EXCLUSIVE: Here’s a first trailer from the upcoming movie Goat Days, the feature film adaptation of a bestselling Indian novel starring Jimmy Jean-Louis and Prithviraj Sukumaran.
The film, based on a true story and directed by India’s Blessy (Thanmthra, Kaazcha), explores modern slavery. It recounts the life of an abused Keralite migrant worker who was forced to survive herding goats in the Saudi Arabian desert.
The original book, Aadujeevitham, which shocked Indian society, is banned in the UAE and Saudi Arabia.
Sukumaran plays the migrant worker, Najeeb, and Jean-Louis is Ibrahim, who joins him on a life-or-death quest for freedom in the desert.
Indian producer Visual Romance shot the flick, which filmed in Algeria, Jordan and India and is now being submitted for consideration at key festivals.
“I have to pinch myself frequently to remember that it is not just a film, it is the true story of someone’s life,” said Blessy. “A story of a simple dream for a better life gone awry. It is a tragedy that the innocent do frequently get taken advantage of.
“But what egged me the last nine years to make this film is because the story to me was not in this tragedy. It was in the strength of the human spirit that I saw, to survive all odds, and to somehow get back to what Najib held sacred through his tortured, addled mind.”
Jean-Louis recently signed with CAA. He is a producer on the film through his Jet Media label alongside Alta Global Media. He is set to appear in Assassins Club, opposite Henry Golding, Daniela Melchior, Sam Neill and Noomi Rapace.
