Entertainment

Director of The Colony Before Its Premiere in Berlin: It Took 5 Years and I Was Able to Achieve My Ambitions

By Sama Marwan,

Director of The Colony Before Its Premiere in Berlin: It Took 5 Years and I Was Able to Achieve My Ambitions

The 75th edition of the Berlin International Film Festival, which will take place from February 13 to 23, has announced that the Egyptian film The Colony, directed by Mohamed Rashad, will compete in the newly introduced “Perspectives” section. This section hosts debut feature films by young filmmakers, and The Colony is the only Arab film in the competition.

The Colony returns to Berlin after receiving funding from the Berlin International Film Festival’s World Cinema Fund in 2022. The film is inspired by true events about two brothers – Hossam (23 years old) and Maro (12 years old) – living in a marginalized community in Alexandria. After their father dies in a work-related accident, the local factory offers them jobs as compensation rather than pursuing legal action. As they take on their new roles, they begin to question whether their father’s death was truly accidental.

Director Mohamed Rashad explained that the film took five years to complete, saying, “I was able to achieve my ambitions, such as casting relatively unknown actors and involving real workers in key roles and groups. The film was shot on real locations, with scenes filmed in Alexandria that closely matched what I had imagined, as well as the industrial atmosphere that I find artistically rich.” He added, “Having the film screened at such an important festival and competing in a new section indicates that, as a team, we have achieved our vision.”

The film stars emerging talents Adham Shoukry, Ziad Islam, Hagar Omar, Mohamed Abdel Hady, and Emad Ghoniem. The director of photography is Mahmoud Lotfy, with editing by Hiba Osman, known for her work on the famous Sudanese film Goodbye Julia. The film is a co-production between Egypt, France, Germany, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar. In addition to support from the Berlin International Film Festival’s World Cinema Fund, the project received backing from prestigious international funding bodies, including the Hubert Bals Fund’s Script and Development Initiative, the Hubert Bals Plus Minorities Support Initiative, the Doha Film Institute, the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture, the Red Sea Development Fund, the Francophonie Image Fund, and the CineGouna Fund of the El Gouna Film Festival.

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Back to top button