CANADA/FRANCE | 2024 | 92 minutes | Available with English and French subtitles

IN SELECT THEATRES OCTOBER 25

A MESSAGE OF COURAGE, JUSTICE AND HOPE
by the protagonist PROFESSOR DR. IZZELDIN ABUELAISH

Directed by Tal Barda

Documentary script by Geoff Klein, Tal Barda, Saskia De Boer

Produced by Paul Cadieux, Maryse Rouillard, Isabelle Gripon, Tal Barda

From Gaza’s Jabaliya refugee camp to the University of Toronto and the Supreme Court of Israel, I Shall Not Hate follows the uncharted path of Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish, The first Palestinian doctor who worked in an Israeli hospital delivering babies, whose ethos of forgiveness and reconciliation is put to the ultimate test when an Israeli tank bombs his house, killing his three daughters. Against all odds, he turns his tragedy into a global campaign to eradicate hate, delivering his message in English, Arabic and Hebrew. He is quoted by former US president Barack Obama and nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. But Dr. Abuelaish remains haunted by grief, and convinced that to honour his daughters, he must hold the Israeli government accountable for the unprovoked attack that decimated his family. Following the Hamas attack on October 7th and the war on Gaza ever since the doctor's journey becomes even more fateful to the possibility of imagining a future for Palestinians and Israelis. 'I Shall Not Hate' is a letter of tolerance from a deeply inspiring man with a message as urgent as ever.

Ido Mizrahy’s narrative and documentary films premiered at SXSW, Tribeca, and New Directors/New Films, among many other festivals, and went on to win a number of awards. His films have been distributed by AMC, Sundance, Netflix, Amazon, and MTV. Mizrahy is currently co-directing a fictional virtual reality experience that’s equal parts family-drama and space-thriller.

Paul Cadieux is one of Canada’s leading and most active film and television producers. Among numerous other accolades, he has won a Genie Award for Best Motion Picture for the two-time Oscar‑nominated Les Triplettes de Belleville (Cannes Film Festival).

In his more than three decades as a producer, co-producer, executive producer and distributor, Paul has often preferred to operate out of the limelight while remaining centrally involved in dozens of major Canadian and international projects ranging from children’s animation series, thriller features films, romantic comedies, travel shows, reality programming, international co-productions, feature documentaries and TV series in both English and French.

Through his umbrellas, Megafun Productions Inc. and Filmoption International Inc., along with his extensive in-house equipment rental company and state-of-the-art post-production facilities, Paul has long prided himself on being well-positioned to be able to have a significant impact on projects he feels are both creatively and commercially viable and to provide the missing elements to advance a worthy production.

Among his many award-winning productions, we can find Danae Elon’s P.S. Jerusalem (TIFF and Berlin 2015), Shimon Dotan’s The Settlers (Sundance 2016) and Left Behind America for PBS/Frontline, Advocate and GAZA, both selected at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival, as well as Ido Mizrahy’s The Longest Goodbye (Sundance 2023) and Tünde Skovrán’s Who I Am Not (SXSW 2023).

Anyone looking for a pattern in Paul Cadieux’s varied production and distribution work will invariably note that quality, high production value, respecting budgets and matching the marketplace’s needs are consistent qualities of his overall creative and commercial output.

In a field where the dual elements of creative passion and experienced production know-how almost always go hand-in-hand, Paul Cadieux brings a wealth of both to any and all productions he puts his full commitment, heart, experience and resources behind.

Maryse Rouillard founded Filmoption International 45 years ago. She dedicated her career to the making of documentary films and series with compelling gstories that engage audiences in challenging political and social views.

Over the course of her career, she acted as a producer, co-producer andexecutive producer on over 70 documentary films, 80 television series and 38 animated films and series. Recently, she was instrumental to the success of culturally important feature documentaries such as Antismetism(2020) a feature documentary that traces the origins of antisemitism in France from the Middle Ages to the Dreyfus Affair, Gaza(2019) which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, represented Ireland at the Oscars and went on to play at over 100 festivals, Advocate(2019) which also premiered at Sundance, was shortlisted at the Oscars for Best Documentary and won an Emmy for Best Documentary, and In the Desert (2018) an ambitious diptych and a profound journey which challenges our perspectives on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Her films have been broadcasted on all major networks such as CBC, Radio-Canada, PBS, Channel 8, TV5, ARTE, Bravo, TFO, TVA and Historia. She is currently finishing post-production on War on Science, her third collaboration with director Ilan Ziv.

Isabelle Gripon has over 30 years of experience in the film and audio visual industry, with particular expertise on an international scale. She spent 8 years in Los Angeles, selling and buying feature films, and 2 years in Argentina and Chile. Since 2002, she has flourished as a producer, having produced 6 feature films and a dozen documentaries for prestigious channels such as Arte and France Télévision. Prior to that, for a decade she managed financial planning for TV series worldwide. In 2015, she joined Magneto Prod to oversee production of Stan and Edouard Zambeaux's feature documentary Un Jour Ça Ira(2018). More recently, she took on executive production of the feature film Memento Mori (2022) by Jean Hêches, as well as the feature documentary La Mesure des Choses (2022) by Patric Jean, in collaboration with IOTA Productions in Belgium.

In 2019, she founded her own company, MANDALA Films, and just finished post-production on Tal Barda'sI Shall Not Hate, in co-production with Filmoption International in Canada. In addition, she is finalizing production on the feature film C'est de famille starring Olivier Gourmet, Hélène Vincent and Emilie Dequenne, scheduled for theatrical release in 2024 with KMBO. Her company is also expanding with exciting projects such as Antonello Murgia's first feature, Sottosopora, starring Tchéky Karyo, Sveva Alviti and Andréa Ferréol with Graffiti Fillm in Italy. In addition, she is working on the development of Gérard Corbiau's feature filmLe Diable au Corpsin collaboration with Poorhouse in London, as well as Djana Schmidt's first film, Revivre, supported by theSisley D'Ornano Foundation.

In parallel, she has played a key role in Algeria coordinating various film events, including the coordination of the Algiers International FilmFestival from 2012 to 2016, as well as the Mediterranean Film Days inAlgiers in 2012 and 2013.

Prof. Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish is a Palestinian Canadian physician and an internationally recognized human rights and inspirational peace activist devoted to advancing health and education opportunities for women and girls in the Middle East. Despite all odds, he has succeeded remarkably; aided by a great determination of spirit, strong faith, and a belief in hope and family.

He was born and raised in Jabalia Refugee Camp in the Gaza Strip. Dr. Abuelaish has overcome many personal hardships, including poverty,violence, and the horrific tragedy of the murder of his three daughters’ and niece’s deaths in the 2009 Gaza War. Then October 31, the murder of 21 members of his family including nieces, nephews and cousins .

Prof. Abuelaish has been nominated five times for Nobel peace Prize, and he is fondly known as Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Ghandi and the“Martin Luther King of the Middle East”, having dedicated his life to using health as a vehicle for peace. Prof. Abuelaish’ s book, I Shall Not Hate: A Gaza Doctor’s Journey on the Road to Peace and Human Dignity, a national and international bestseller, an autobiography of his loss and transformation, has achieved worldwide critical acclaim. Published in 2010, (currently in 23 differentlanguages), and inspired by the loss of his three daughters – Bessan, Mayar and Aya – and their cousin Noor who were murdered by an Israeli shelling on January 16th, 2009, the book has become an international bestseller. It has also become a testament to his commitment to forgiveness as the solution to conflict and the catalyst towards peace.