CIWFF English Catalogue

8/14/2019 CIWFF English Catalogue

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Arsc Creavity Center

Inside Cairo Opera House

Zamalek, Cairo.

Hadara Cinema CentreInside Cairo Opera House

Behind Main Hall

Zamalek, Cairo.

Falaki Theatre

El Falaki St. (AUC campus)

Downtown, Cairo.

Goethe-Instut Cairo

5, El Bustan St.Downtown, Cairo.


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www.cairowomenlmfest.com

Cairo Internaonal Womens Film Fesval


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The Cairo Internaonal Womens Film Fesval, which has come to be known as Among

Women Filmmakers, is an independent iniave designed to provide the best lms made

by women over the past two years. These lms, represented at major internaonal fesvalsare dened by high technical quality and diverse methods of expression.

It is the rst fesval for womens lms to be held annually in the Arab world, starng from

2008. Since then, it has been held as the Arab and Lan-American Women Film Fesval

and has become one of the leaders in womens cinema, not only in Egypt but also in the

Arab world.

Over the past ve years, the fesval hasarranged for screening its lms in other countries

such as Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Morocco, Palesne, Spain, Bolivia, Argenna, Cuba,

Colombia, Costa Rica, Peru, Mexico, El Salvador, Paraguay, Germany and Slovenia.

With the fesvals success in aracng large numbers of viewers and smulang excingcinemac, social and polical discussions, there emerged a need to expand. In its sixth

session, which will be held from 16 - 22 November, the fesval is becoming an internaonal

womens lm fesval, including movies from all over the world. This means twice number

of lms presented and venues needed for screenings and various secons of the fesval, in

addion to increasing the number of parallel acvies such as video workshop, roundtable

and lecture.

By inving some lmmakers to Cairo to aend lm-screenings and engage in discussion

with the public, the fesval is a meeng point and an opportunity for an exchange of

experiences between the public and many women lmmakers in the Arab region and the

world.

The fesval presents con lms, documentaries and animaon from more than 20

countries, from Argenna to Romania, from Palesne to India and from Brazil to Algeria.

In addion, there is a great diversity in country parcipaon as well as in terms of lms

presented, visual language and content, there by reecng the latest cinema trends

worldwide.

The fesval objecve is to bring its lms to the largest sector of cinema audience.

Accordingly, all the lms shown are free of charge, open to the public, and translated into

Arabic.

In appreciaon of the role of the Egypan public in support of the fesval over the past

years, and in armaon of our condence in their assessment of the lms shown, the

fesval oers a 36,000 Egypan pound one prize for Best Film. The prize will go to the

lm that gets the largest number of votes cast by the public aer watching each lm.

Finally, we hope that the fesval will be a real channel for presenng the best lms made by

women in the world, and will contribute to raising excing cinemac and social issues.

Amal Ramsis

Fesval iniator and director

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Introducon


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Present Tense

Turkey, 2012, 110 min

Director: Belmin Sylemez

Producon: Hamet [email protected]

Turkish language/with Arabic and English subtle

A young unemployed woman applies to a fortune-telling

caf lying that she has experience. While she reads the

coee cups of dierent women, she also tries to nd a

way out herself.

Divorced, disconnected from her family, about to be

thrown out of her at, she is surrounded with troubles.

Her mind is made up: she will escape to America. But

how? She needs money, papers and a visa.

Through the shapes emerging in coee cups, she

expresses her own frustraons and desires to match

those of the customers. Will she be able to get away from

present tense and try her luck for the future?

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Hadara Centre, 20.11.2013, Wednesday, 5 pm


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Salma

UK, 2013, 90 min

Director: Kim Longinoo

Producon: Kim [email protected]

Tamil language/with Arabic and English subtle

When Salma reached puberty, her parents locked her

away from the world. She spent nine years trapped in

one small room. Millions of young girls endure the same

sort of fate, but Salma refused to let the long years of

imprisonment break her spirit. Using hoarded scrap paper,

she managed to smuggle out poems that expressed

her hidden anger and pain. The poems scandalized her

community but inspired readers all over South India. The

lm follows Salma as she returns to her village.

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Falaki Theatre, 18.11.2013, Monday, 5 pmHadara Centre, 19.11.2013, Tuesday, 7 pm


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Crulic - The Path to Beyond

Rumania, 2011, 73 min

Director: Anca Damian

Producon: Aparte Film and Magellan [email protected]

Rumanian language/with Arabic and English subtle

The animated documentary feature-length Crulic The

Path to Beyond tells the lifes story of Crulic, the 33 years

old Romanian who died in a Polish prison while making

hunger strike. The acclaimed Romanian actor, Vlad Ivanov,

narrates Crulics ironic voice over from beyond the grave.

