Cairo Cinema Days to kickoff in May

CAIRO – 17 April 2018: "Cairo Cinema Days", Zawya's showcasing of Arab cinema, will run from May until May 16th. Around 40 films of short and feature length will be shown at the event, highlighting the best work of the past two years.

"Cairo Cinema Days" allows for audiences in Egypt to better connect and absorb cinema from parts of the Arab world such as Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Jordan, Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria and finally some local films from Egypt too. The festival gives a chance for these films, which had a mostly limited distribution, to reach a wider audience.

Alongside screenings, events such as panels, workshops and Q&A sessions with certain filmmakers will also be held, and historical films from classical Arab cinema will also be shown.

Here's a small selection of what "Cairo Cinema Days" is offering:

Suicidal Notions – 2016, Egypt, Directed by Eman El Haggar

Marwa has just lost her mother. As if that wasn't enough, she learns that her mother's last wishes were to be buried somewhere else, which results in Marwa's aunt asking Marwa at the last minute to rebury her. Torn between fulfilling her aunt's wishes and leaving Egypt for good, something goes wrong with the plan to relocate Marwa's mother, leaving her stuck in Tahrir Square with the coffin just a few hours before the 2011 revolution breaks out.

The Beach House – 2016, Lebanon, Directed by Roy Dib

Four people spend the night in the titular Beach House, a concrete work of art by famed Iraqi architect Refaat Chaderji. They spend the evening discussing amongst each other the failures of the generation before them, shattered hopes, dreams, ideologies and causes, and the chaos of their daily lives.

Zaineb Hates the Snow – 2016, Tunisia, Directed by Kaouther Ben Hania



This documentary takes place in 2009, and explores a young Tunisian girl named Zainab who loses both her father and younger brother in a car accident. Her mother plans to rebuild their lives after meeting a new man in Canada, though there's one big issue; Zainab hates the snow.

Volubilis – 2017, Morocco, Directed by Faouzi Bensaidi

In Morocco's city of Meknes, newlyweds Abdelkader and Malika are madly in love. However, they struggle to make a living and earn enough for their own home together. Worse still, Abdelkader one day gets violently humiliated during his job as a security guard, which begins a chain of events that threaten to ruin their lives.