Othman Karim has a strong connection with the MIFF. In 2006, the Festival awarded his feature debut About Sara with the Golden St George Award for Best Film, and the following year, when Karim came back as jury member, he met a US producer who tipped him on how to reach US actor Danny Glover who ended up taking one of the lead roles in Dear Alice.
In the film, Glover plays one of four characters who during the course of an ordinary day find themselves faced with what seems like trivial decisions that end up having catastrophic repercussions for them all. "For me, the film is about the stress that we put on ourselves to the point of loosing focus on the most important things in life, which is caring for each other," says producer Malin Holmberg-Karim, co-founder of One Tired Brother Productions with her husband Othman Karim.
Just like About Sara, Dear Alice was inspired by small incidents in the director's life that he used to weave the overall storyline for his film. It took two full years for Karim to write the script, with co-writer Grace Maharaj Eriksson and the help of multi-character development specialist Linda Aronson. "Getting development support from the Swedish Film Institute, Nordisk Film & TV Fond, Film i Skåne and the MEDIA Programme really helped us take our time at development stage," stressed Holmberg-Karim. With the solid script in their hands, the director/producer team had no difficulty in finding co-financiers for the SEK21 million film, with the help of producer Hans Lönnerheder (Greta Film) who brought in Nordisk Film.
The finished film will be submitted to the jury of the 32nd MIFF, headed by French film mogul Luc Besson. After its screening in Moscow, Dear Alice will open in Sweden on July 9 through Nordisk Film. TrustNordisk is handling world sales. Karim is already working on several other documentary and feature film projects, including a drama thriller and a children's film.