A strong visual style, the result of beauful hand drawn,

collage, stop-moon and cut-cut animaon techniques,

blend to create a striking, surprisingly integrated and

memorable lm.

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Falaki Theatre, 17.11.2013, Sunday, 9 pm


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Belleville Baby

Sweden, 2013, 76 min

Director: Mia Engberg

Producon: Tobias [email protected]

Swedish language/with Arabic and English subtle

A long distance call from a long lost lover makes her

reminisce about their common past. She remembers the

spring when they met in Paris, the riots, the vespa and the

cat named Baby. A lm about love, me and things that

got lost along the way.

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Falaki Theatre, 17.11.2013, Sunday, 5 pmHadara Centre, 19.11.2013, Tuesday, 9 pm


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To the Wolf

Greece, 2013, 74 min

Director: Chrisna Koutsospyrou and Aran Hughes

Producon: Aran Hughes, Chrisna Koutsospyrou and Theo [email protected]

Greek/with Arabic and English subtle

Set over four days of unrelenng wind and rain in a

remote village high up in the Nafpaka mountains

in western Greece, the lm follows the lives of

two shepherd families struggling for survival.

The village, forsaken by god and man, has seen beer

days. Paxnis, the seasoned old shepherd with no hope le,

had already foreseen the dire straits the country would be

facing and is slowly sinking into despair. Giorgos, unable

to sell his goats, is weighed down by mounng debts and

drinks to forget. Combining documentary and con with

an all-local cast, To the Wolf is both the reality and an

unseling allegory of modern-day Greece.

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Elena

Brasil, 2012, 80 min

Director: Petra Costa

Producon: Busca Vida [email protected]

Portuguese language/with Arabic and English subtle

Elena, a young Brazilian woman, travels to New York with the

same dream as her mother, to become a movie actress. She

leaves behind her childhood spent in hiding during the years

of the military dictatorship. She also leaves Petra, her seven

year old sister.

Two decades later, Petra also becomes an actress and goes to

New York in search of Elena. She only has a few clues about

her: home movies, newspaper clippings, a diary and leers.

At any moment Petra hopes to nd Elena walking in the

streets in a silk blouse.

Gradually, the features of the two sisters are confused; we

no longer know one from the other. When Petra nally nds

Elena in an unexpected place, she has to learn to let her go.

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Saba

Iran, 2012, 17 min

Director: Roqiye Tavakoli

Producon: Roqiye [email protected]

Persian language/with Arabic and English subtle

Saba is caring for her older sisters children aer her

unexpected death. She is aracted to a school teacher

but cannot open her mind to him for the childrens sake.

Sabas heart is heavy with the burden of tradion that

she might have to accept her brother-in-laws proposal.

Sabas conicted emoons are impressed upon us as

vividly as the aching beauty of the landscape and the vast

wilderness she lives in.

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Sarabah

Senegal, Germany, USA, 2011, 60 min

Director: Mara Luisa Gambale and Gloria Bremer

Producon: Mara Luisa Gambale and Steven [email protected]

Wolof, German, English, French, Diola language/with Arabic & English subtle

This 2011 lm tells the story of Sister Fa, a tribal

Senegalese singer and acvist on the rise. The rst

successful female rapper in Dakars ercely compeve

hip hop scene, Sister Fa brought womens stories to

the hip hop stage. Music and acvism share the focus

as she tours southern Senegal in 2010, and gets young

people talking and singing about an issue - female genital

mulaon - that had been completely taboo. Sarabah

is a portrait of an arst as acvist whose extraordinary

resilience, passion and creavity will inspire you.

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Coming Forth by Day

Egypt, 2012, 96 min

Director: Hala Loi

Producon: Hassala [email protected]

Arabic language/with English subtle

One day in the life of Soad, who lives with her mother

and bed-ridden father on the outskirts of Cairo. While

bright sunlight and the sounds of the city can be made

out behind the half-closed shuers, everything in the

at exudes the smell of old age, sickness and stagnaon.

Her mother works nights in a hospital and has barely

any energy to spare during the day. Soad too is no

longer young, having resigned herself to caring for her

incapacitated father and pung her own life on hold.

