Aida El-Kashef

Much to everyone's surprise, Aliya pulls a runner and escapes from her own wedding ceremony. The decision heralds another one to live independently from her family in her own house, kickstarting her personal journey in life.

Moderation, set in Egypt, Greece and Italy, revolves around a female horror director (Maya Lubinsky) and a screenwriter (Anna De Filippi), whose latest collaboration is haunted by encounters with its 'raw material' and the escalation of conflicting desires. Faced with the disintegration of their project, the director becomes more and more drawn into conversations with the actors she has cast (Aida El Kashef, Michele Valley and Giovanni Lombardo Radice), which reflect on the way horror traverses the affective and material realities of their lives on and off screen.

4.5/10

When 24-year-old Hend Nafea is arrested and tortured for demonstrating peacefully in Cairo's Tahrir Square, her pursuit of justice reflects post-revolution Egypt at an uncertain crossroads.

7.4/10

The Square, a new film by Jehane Noujaim (Control Room; Rafea: Solar Mama), looks at the hard realities faced day-to-day by people working to build Egypt’s new democracy. Catapulting us into the action spread across 2011 and 2012, the film provides a kaleidoscopic, visceral experience of the struggle. Cairo’s Tahrir Square is the heart and soul of the film, which follows several young activists. Armed with values, determination, music, humor, an abundance of social media, and sheer obstinacy, they know that the thorny path to democracy only began with Hosni Mubarek’s fall. The life-and-death struggle between the people and the power of the state is still playing out.

8.1/10
10%

This first feature film from Indian playwright Anand Gandhi, tells three stories about persons forced to think about the ethics and moral issues raised by medical advances: a visually impaired Egyptian photographer, who after a cornea transplant has trouble adjusting to her newfound sense of sight; a devout Indian monk fighting against animal testing, who has to confront his beliefs when he is diagnosed with liver cirrhosis; and an Indian stockbroker, who after having a kidney transplant learns about the illegal trade in stolen organs and decides to help a poor victim of such theft - even though it means travelling all the way from India to Sweden. The film was first shown at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival, where it received great critical acclaim and was touted as "the hidden gem of the year". It was released in India in July 2013, and was awarded Best Feature Film of 2013 at the Indian National Film Awards in 2014.

8/10
10%

The story of a prostitute "Mona Farkha" through a meeting with the director and the scenarist of the movie who don't know anything about her world.

7.6/10

8 characters skew lifelines that never really intersect in the suburb of Heliopolis in Cairo within a frame of time of 24 hours all in a very stagnant state and never achieving goals.

6.5/10

Shawky, a man in his sixties, decides one day to enjoy his life as he pleases, no matter the consequences.

6.9/10