The first-ever Queen Sheba International Women's Festival opened last week in Sanaa in Yemen, with the participation of a number of Egyptian films. The festival features 66 films from 10 countries, including Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen, Mauritania, Algeria, Sudan, Lebanon, Syria, Palestine and Iraq, according to a statement from the Third Eye Foundation for Information and Development, the festival's media sponsor.
It runs from 15 to 25 March at Hekma University.
Ebtesam Hadiry, the director of the festival, stated that the 66 films include 20 from the Arab world who are guests of honour, and 21 Yemeni films from individuals or institutions concerned with women's issues.
Twenty-five films feature in the main competition.
Four Egyptian films are participating in the festival: Coming Forth By Day (Al-Khoroog Lel Nahar) by Hala Lotfy, A Present From the Past (Hedeya Men Al-Mady) by Kawthar Younes, Mohammad Saved from the Waters (Yango Men Al Maa) by Safaa Fathy, and two films by Nadia Kamel, The Green Mirage (El-Sarab El-Akhdar) and An Egyptian Salad (Salata Balady).
In Coming Forth by Day, Lotfy presents an intense study of a day in the life of an Egyptian family grappling with poverty and disease as a mother and her daughter care for an ill, immobile father.
A Present from the Past was shot by Younes on hidden cameras. It centres on her father, who is convinced by Younes to go to Italy to search for his former girlfriend. It is as much about the relationship between a daughter and a father, as it is an ode to the unfulfilled dream of a man to meet his old love.
In her documentary Mohammad Saved from the Waters, Fathy explores themes of the body, tradition, religion and family as she recounts the story of her brother Mohammad, who lived all his life along the banks of the Nile. The more polluted the water became, the sicker he became, until he died from a chronic kidney disease caused directly by environmental pollution.
The Green Mirage questions the idea of unlimited development, and looks at the rare case of the Tunisian village of Demmer in Gabes Oasis, where houses are still dug underground, and agriculture is blooming despite scare rainfall, providing an example for resource management.
In An Egyptian Salad Kamel documents the story of Mary Rosenthal, an Italian of Jewish descent who more than five decades ago converted to Islam and married an Egyptian Muslim, highlighting the taboos that shape Arab perceptions of Israelis and exploring the animosity between Arabs and Israelis. For more arts and culture news and updates, follow Ahram Online Arts and Culture on Twitter at @AhramOnlineArts and on Facebook at Ahram Online: Arts & Culture
