Zawya Brings A Selection of GFF's Most Awaited Films to Cairo

In celebration of El Gouna Film Festival’s upcoming 6th edition, and in an attempt to provide film connoisseurs, who can’t make it to Gouna, with a chance to view some of this year’s long-awaited films, Zawya has partnered up with GFF and will be screening a special selection of the festival’s films right here in Cairo.

Here are the films that will be screened from the 17th to the 23rd of December:

                    1. Anatomy of a Fall - Director: Justine Triet - Drama, Crime, Thriller - France

A story about family, suspicion and intrigue, Anatomy of a Fall revolves around a German writer, Sandra, her visually-impaired son, Daniel, and the mysterious death of her husband, Samuel.  Set in the French alps, the film tackles Sandra’s arrest for the murder, the subsequent murder trial and the doubt that settles in between mother and son.

2. The Echo - Director: Tatiana Huezo - Documentary - set in Mexico

The Echo imagines a village that exists outside of time’s reach, where children are predominantly preoccupied with caring for cattle and the town’s elders. While battling harsh environmental conditions, the children grapple with the topics of death, disease and love.

3. Machtat - Director: Sonia Ben Slama - Documentary - set in Tunisia

A Tunisian mother and her two daughters working as “machtat”, traditional wedding musicians, are the central figures in Machtat. Though their music highlights love and warmth, their pain-ridden reality provides a stark contrast to their hopeful art.

4. Kung-Fu Master! - Director: Agnès Varda - Drama, Romance - France

Fans of Agnès Varda will be thrilled by her newest cinematic collaboration with Jane Birkin, the creator of the story behind Kung-Fu Master! and its lead actress, which dives deep into the unique relationship between Birkin’s middle-aged character and a 14-year old gamer, played by Mathieu Demy, Varda’s real-life son.

5. A Strange Path - Director: Guto Parente - Drama - Brazil

Set during the pandemic years, A Strange Path focuses on a filmmaker’s estranged relationship with his father, and his hopes of a reconciliation. Yet, as they face several peculiar situations, the complicated nature of their relationship is exposed.

6. All To Play For - Director: Delphine Deloget - Drama - set in France

All to Play For illustrates a mother’s struggle to regain custody of one of her two children after an accident at home leaves him in foster care.

7. Whispers of Fire & Water - Director: Lubdhak Chatterjee - Drama - India

An audio installation artist’s work sends him to one of the largest coal-mining regions in India, where his efforts to find leads prove to be in vain, as his private life becomes entangled with the life inside the mines.

8. Totem - Director: Lila Avilés - Drama - set in Mexico

As a seven-year old girl helps organize a surprise party for her father at her grandfather’s home, the events of the day start to unravel and cracks start to form in the family’s relationships.

9. In Our Day - Director: Hong Sangsoo - Drama - South Korea

Hong Sangsoo’s impressive 30th cinematic endeavor jumps back and forth between two separate conversations, with one taking place between an actress and an amateur and the other involving an old poet and his fan. Throughout these discussions, the actress and poet side-step existential questions by playing games and eating food, which is only one of the factors that push viewers to think deeply about life and its importance.

10. If Only I Could Hibernate - Director: Zoljargal Purevdash - Drama - set in Mongolia

If Only I Could Hibernate delves into a poor teenage boy’s determination to win a physics competition, in order to secure a scholarship. However, his illiterate mother’s sudden need to move for work, leaves him and his siblings on their own over the winter.

11. The Hypnosis - Director: Ernst De Geer - Comedy, Drama - Norway/Sweden - Comedy, Drama

In The Hypnosis, a young entrepreneurial couple’s opportunity to pitch their female health app at a competition is derailed when the woman’s participation in a hypnotherapy session for quitting smoking leaves her acting out of character.

12. Youth (Spring) - Director: Wang Bing -  Documentary - set in China 

Filmed over a period of six years, esteemed Chinese director Wang Bing’s newest film Youth (Spring) aims to shed light on a group of garment factory workers’ challenging working conditions, following their move from rural areas, in the hopes of finding work in the vicinity of Shanghai. 

13. Goodbye Julia - Director: Mohamed Kordofani - Drama - set in Sudan 

The events of Goodbye Julia take place right before the secession of South Sudan, as a former Sudanese singer from the north inadvertently causes the death of a man from the south. Embarking on a journey of redemption, the woman employs the man’s unsuspecting widow as her maid.