worked as an actor's coach in films and TV series such as: "Ajami", "Fauda", "Homeland", "Zayton ", "Bethlehem " and more.
Directed the short film 'the book'.

○ Sari Bisharat:
Born 1985. Graduated at the Sam Spiegel Film and Television school.
Written and directed the awarded short film "Tormus" and the documentary film "Tawfik". Works also as a film & TV editor, edited the awarded feature film "The Cousin" and many TV realities, dramas, documentary films & video clips.

PRODUCER

Yoav Halevy

Yoav Halevy & Open Doors Films:
Born 1963. Holds a B.F.A in Film and Television from Tel Aviv University and studied for a master's degree in Cultural Studies at the Open University of Israel. His first Feature film as a screenwriter was "White Night" (Winner Young Cinema Award, Cannes Film Festival).
Open Doors Films was established by Yoav as an independent production company, focusing on narrative and documentary projects that present complex Israeli stories in a modern cinematic language, in order to reach a worldwide audience. Among the films produced by Yoav and the company: "Bureau 06" (Honorable Mention for Artistic Achievement- Jerusalem FF, aired on television channels worldwide),"Dear Mr. Waldman" (Palm Springs FF, Munich FF), God’s Sandbox (Karlovy – Vary FF), "In the Third Person" (Best Documentary – Haifa FF), and more.
This year, the company is producing the Feature film "Three Days in Bangui".
Alongside his creative work as a filmmaker, Yoav was a lecturer on film, the Head of the Production & the Head of the Film Department at the Faculty of Arts, at Beit Berl College.

PRODUCTION COMPANY PROFILE

○ Open Doors Films / Tel-Aviv
○ +972-507-296949
○ opendoorsfilms@gmail.com

PRODUCTION BUDGET

○ Total budget: 1,514,000 USD
○ 23,500 USD (Rabinovich Foundation & Tzadik Foundation/Gesher Multicultural Film Fund)

LANGUAGE

Arabic, Hebrew

GENRE

Psychological Thriller-Drama

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