French Montana has added some serious star power to the rollout for his new documentary For Khadija, recruiting Robert De Niro to present the film at the Tribeca Festival later this month.
The Coke Boys capo shared the news on Instagram on Tuesday (June 6), writing: “FROM A SMALL VILLAGE IN AFRICA TO ROBERT DE NIRO PRESENTING YOUR LIFE STORY AT TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL. JUNE 16th. NYC !!!! ALLAH IS THE GREATEST.”
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French’s post featured a recent interview clip of De Niro and Jane Rosenthal — two of the co-founders of Tribeca Festival — sharing their excitement for this year’s slate of films at the annual New York City festival.
“French Montana’s doc will play at the Beacon [Theatre] and he will be performing afterwards,” Rosenthal explained to Extra TV while discussing the bevy of music-related pictures.
De Niro added: “To me, being part of the fabric of the city and so on is everything and tradition, and hopefully it will last as long as the city is here — and the city should be here forever.”
Directed by Mandon Lovett (Origins of Hip Hop, RapCaviar Presents), For Khadija chronicles French Montana’s rags-to-riches journey from growing up in Morocco to relocating to the Bronx, New York as a teen with his parents and younger brother.
Despite speaking only Arabic and French at the time, it was in the birthplace of Hip Hop that Montana (real name Karim Kharbouch) became one of the city’s hottest rappers, going from hustling street DVDs and mixtapes to dropping multi-platinum singles and chart-topping albums.
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“This documentary tells my immigrant story and all the people that followed me from the day that I started ’til now,” the “Unforgettable” hitmaker said in a recent interview with Apple Music.
“I feel like a lot of people just know me by the music [or] from me dating people. But I want people to know me for the right reasons and I feel like this documentary is more based on the struggle.”
He added: “We was on welfare, to me getting shot, to me meeting Chinx, me meeting Max B. Max B be getting 75 years in jail. Me being almost blackballed after he went to jail. Me just going through all the obstacles.”
Robert De Niro isn’t the only A-lister attached to the project. French’s close friends and collaborators Drake and Diddy executive produced it and also make appearances in it alongside Fat Joe and Max B.
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French Montana is also prepping a soundtrack to accompany For Khadija and recently dropped the first single. Titled “I Can’t Lie,” the song finds him reuniting with Kodak Black over hypnotic, hard-hitting production from London On Da Track.
A wider release date for the documentary and soundtrack has yet to be announced. Watch the trailer below:
