“Yomeddine” to be presented at Melbourne International Film Festival

CAIRO – 11 August 2018: Egyptian movie “Yomeddine” will be presented at the Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) on Aug. 12.

“Yomeddine” was competing for the Cannes Film Festival’s most prestigious award, the Palm d'Or award, which will be announced on Saturday. The official website of Cannes International Film Festival previously announced that the Egyptian feature is also nominated for the Golden Camera award, which is granted each year to the best first-time director at the festival.

The tragic comedy “Yomeddine” revolves around a leprosy patient who escapes from the hospital along with one of his friends in order to search for his family. “Yomeddine” is directed by Egyptian-Austrian director Abu Bakr Shawky, who became the first Egyptian to be invited to the main competition of the Cannes Film Festival.

The 71st Cannes Film Festival held a press conference with the Egyptian filmmakers of “Yomeddine” after its screening at the festival on May 9. The screening was attended by many international actors, including Julianne Moore, Louise Bourgoin and Kiko Mizuhara. All the attendees praised the movie’s construction and drama line, as well as the directing technique adopted by Shawky in his debut feature.

The first Egyptian movie participating in Cannes Film Festival’s main competition managed to grab the attention of all those who watched it. International media platforms were keen to put the spotlight on “Yomeddine”, writing extremely positive reviews about the movie, which presents an innovative mixture of tragedy, comedy, and condensed shots of emotions and sentiments.

In the same context, the Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) kicked off on Aug. 3, showcasing a wide variety of movies from all around the world, including the middle-east.

Situated in Melbourne, Australia, the MIFF is an annual event running since 1952, which is one of the oldest film festivals in the world. It presents both exceptional Australian talent and films from all across the world, bringing diversity and culture together under one roof.

Several of the films featured this year include Egyptian crime drama “The Nile Hilton Incident”, by Tarik Saleh, which follows corrupt cop Noredin Mustafa as he investigates the murder of a singer; Matthew Heineman's “City of Ghosts”, a harrowing documentary about a non-violent journalist group fighting IS through the internet; and Osamah Sami's “Ali's Wedding”, a romantic comedy about a young Muslim man who moves to Melbourne and gets in over his head in regards to love.