The camera paently follows her movements and daily

acvies that have become roune, capturing her

frustraon as well as moments of great tenderness.

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Falaki Theatre, 18.11.2013, Monday, 9 pm


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This Life

Denmark, 2012, 110 min

Director: Anne-Grethe Bjarup Riis

Producon: Regner Grasten [email protected]

Danish and German language/with Arabic and English subtle

This Life is the authenc story of the spirit of one family

who revolts and insists on individual freedom during

World War II. It is the story of how just a few people

can make a huge dierence - but not without serious

consequences.

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Falaki Theatre, 21.11.2013, Thursday, 5 pm


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900 Days

The Netherlands, 2011, 77 min

Director: Jessica Gorter

Producon: Frank van den [email protected]

Russian language/with Arabic and English subtle

900 Days is a documentary about the Blockade of

Leningrad during World War II. The lm presents an

emoonal picture of the struggle of some survivors,

whose personal memories tend to be overshadowed by

the heroic myth held up by the authories. That myth

is in painful contrast with the horric truth they were

forbidden to menon all these years.

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Hadara Centre, 19.11.2013, Tuesday, 5 pmFalaki Theatre, 21.11.2013, Thursday, 9 pm


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Water Children


Director: Aliona van der Horst

Producon: Zeppers [email protected]

English and Japanese language/with Arabic and English subtle

As a lm about ferlity, Water Children is an ode to womanhood

and the body. Filmmaker Aliona van der Horst followed the

trail of the unconvenonal Dutch-Japanese pianist and arst

Tomoko Mukaiyama who made a huge work of art on the theme

of womanhood and ferlity. She created a cathedral-like space

out of twelve thousand white silk dresses in which visitors, as

in a ritual, roamed around and fell silent. And where people

confessed inmate details about children who were or were not

born, about sexuality and life-choices. This resulted in a majesc

epic about motherhood, miscarriages and menopause. In a visual

and poec way, the lm penetrates into what is probably sll one

of the greatest of taboos, menstruaon, and, as a consequence,

touches upon universal themes around life and death.

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Creavity Center, 16.11.2013, Saturday, 7 pm


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Silent City


Director: Threes Anna

Producon: Jose van [email protected]

English and Japanese language/with Arabic and English subtle

Rosa, a young woman goes to Tokyo to learn from a

famous Japanese sh master the art of preparing sh. For

this purpose she has to learn and understand what sh

is. Living in the Japanese metropolis is like being in water.

She can swim, but also drown.

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Karsu


Director: Mercedes Stalenhoef

Producon: Pieter van [email protected]

Dutch and Turkish language/with Arabic and English subtle

Seventeen years old Karsu Dnmez - the Dutch answer

to Norah Jones - is a talented jazz singer-songwriter,

who grew up in a Turkish family in Amsterdam. Full of

passion she sings and plays piano in her parents Turkish

restaurant. At night, she composes her music in absolute

silence. Although her songs seem to reveal a soulful

intensity, Karsu denies singing about her private life. Yet

bit by bit she draws us into her secret world, which is

closely related to Turkish tradions. Growing up with both

Turkish and Dutch values Karsu tries to nd her own path.

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Falaki Theatre, 18.11.2013, Monday, 7 pm


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The Prize

Mexico/France/Poland/Germany, 2011, 115 min

Director: Paula Markovitch

Producon: Izrael [email protected]

Spanish language/with Arabic and English subtle

This is an autobiographical story. The acon takes place

in the locaons of my childhood, to which I always return

in my dreams. These are hosle mes. I know I must not

reveal my true identy to the other kids. Ive been told

that my familys safety depends on my silence. Im forced

to lie.

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Hadara Centre, 17.11.2013, Sunday, 9 pmFalaki Theatre, 19.11.2013, Tuesday, 5 pm


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Turtles do not Die of Old Age

Morocco/Canada, 2011, 92 min

Director: Hind Benchekroun and Sami Mermer

Producon: Turtle [email protected]

Arabic/with English subtle

Turtles do not die of old age takes a look at a vanishing

generaon, shares in the lives of three elderly men from

northern Morocco. Hovering around 80 years old, each

of the three men: Chehma, a master sherman; Erradi,

a solitary innkeeper; and Abdesslam, a street musician,

sll works to earn a living. Its a desire to connue living

and facing of an approaching death, and their courage to

ceaselessly work...despite their age. This is a documentary

that ushers us through the universality of life, old age and

death. A lm anchored in the everyday life of these men,

coated with a tender humanity.

