Winter Rules. Stateless. Fearless. The Black List: WINTER RULES by Nadi Sha was one of the best things our readers read recently. Premise 9/10, Plot 8/10, Character 8/10, Dialogue 8/10, Setting 8/10. Story. Under a century-old Lebanese law, citizenship passes only through men. Sara is nineteen, stateless, and takes a job in her estranged father's mansion to claim the place in the world she was denied. Vision. Winter Rules puts the audience inside Sara's experience and holds them there. Unique concept with classic bones. Sara. Nineteen and stateless, born in Beirut to a Lebanese mother but unrecognised by the country that raised her. WINTER RULES can become deeply psychological and edgy, then end with perfect romanticism and realism. It is great drama, bottom line. Her Father. Ibrahim Saleh came from nothing, a hustler turned power broker in Beirut's shadow economy. As Ibrahim works his way into his daughter's good graces, the script becomes more and more uncomfortable to read. Setting. Beirut isn't a backdrop here. Key locations include labyrinthine alleyways, cramped cafes, and the emotionally distant mansion of Sara's father. The Beirut setting, its energy, the food, the inequality, the friendly corruption, and the Kafkaesque bureaucracy, comes vividly to life on the page. Beirut refuses to sort itself into rich and poor. The beauty and the squalor share the same frame. Mise-en-scene. The camera belongs to Sara. Close and handheld in the streets that raised her; fixed and composed inside her father's mansion. Production design elements underscore the class disparities between Sara's humble home and Ibrahim's mansion. The contrast between Sara's impoverished world and Ibrahim's life of luxury is visually dramatic. Palette. The film holds Sara's two worlds in tension: warm grain in the streets that raised her, cold blue inside the house that will not own her. Market. The audience for this film already exists, alongside WINTER'S BONE and WADJDA. WINTER RULES is for Lebanon what JUNO is for America or FISH TANK is for England, alongside PERSEPOLIS. Script to Screen. Development and filming, written by Nadi Sha and Grant Osborn, produced by Michael Wrenn with Orjouane Productions. Finishing. Winter Rules finishes in Australia, targeting the 2028 festival circuit. A film about being told you don't exist, and deciding you do anyway. Stateless Film SPV Pty Ltd. contact@winterules.com