Musical Film "Sukkar" Sets Release Date

The Arabic-language film “Sukkar”, which draws inspiration from U.S. writer Jean Webster’s epistolary novel “Daddy-Long-Legs”, has finally a release date.

The film is being touted as the Arab world’s first musical movie in the Western canon and is set to release in cinemas across the Middle East and North Africa on October 12 by Beirut-based Empire Entertainment, which is one of the region’s top movie distributors. 

It will subsequently debut on Saudi-owned broadcasting powerhouse MBC’s Shahid streaming service.

“Sukkar” features singer Hala Turk, who rose to prominence after being an “Arabs Got Talent” contestant in 2011, in the lead role alongside a wide range of new young talents from the Arab world.

The cast also includes Magda Zaki, Mohamed Tharwat, Reham Elshanawany, Yasmina, Mohamed Harby, Moataz Hesham, and others.

It is scripted by Kuwaiti writer Heba Mishari Hamadai, helmed by Egyptian director Tamer Mahdy, and produced by Saudi-owned broadcasting powerhouse MBC Group in its first.

“Sukkar” also features original songs penned by Hamada and scored by Egyptian composer Ehad Abdel Wahed.

The film's lead producer is Samar Akrouk, the group director of production at MBC Group, alongside MBC executive producer Lara Ghazal Nassif and MBC producer Alaa Awada, with executive producer Tamer Mortada and producer Mostafa Al Awadi from Egypt’s Aroma Productions.