‘Ketaba ala Thalg’ won Best Movie Award from MIFF

CAIRO – 1 April 2018: The film, “Ketaba ala Thalg” (Writing on Snow), won the Best Movie Award at the 10th edition of Muscat International Film Festival.

Famed Palestinian director Rashid Masharawi, who directed the film, received the award in the closing ceremony of the festival. The film is an attempt to deal with the ideological, political and geographic divisions in Palestine and the Arab world by portraying people who believe they know the truth and reject the idea of coexistence despite their differences.

These characters believe that coexistence would neutralize all segments of society by erasing different ideologies into one segment with one ideology – an ideology that would be the one most suitable for achieving their desired gains.

“Ketaba ala Thalg” stars actors from different Arab countries, such as famous Egyptian actor, Amr Waked; veteran Syrian actor, Ghassan Massoud; Palestinian actress, Areen Omari; Palestinian actor, Ramzi Maqdisi; Lebanese actress, Yomna Marwan, and others.
“Ketaba ala Thalg” was the opening movie of the 28th edition of Carthage International Film Festival that took place on November 4, 2017. The Muscat Film Festival that took place from March 26 -31, also featured the Egyptian documentary “Egyptian Jeanne d'Arc”.

"Egyptian Jeanne d'Arc" discussed the experiences of Egyptian women following the January 2011 revolution through their defiant art forms. In the film, the director Iman Kamel finds the diary of a fictional young Bedouin girl named Jehanne in the western deserts of Egypt. In the diary, Jehanne writes of wanting to break free from the restrictions of a male-dominated world and become a dancer. Kamel sets out to find Jehanne by connecting with several other female Egyptian artists.

“Egyptian Jeanne d'Arc” was nominated for the 2013 Arab-German Film Prize of the Robert Bosch Stiftung Foundation in Germany. The film was also presented at pitching and co-production forums such as Africa Produce (Spain), and the Amiens Screenplay Development Fund (France).