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. The screenplay for WINTER RULES, penned by Nadi Sha and Grant Osborn, builds on their successful partnership from the critically acclaimed EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN, which screened at the 77th Cannes Film Festival, en competition pour le Prix Cannes Ecrans Seniors. Screen Australia and Screen NSW have provided development support. Production. WINTER RULES is a Lebanese-Australian-French co-production. Orjouane Productions produces from Beirut, Lebanon's premier production house, led by Sabine Sidawi and credited with over 30 features and documentaries. Sha Pictures produces from Sydney, with Les Autres Films joining from Paris. Internationally seasoned Michael Wrenn is executive producer. The film shoots in Beirut in 2027. Team. A team of celebrated industry veterans joins the production, their collective work spanning Cannes, TIFF and Academy Award-nominated films, to put Beirut on screen as it really is and keep the film as close to Sara as the script does. Rachel Aoun, a recent AMPAS inductee, shoots. Dany Cooper ASE edits and Rami Khalife scores, a composer who holds intensity and restraint in the same bar. Luke Mynott at Unison Sound builds the sound world, and speaks Arabic, so he hears when Beirut sounds wrong. Finishing. WINTER RULES finishes in Australia. Stage23 handles the visual effects, used sparingly, and picture and sound are completed at The Post Lounge, the country's leading independent post house. Ready for the 2028 festival circuit, with Cannes' Quinzaine des Realisateurs, Semaine de la Critique and Venice's Giornate degli Autori in our sights. A film about being told you don't exist, and deciding you do anyway. Stateless Film SPV Pty Ltd. contact@winterules.com