03/05/2024 - Boarded by Playtime, the picture revolves around a reformed criminal who enjoys his new life as a gang exit counsellor

Crossing Lines by Jahfar Muataz (© Anne Schwartz/Forty Five Films)

Baghdad-born helmer Jahfar Muataz’s debut feature, a revenge thriller titled Crossing Lines, is now being filmed. The news was first reported by Screen International.

Muataz moved to Denmark as a child, but he lived in Iraq as a teenager for two years during the war. In 2019, he was admitted into the Danish film school Super16. Before embarking on the making of his first feature, he directed music videos, as well as penning and helming several shorts.

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The story of Crossing Lines centres on a reformed criminal called Cairo, who enjoys his new life as a gang exit counsellor. When his nephew Hamza disappears, Cairo discovers he had secretly joined his former gang. Despite his pledge to avoid violence, Cairo enlists his former underworld connections, growing frustrated with the police’s inaction. His investigation leads him into Copenhagen’s criminal scene, where his past instincts resurface.

The cast is spearheaded by Afshin Firouzi (Boundless, The Shift [+see also:
trailer
interview: Lone Scherfig
series profile]), Albert Arthur Amiryan (Face to Face) and Charlotte Fich (Borgen). Crossing Lines is being staged by Copenhagen-based firm Forty Five Films, and it will be released nationwide by Scanbox Entertainment in 2025. Playtime and Scanbox are now part of the same company, Vuelta Group (see the news), a rising European film studio led by Jérôme Levy and David Atlan-Jackson. Playtime boarded the film’s world sales this week and will present it to buyers at the upcoming Marché du Film in Cannes (14-22 May).

Commenting on the project, CEO of Playtime Nicolas Brigaud-Robert said: “Jahfar’s script is a page-turner. This is exactly what you are looking for when you receive a project as an international sales company: something engaging, with a fresh tone, which can speak to people across borders.”