“It’s a good time for Egyptian cinema,” says writer-director Mohamed Rashad. “It’s everywhere. It’s in Berlin. Some films were in Cannes and Venice. So it’s a good time for Egyptian cinema. Especially arthouse cinema.”
Rashad is one of several Egyptian filmmakers presenting works at this year’s prestigious Berlin International Film Festival, known as Berlinale. His tough-minded workplace drama The Settlement had its premiere this week in the Perspectives strand, a new €50,000 ($52,300) competitive section for international debut fiction features.
Alongside this, The Tale of Daye’s Family by Karin El-Shenawy screened in the Generation 14-plus line-up; while The Last Day, the debut short by Egyptian filmmaker Mahmoud Ibrahim, featured in Forum Expanded, a strand for more experimental fare.
East of Noon, directed by Hala Elkoussy, also opened Berlin Critics’ Week, a selection of films that runs parallel to the main festival. That film’s star, Fayza Shama, has also been selected as one of the Berlinale Talents, an initiative showcasing actors, directors and more from around the globe.
“I think we have a new generation of filmmakers,” Rashad tells The National when he sits down to discuss his film in the Potsdamer Platz’s plush Hyatt Hotel. It’s hard to disagree. Take a walk to the EFM, the European Film Market, based nearby and there’s even a poster reminding us that Eagles of the Republic by Tarik Saleh is in production. The $10 million political thriller, starring Fares Fares, is the third in Saleh’s Cairo trilogy following The Nile Hilton Incident and Boy From Heaven, which had its premiere in Cannes in 2022.
Ask Rashad why he feels this new generation of Egyptian filmmakers is suddenly making waves in the world of cinema, and he answers simply: “They want to express themselves more.”
In his case, The Settlement is a film that deals both with the personal and the political. Set in an industrial corner of Alexandria, the primary setting is a steel factory. The twenty-something Hossam (Adham Shukr), a former drug dealer, is offered a job as some sort of twisted compensation after his father perished there in an accident.
Joining Hossam is his 12-year-old brother Maro (Ziad Islam), who is also desperate to avenge their father’s death. With murder in mind, there path is heading towards self-destruction. “I’m interested in what’s going on in families, the relationships between family members,” says Rashad. “Not just Hossam and his father, but also Hossam and Maro. He feels like he’s a father to him. So this relationship to me is very interesting. What you expect from your father, what your father expects from you.”
Rashad’s 2016 documentary Little Eagles went along similar lines, detailing his relationship with his father, as he tries to pursue his own dreams of becoming a filmmaker. “I felt that we’re not satisfied with each other,” he explains. “He wasn’t satisfied with me. But at some point, we managed to have a good relationship. Actually my sister, after the screening of the film, was crying and she told me: ‘I felt that your relationship with our father got better. And after watching the film I know why.’”
While The Settlement deals with issues of family first and foremost, it also has a political dimension to it, says Rashad. The film explores the dangers of capitalism, in a society where the interests “of the powerful” often override all else.
In this case, safety laws in Egyptian factories aren’t always adhered to when there are profits to be made. “It’s all about capitalism,” he says. “Safety costs.” Is his film a critique of Egyptian society? “For sure, it’s a criticism,” he says. The new generation of Egyptian cinema starts here.