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Creavity Center, 18.11.2013, Monday, 7 pm


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Mothers of the Constuon

Spain, 2011, 70 min

Director: Oliva Acosta

Producon: Jose Carlos Sabn and Oliva Acostawww.lasconstuyentes.com


The documentary is about 27 women, members of

parliament and senators, who were protagonists of

polical change during Spains transion towards

democracy, because of the parliamentary role which they

played during the rst constuent term in oce in 1977

aer the transion to democracy.

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Over their Dead Bodies

Egypt, 2010, 110 min

Director: Arab Loi

Producon: Arab [email protected]

Arabic/with English subtle

The lm is a revelaon of the Tantoura Massacre that

took place in May 1948 and was only recognized half a

century later. The lm presents Tantoura as a model for

the greater massacre that has been commied by the

colonialist and racist Zionist movement with the purpose

to ethnically cleanse all Palesnians and establish a Fascist

body in the service of imperialism.

The lm is based on available historical material and on

tesmonies from Tantoura survivors living in Palesne,

Syria and Jordan. It is a two hour long documentary that

contains details and proofs of this massacre where the

naves of Tantoura, the beauful village on the Palesnian

Mediterranean shore, were its vicms.

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Hadara Centre, 18.11.2013, Monday, 7 pm


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When I Saw You

Palesne/Jordan, 2012, 96 min

Director: Annemarie Jacir

Producon: Ossama [email protected]


When I Saw You takes place in 1967 Jordan when the world is

alive with change: brimming with reawakened energy, new styles,

music and an infecous sense of hope. In Jordan, a dierent kind

of change is underway as tens of thousands of refugees pour

across the border from Palesne. Having been separated fromhis father in the chaos of war, Tarek, 11, and his mother Ghaydaa,

are amongst this latest wave of refugees. Placed in temporary

refugee camps made up of tents and prefab houses unl they

would be able to return, they wait, like the generaon before

them who arrived in 1948. With dicules adjusng to life in

Harir camp and a longing to be reunited with his father, Tarek

searches a way out, and discovers a new hope emerging with the

mes. Eventually his free spirit and curious nature lead him to a

group of people on a journey that will change their lives.

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Falaki Theatre, 19.11.2013, Tuesday, 7 pm

Hadara Centre, 21.11.2013, Thursday, 5 pm


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74, The Reconstrucon of a Struggle

Lebanon, 2012, 95 min

Director: Rania Rafei and Raed Rafei

Producon: Jinane Dagher and Sabine Sidawi (Orjouane Producons- Lebanon)[email protected] / [email protected]


1974: Lebanon is in intellectual, cultural and polical

ferment. Between March and April, for 37 days, a few

students from the American University of Beirut occupy

the universitys premises to protest against rising tuion

fees.

2011: in the midst of the Arab Spring, Rania and Raed

Rafei decide to step back and reconsider todays situaon

in the light of that period which was pregnant with hope,

but also a prelude to civil war.

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Falaki Theatre, 19.11.2013, Tuesday, 9 pmHadara Centre, 21.11.2013, Thursday, 7 pm


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Bloody Beans

Algeria, 2013, 77 min

Director: Narimane Mari

Producon: Allers Retours [email protected]


On an Algerian beach, kids splash about, sleep, squabble

- and then suddenly go to war. Narimane Mari lms

this childish free for- all closely, at the irregular pace of

an imaginaon inspired by the highest form of reality,

naonal History actually, nothing less than the Algerian

War of Independence.

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It Was Beer Tomorrow

Tunis, 2012, 74 min

Director: Hinde Boujemaa

Producon: Habib Aa and Dora [email protected]


Through the hubbub of a revoluon, It was beer

tomorrow follows Aida, a Tunisian woman who has to

rebuild her enre life and who does not wish to look

backwards. She spends her me moving from one poor

neighborhood to another. Driven by the will to nd a roof

over her head and for her children, she takes no noce

of the historical events taking place around her. Her only

goal is to nd a way out and she is convinced that the

revoluon is a blessing. It was beer tomorrow shows

the atypical journey of this brazen and bold woman in the

intense interval of a countrys revoluon.

