About the Film
Rarely do film festivals screen films that are truly "family-friendly"; films that can be enjoyed by all members of the family regardless of age or background. This year, El Gouna Film Festival is bringing one of those few exceptions, featuring a film by the animation artist Enzo D'Alò.
Remarkably a true European film, A Greyhound of a Girl is directed by an Italian filmmaker, based on a novel by the Irish writer Roddy Doyle, and produced by seven companies from different European countries. These companies came together with the aim of presenting a story that transcends nationalities and cultures, a story that, with its extreme simplicity and its relevance to the lives of children everywhere, is sure to capture the attention of all.
Mary is a young girl who lives in Ireland with her family. However, the person closest to her heart is her grandmother, who supports the girl's dream of becoming a professional chef. She teaches her the classic recipes that no one in the modern world cares about anymore, hoping that Mary will preserve the heritage of her country's cuisine. She tries to show off her talents in a competition that reminds us of the famous Pixar film Ratatouille.
Soon, we discover that the world of cooking is just an entrance to Mary's world and her relationships with those around her, most notably her grandmother, who becomes the center of the story when she is taken to the hospital.
Mary realizes that her grandmother is living her last days, and the film begins its main journey: the discovery of the concept of death by a young girl, and how she deals for the first time with the experience of losing a loved one.
A mysterious woman appears and befriends Mary, helping her to overcome the crisis. Her mother thinks she is an imaginary friend, before we discover with her that the woman is the ghost of her grandmother's mother, who has come to pave the way for a transition from the world of the living to eternity. In a journey of a unique kind, four women, representing four generations of the same family, embark on a final journey, the strangest thing about which is not that one of its members is a ghost.
Ahmed Shawky
