Egypt, Arabic - 80 min
Feature Narrative
TOTAL BUDGET
US $400,000
CONFIRMED FINANCING
US $160,000
(fees deferrals, investments, minimum guarantee)
CONFIRMED FINANCIAL PARTNER
-Fig Leaf Studios
-ArtKhane
-Film Clinic
CONTACTS
Mohamed Siam
m_siam2000@yahoo.com
+201221542531
Mark Lotfy
mark@figleafstudios.com
+201221172554
Mohamed Hefzy
mohefzy@hotmail.com
+201222155470
A father-son story, in which each discovers many secrets about the other while they both try to settle their scores during one long night.
Omar returns home to Alexandria from his long treatment in Cairo, far away from where his two sons live. His return coincides with the holy celebration of Eid Al Adha when sheep are sacrificed. This social tradition has a religious value as well as a visual impact. Everything contrasts between festivities, lavish traditions, and the expected worry and sadness from the small family. His younger son Amr is 18 and still lives in the family home. He feels alienated from his family and separated from their reality. He especially feels abandoned by and estranged from his distant father, who is almost 70 years old. Omar and Amr, the father and younger son, respectively, have a big age gap that complicates all communication and intimacy. They have huge differences and conflicts that are reflected in their basic daily interactions. Due to the unexpectedly rapid deterioration of the father's health, the father’s sudden departure for rehabilitation drops the family's responsibilities, combined with the dire financial situation on Amr’s young shoulders.
The father’s arrival forces Amr to relive the harsh memories, painful incidents, and major conflicts they experienced. A long, heated discussion eats up the night’s hours as their accumulated, unresolved issues and many secrets come to the surface. The son leaves his father at dawn, feeling victorious. He drives away in his father's car that still carries that odor of sickness and mortality mixed with his father’s cologne.
This film is about the image of the father, the role model that we seek but never find. The father figure that we all might have loved, feared, and even, despised. It is a film about this weird mix of feelings between which we all keep oscillating. It’s about the resentment we all feel toward authority figures. The resentment that’s conflated with the guilt we all carry most of our lives for breaking rules and going against the herd.
Feeling an aching, invisible weight on our shoulders, we all wonder if we should obey or rebel. We wonder if we should walk the paved easy way or become outcasts and forge our own paths. Growing up in a religious society, rules are omnipresent and sometimes they are all that our eyes could perceive. When this order is established through the chaos and lack of logic, we feel perplexed. Breaking the rules seems inevitable, even though its consequences can become unbearable. Going against rules — whether it’s done in a family, as part of a religion, a school, or in any other institutional setting — gives us the embedded, guilty feeling that we’re all sinners for breaking some sort of law. No matter how fair, rational, or even justified our actions may seem, it always comes back to haunt us for the rest of our life. It is about how we get rid of the odor - the harsh, painful part of our relationships - and how to keep its scent - the cherished memories that made us attached to that person.
The production team consists of internationally recognized and accomplished producers: Mohamed Hefzy (Film Clinic) and Mark Lotfy (Fig Leaf Studios). When Siam told us this story of the son and his father , we all felt fully connected to this intense film. We became more and more invested in it as time went by and as we started to advance in the collaboration.
This theme of a delayed confrontation doesn’t only touch on our personal stories, but it also connects with the delayed generational socio-political conflicts between our generations on a wider scope. We feel the same intense identification with the story, considering how we all are living in a patriarchal society.
One of the premises of the film is to show the underground, magical side of Alexandria city both as a deserted place and also as a "has been" metropolis that is somehow swarmed only by beach goers. Following our successful selection in El Gouna Film Festival, which was our first application, the team intends to devote their concerted efforts to fundraising and finalizing the writing process on another by developing structure, characters and dialogue besides the visual style.
We are looking for co-producers to widen the scope of our financial horizons, and to open different doors on other Arab, EU, and North American fronts. We're looking forward to closing our financial gap shortly in terms of our minimal budget, in order to shoot next year. We are also shortlisted in few funds to be announced soon.
Mohamed Siam - ArtKhana
2017: Amal by Mohamed Siam
2016: Whose Country? by Mohamed Siam
2011: A Leak by Mohamed Siam
2009: The City of the Dead by Sérgio Tréfaut
Mark Lofty - Fig Leaf Studios
TBD: The Missing Planet by Marouan Omara
TBD: I Can Hear Your Voice… Still by Sameh Alaa
2021: Captains of Za’atari by Ali El Arabi
2020: I Am Afraid to Forget Your Face by Sameh Alaa
2020: Souad by Ayten Amin
2019: Unaired Interview by Mohamed Salah
2018: Dream Away by Marouan Omara
Mohamed Hefzy - Film Clinic
2021: Feathers by Omar El Zohairy
2020: Souad by Ayten Amin
2019 : Luxor by Zeina Durra
2018: Yommedine by A.B. Shawky
2016: Ali The Goat and Ibrahim by Sherif El Bendary
2016: Clash by Mohamed Diab