John El Manahi

Movies

One December Night
Production Design
Two music managers must put their history aside to oversee the televised reunion performance of their rock star fathers with a fractured past.
The Artist's Wife
Production Design
Claire Smythson, wife of the renowned abstract artist Richard Smythson, is plunged into a late-life crisis when her husband is diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease and is in danger of not completing the paintings for his final show.
Lost Girls
Charge Scenic Artist
When Mari Gilbert's daughter disappears, police inaction drives her own investigation into the gated Long Island community where Shannan was last seen. Her search brings attention to over a dozen murdered prostitutes.
Dark Was the Night
Production Design
An evil is unleashed in a small town when a logging company sets up shop in the neighboring woods. Isolated and threatened, a mysterious force hidden within the trees outside the small town of Maiden Woods, strikes fear in the townspeople as Sheriff Paul Shields attempts to overcome the demons of his past while protecting those that he loves.
Sinister
Art Direction
True-crime writer Ellison Oswald is in a slump; he hasn't had a best seller in more than 10 years and is becoming increasingly desperate for a hit. So, when he discovers the existence of a snuff film showing the deaths of a family, he vows to solve the mystery. He moves his own family into the victims' home and gets to work. However, when old film footage and other clues hint at the presence of a supernatural force, Ellison learns that living in the house may be fatal.
Roadie
Production Design
After 20 years on the road with Blue Oyster Cult, Jimmy Testagros returns to his hometown to life with his ailing mother. Complications arise when he falls for an old friend, who is now married to his longtime nemesis.
Five Minarets in New York
Production Design
Two Turkish anti-terrorist agents are sent to New York City on a mission to find and bring back the dangerous Islamic leader codenamed "Dajjal", believed to be hiding in there. Working with the FBI and NYPD, the agents orchestrate the arrest of Hadji Gumus, a well-respected Muslim scholar and family man who years before fled to the United States after being released from a Turkish prison, where he served time for murder. This tale love, friendship, peace and prejudices, takes us on a journey seeking to answer the question of whether innocence or guilt even matters to one who lusts for vengeance.
After.Life
Set Dresser
Following a terrible car crash, a woman awakes to find an enigmatic mortician preparing her for burial.
Santa Claus in Baghdad
Production Design
In impoverished Baghdad under Saddam's dictatorship, 16-year-old Amal hopes to regain her social status at school by volunteering to find a book as a class gift for the departing literature teacher. Meanwhile, her emotionally fragile little brother becomes obsessed with the notion that a visiting uncle from America--whom he confuses with Santa Claus--will bring him toys. Ashamed never to have been able to give his son a toy, the child's father sells some more prized family possessions and buys a model car for him.
Twisted Fortune
Art Direction
A down-and-out thief finds he's got a bottle cap worth a million bucks. Unfortunately, he discovers this while robbing a convenience store.
Puzzlehead
Thug #1 (as John Elmanahi)
In a post apocalyptic world where technology is outlawed, Walter, a reclusive scientist, secretly creates a self-aware android, "Puzzlehead". Jealously erupts when Puzzlehead wins the affection of Julia, the beautiful shopgirl that Walter has longed for. The resulting sci-fi love triangle is a Frankensteinian fable that traps all three in a web of deception and the ultimate betrayal.