Directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah are all set to helm a film based on the real story of an African-American student named Sanda Dia, who passed away following a hazing ritual at Belgium's Catholic University of Leuven in 2018. Kokomo, the company based in Brussels, is backing the project.
El Arbi and Fallah, the directors of Bad Boys for Life and Bad Boys: Ride or Die, have written the screenplay based on the books related to Dia's death that are written by her father, Ousmane "Papis" Dia, and a journalist named Pieter Huyberechts.
The fraternity members who contributed to Dia's death were ordered to do community service for 200 to 300 hours and pay a penalty of $430 per head. News about the student's brutal death and the subsequent punishment (a non-prison sentence) for the members contributed to outrage and calls for justice in Belgium.
About the project, the writer-director duo stated, "Like everyone else, we were in shock of what happened to Sanda during those two days. When we got in touch with his father, Papis Dia, we were impressed by his courage and his willpower to fight for justice. This film is a love letter from him to Sanda."