Egyptian Features From Emerging Filmmakers Lead the Arabic-Language Titles at the Venice Festival
A wide range of Egyptian films dominate the Arabic-language selection in Venice this year, including two feature debuts — from Khaled Mansour and Muhammed Hamdy — that represent new directions in Egyptian cinema.
Mansour is behind the endearing, audience-friendly “Seeking Haven for Mr. Rambo.” It follows a taciturn security guard whose best friend is the canine of the title, played by two different, but similar-looking, highly trained dogs.
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Operating at cinema’s more experimental edge is “Perfumed With Mint,” which also screens in TIFF’s Wavelength section. Veteran cinematographer Hamdy (“The Square”) creates a metaphorical film representing a generation that is contaminated with doubts about what a waits them.
Provocative drama “Happy Holidays” marks Palestinian helmer Scandar Copti’s (“Ajami”) first solo outing while “Sudan, Remember Us” is a political documentary from the French-Tunisian-Moroccan journalist and documentarian Hind Meddeb. Both films will also play in the Toronto Film Festival.
Rounding out the public program is “A?cha,” the eagerly awaited sophomore feature from Tunisian helmer Mehdi M. Barsaoui. His 2019 feature debut, “The Son,” nabbed a Venice Horizons acting prize for Sami Bouajila.
Meanwhile, a record three titles from Egypt feature in the works-in-progress incubator Final Cut in Venice. FCV nurtured the Copti and Meddeb films last year. The program enhances the bridge-builder role of Venice by supporting the production of independent quality films and promoting their competitiveness in the international market.
“The creative and artistic values of a work remain the main criteria for me,” says Alessandra Speciale, curator of FCV. “The greatest quality of a filmmaker, in my opinion, lies in sincerity and authenticity. I prefer an imperfect film that expresses originality over one that strives for a more standardized perfection.”
Arab cinema at Venice 2024 by section:
Horizons A?cha
Director: Mehdi M. Barsaoui, (Tunisia,
France, Italy, Saudi
Arabia, Qatar)
A drama centering on a woman who flees her small-town life after miraculously surviving a bus accident, but runs into difficulties with her new identity.
Sales: The Party Film Sales
Happy Holidays
Director: Scandar Copti
(Palestine, Germany, France, Qatar, Italy)
Going back and forth in time, and seen through the eyes of various characters, this drama shows events that influence the lives of an extended family of Palestinian citizens of Israel.
Sales: Indie Sales
Horizons Extra
Seeking Haven
for Mr. Rambo
Director: Khaled Mansour
(Egypt, Saudi Arabia)
Set in a working-class Cairo neighborhood, this Egyptian first feature follows a young man forced to confront his fears as he tries to save his canine best friend.
Sales: Film Clinic Indie Distribution
Venice Days
Sudan, Remember Us
Director: Hind Meddeb
(France, Tunisa, Qatar)
A documentary portrait of Sudan that reassembles fragments of the ongoing revolution in the country, using the voices of youth pitted against military might.
Sales: N/A
Critics’ Week
Perfumed With Mint
Director: Muhammed Hamdy (Egypt, France,Tunisia)
Emmy-winning cinematographer Hamdy makes his helming debut with this tale of two friends tragically trapped in a survival conundrum as they try to escape the ghosts of their past.
Sales: Reason8 Films
Final Cut in Venice
Aisha Can’t Fly Away
Director: Morad Mostafa
(Egypt, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, France)
Aisha, a 26-year-old Somali woman, lives and works in Ain Shams, a neighborhood in Cairo with a large African migrant community. The authorities’ indifference to the violent tension between Egyptians and various African nationalities has allowed different gangs to seize control of the neighborhood.
In This Darkness
I See You
Director: Nadim Tabet
(Lebanon, France,
Qatar, Saudi Arabia)
A thriller ghost story in which strange and life- threatening events at a construction site create tension between the Syri-
an workers and the Lebanese villagers.
My Father’s Scent
Director: Mohamed Siam
(Egypt, Norway, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, France)
Following a man’s discharge from the hospital, his youngest son stays overnight with the ailing patriarch in the confined spaces of the family home.
Your Daughter
Director: Sara Shazli
(Egypt)
Sara, scion of a filmmaking family, grows up in Cairo with an Ethiopian nanny and her workaholic mother Marianne Khoury. Twenty years later, she confronts her own mother and what it could mean to become a mother herself.
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