Zawya kicks off September with “Rock the Casbah”

Star-studded Moroccan-French film premiering in Egypt

By Kaylan Geiger

With a star-studded cast including Omar Sharif, Morjana Alaoui, Nadine Labaki, Lubna Azabal and Hiam Abbass, Rock the Casbah is making its Egyptian debut as the latest feature film at the art-house cinema Zawya. 

Directed by Laila Marrackshi, Rock the Casbah centers on a family’s struggle to overcome the death of a father, Moulay Hassan, played by famous Egyptian actor Omar Sharif. Moulay’s three daughters, Sofia (Morjana Alaoui), Miriam (Nadine Labaki) and Kenza (Lubna Azabal) and their mother Aicha (Hiam Abbass) are reunited as they gather to bury their father. Moulay’s death becomes a catalyst for past conflicts to resurface as the family learns secrets that alter their perception of the world they thought they knew.

 Full of plot twists, drama and comedy, despite its dark sides Rock the Casbah is easy on the eyes with its colorful scenes of Morocco and the beauty of a family struggling to overcome their differences and ghosts from the past. Rock the Casbah is screening at 3:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. every day until September 9, at Zawya’s permanent venue in Downtown Cairo’s Odeon Cinema. The film is in Arabic with English and French subtitles. The cinema is also screening Amir Ramses’ Jews of Egypt – the End of a Journey, his follow-up to Jews of Egypt that looks at the dwindling Jewish community that remained in the country. 
Zawya, an art-house cinema initiative by Misr International Films (MIF), screens alternative films from the Arab world, Europe and beyond, with a focus on independent cinema and young Egyptian and Arab filmmakers. MIF was founded by the late director Youssef Chahine. For more information visit Zawya’s website.