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Hadara Centre, 17.11.2013, Sunday, 7 pm


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Flying

Spain, 2012, 84 min

Director: Carla Subirana

Producon: Pandora [email protected], [email protected]


For the rst me ever, a camera lms in a Spanish Military

Academy: life in the Academy, military training and its

strict rules. A camera aached to the skin and the gestures

of the recruits as they train to y. Looking at those who

will later become only numbers and indisnguishable

faces, and will serve in strategic missions. And suddenly

a truce: the moment when we board the plane with the

trainee pilots. They wanted to become pilots when they

were children. They join with the desire to y and become

soldiers. What will they have to renounce to make their

dreams come true?

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Creavity Center, 17.11.2013, Sunday, 9 pm


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Gaza Calling

Palesne, Switzerland, UAE, 2012, 64 min

Director: Nahed Awwad

Producon: SINA FILMSwww.nahedawwad.com/gaza-calling


Samer lives in Ramallah in the West Bank. His family lives

in Gaza, one hour away. They have not seen each other for

six years. When Mustafa went for a visit to Gaza in 2006,

he was 18 years old. He was never allowed to return his

mother Hekmat has been ghng to see him again for

seven years. Two families torn apart. They share the same

crime: being registered with a Gaza address in their

Identy Cards. Under Israeli rule, they are considered

inltrators in their own country.

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Falaki Theatre, 20.11.2013, Wednesday, 5 pm


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Streets of Memory

Argenna, 2013, 65 min

Director: Carmen Guarini

Producon: Cine [email protected]

Spanish/with Arabic and English subtle

In her new lm Streets of Memory, a group of foreign

students aending a documentary workshop in Buenos

Aires is asked to explore one of the most recent and

visible ways of publicly represenng memory: agstones

on the sidewalks of many neighborhoods in the city with

names of men and women who were disappeared during

the infamous 19761983- military dictatorship. So they rst

get to know the people who make the agstones, that is

to say who they are, where they come from, and what

their parcular stories are. At the same me, the process

of making the agstones is also being registered.

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Its Only the Beginning

Germany, 2013, 67 min

Director: Paula Rodrguez and Chus Lpez Vidal

Producon: Haupstadtkulturfonds and Visiona [email protected]

Spanish, English and French/with Arabic and English subtle

The documentary Its Only the Beginning follows six Arab

cineastes as they meet each other in Berlin. Amal is from

Egypt, Dhana a Palesnian living in Lebanon. Soudade comes

from Syria and Habiba from Algeria. Marwa is of Sudanese

origin and lives in Cairo and Nadia is from Tunisia. In the

aermath of the events widely known as the Arab Spring,

they travel to the German capital where have been invited by

two mutual friends, the directors of the lm, to screen their

own work and get together. Its Only the Beginning documents

the women as they journey together through the streets of

Berlin, exchanging feelings about what they witnessed and

about how both their lives and their work as lmmakers were

impacted during this most convulsive period.

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Hadara Centre, 21.11.2013, Thursday, 9 pm


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Hymn from Old CairoEgypt, 1970, 20 min

Director: Nabiha Loi / Producon: Experimental Film Centre

Arabic language

Hymn from Old Cairo it is a lm about prayers and hopes of a young girl across the

oldest churches, and spiritual anoinng. It is a lm about Cairo full of holy places, a kind of

meditaon in the spiritual life of the place and humans.


Mohamed Ali

Egypt, 2004, 36 minDirector: Nabiha Loi / Producon: Naonal Centre for Cinema


A tour around one of the oldest streets in Cairo, Mohamed Ali Street, where we witness

all the changes in daily life in Cairo through the last century.



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Tahia CariocaEgypt, 2008, 60 minDirector: Nabiha Loi / Producon: Al Badil


A cinemac tribute to Tahia Carioca has been long overdue. Veteran documentary

lmmaker Nabiha Loi takes up the challenge in this rare treat. Wrongly described as the

Arab Worlds Marilyn Monroe, Carioca was not only a pioneering dancer and actress, she

was also a rebel and a militant.


Childish Games

Egypt, 1980, 20 minDirector: Nabiha Loi / Producon: Naonal Centre for Cinema


In a small village in north Egypt, Nabihas camera observes the kids imaginaon in creang

their games and their ways to take advantage of what lile the village has to oer.



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Short lms outcome of workshopCorrespondence Between Women

Correspondence Between Women is a video workshop organized by Bain Sinemayat

(Among Women Filmmakers) in order to teach non-professional women the basics of

the photography with a video camera and the basics of making short lms.

The subject of this year is My generaon

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Documents

CIWFF English Catalogue