‘Photocopy’ does well at the box office

CAIRO – 23 December 2017: The Egyptian movie “Photocopy” was screened for the first time in Egyptian cinemas on Wednesday, December 20.

The movie achieved LE 57,000 on its first screening day and LE 79,000 the following day.

The film narrates the story of an elderly man, who, upon his retirement, decides to open a photocopying shop. He begins to re-discover life, his love for his neighbor and the people around him.

The movie stars Mahmoud Hemeida, Sherine Reda, Farah Youssef, Aly Tayeb and Ahmed Dash among others. The movie is written by Haitham Dabbour and directed by Tamer Ashry.

Egyptian journalist and "Photocopy" scriptwriter, Haitham Dabbour, previously stated in an interview with Egypt Today that he chose to present a love story between an elderly couple because these types of love stories “have not been well-presented in the Egyptian cinema.”

The film’s script was previously nominated for the Sawiris Cultural Awards. Dabbour explained that he worked a lot on the script to develop it before reaching the final version, starting in 2013, and finishing over a year later in 2014.

“'Photocopy' represents a very special status to me, actually a unique, soft and tender one, not for me only, but for the hero and the heroine as well, the veteran actor Mahmoud Hemeida and the heartthrob Shereen Reda who each plays a multilayered character,” Dabbour elaborated.

“Photocopy” tackles issues and problems facing the elderly, topics that are rarely addressed in Egyptian cinema. “The main challenge that faced me while writing such a different movie is to maintain high artistic sides and values and at the same time remain amusing for the audience so they do not easily get bored,” explains Dabbour, who is proud of the balance he achieved.

“What made me really proud that Photocopy won the best movie award at GFF [El Gouna International Film Festival] is that the other competing movies were all high-quality movies, GFF management truly created an amazing movie program. This is exactly what made it a precious award, to win while competing with strong movies,” says Dabbour

"Photocopy" was premiered at the first edition of GFF and won El-Gouna Golden Star Award for Best Arabic Feature Narrative Film. The movie was also screened at the fifth International Arab Cinema Meetings in Marseille on November 22.

"Photocopy" was shown as the closing film of the Arabian Cinema Week in New York City on November 23. Arabian Cinema Week was organized by Moviepigs, an online platform tailor-made to screen Middle Eastern films. The film was screened in the Cairo International Film Festival on Friday, November 24.