Cairo on the screen

An award-winning Egyptian film brilliantly succeeded in telling the story of this region

A handout movie still showing Khalid Abdalla in Akher ayam el madina | In the Last Days of the City by Tamer El Said (Courtesy: Zero Production)

Art is often born from chaos, and Egyptian filmmaker Tamer El Said's attempt to capture the soul of Cairo on film underlines this point. His film Akher Ayam El Madina, or In the Last Days of the City, was awarded this year's Caligari Film Prize at the Forum segment of the Berlin International Film Festival. It was also nominated for the Best First Feature Award.

Film is an ideal medium to tell the stories of transformation that have shaped this region for the past five years. At this year’s Berlin film festival, as The National reported last week, Arab films are creating a buzz with powerful portraits of a region grappling with challenges.

With the continued refugee crisis in Europe and the fallout of Syria’s civil war, we can expect more films and young filmmakers to use the medium to come to terms with the changing complexion of society in the Arab world. It would seem that there is no better way to tell the story of this region to the world.