Odd Slice Films has acquired worldwide rights to Concrete Land, a documentary eight years in the making, ahead of its world premiere in the Locarno Film Festival's Semaine de la Critique on 13 August 2026 (Variety).

The film is the debut feature of Palestinian-Jordanian director Asmahan Bkerat. It follows three generations of the Najar family, one of the last Afro-Palestinian Bedouin families living on the outskirts of Amman, Jordan, as luxury villas encroach on their agricultural land and displacement, racism, and internal conflict test their bonds (Variety; Cineuropa).

Bkerat produced alongside Ban Maraqa. Jane Mote serves as executive producer, and Sam Soko — whose credits include the Sundance award-winning Softie — is credited as creative producer (Variety).

The project drew support from a string of documentary funders: the IDFA Bertha Fund, the Sundance Documentary Fund, the Jordan Film Fund, the Doha Film Institute, and AFAC (the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture) (Variety). That lineup signals sustained institutional backing across the Arab world and beyond, spread over the eight-year production.

Odd Slice Films was founded by Martina Droandi, who brokered the worldwide deal — covering all territories and meaning the company will handle sales and distribution rights globally (Variety).

Locarno's Semaine de la Critique — a section programmed by the Swiss film critics' association, presenting seven documentary features as world or international premieres — gave Concrete Land a competition slot (Locarno Film Festival). The festival runs each August in Locarno, Switzerland; the section focuses on first or second features. At 101 minutes, Concrete Land screens as a Jordan–Palestine co-production (Locarno Film Festival).

What makes the acquisition notable is the pairing of a long-gestating, deeply rooted story with a distribution home secured before the film meets its first public audience. Worldwide rights deals closed pre-premiere are standard at major festival markets, but they are usually reserved for titles with clear commercial hooks or established directorial track records. Concrete Land has neither — Bkerat is a first-time feature director, and the subject is intimate rather than broadly commercial.

For the Najar family's story to reach screens beyond the festival circuit, Odd Slice will now need to place the film with territorial buyers and streaming platforms in the months following Locarno.