DUBAI: Director Alex Prager’s debut feature film “Dreamquil,” which stars French Algerian actress Sofia Boutella, will have its world premiere at the South by South by Southwest Festival in Texas in March.
The music, film and TV festival will run from March 12-18, with the cast and crew of “Dreamquil” slated to attend.
Directed by Prager, the film’s starry cast includes Elizabeth Banks, John C. Reilly, Juliette Lewis, Sofia Boutella, Kathryn Newton, Lamorne Morris, Toby Larsen and Anna Marie Dobbins.
It will screen in the Narrative Spotlight strand.
“Set in the near future, a woman returning from a virtual retreat discovers her worst nightmare when the helper robot sent to assist her family in her absence starts to infringe on her life and identity,” the film’s logline reads.
Boutella took to Instagram to share the news, sharing the film’s poster.
The actress also stars in “Only What We Carry,” the latest feature from Welsh writer and director Jamie Adams, best known for “She Is Love” and “Wild Honey Pie!”
The drama, which is currently in the editing stage, sees Boutella star alongside her “Star Trek” co-star Simon Pegg, the British actor known for the “Mission: Impossible” franchise.
Also appearing are French actress and singer Charlotte Gainsbourg, and filmmaker Quentin Tarantino, who reportedly has his most significant on-screen role since Robert Rodriguez’s 1996 cult classic “From Dusk Till Dawn.”
Boutella most recently starred in “The Killer’s Game,” which hit cinemas in September, and Netflix’s “Rebel Moon — Part 2: The Scargiver.”
She also filmed the third season of the Second World War drama “SAS Rogue Heroes” in September.
The actress is known for her breakout performance in the Oscar-nominated film “Star Trek Beyond,” in which she portrayed the fierce alien warrior, Jaylah.
Boutella, 43, is a professional dancer and starred in a music video for rock band the Foo Fighters in 2020.
Born in Bab El-Oued, a bustling neighborhood of Algiers, Boutella started studying ballet aged 5. The family fled the Algerian Civil War in 1992 when she was 10 and moved to Paris.
There, she gravitated toward rhythmic gymnastics, joining the French national team at 18.
She later blended her classical ballet training with the physicality of gymnastics and even spent time breakdancing with a group called the Vagabond Crew.
