Morad Mostafa:Over 300 festival appearances, among them Clermont-Ferrand, Locarno, and Cannes, as well as numerous awards – Egyptian filmmaker Morad Mostafa, born 1988, has come a long way since he shot his first film at age 15 with a friend’s video camera. In the years that followed, he learned the craft of filmmaking from scratch, attending workshops and taking on various roles in productions. In 2019, he made his first professional short film, «Henet Ward», about a Sudanese henna painter who is tasked with adorning an Egyptian bride for her wedding. The fast rhythm of the wedding preparations with polyphonic conversations, singing, and dancing is counterpointed by intimate scenes between the henna artist and the bride. In his two later films «Kadhiga» (2021) and «I Promise You Paradise» (2023) Mostafa slows the pace, relying entirely on the power of the images. In «Kadhiga», the camera stays close to the protagonist, a mother who lives alone with her baby in Cairo while her husband has found a job far away. «I Promise You Paradise» tells the story of 17-year-old immigrant Eissa, who is under enormous time pressure to prevent his daughter and her mother from being separated. The filmmaker works with minimal dialogue and images that are often reminiscent of paintings. In addition to these three shorts by Morad Mostafa, the programme features a film he selected: «I Am Afraid to Forget Your Face» by his colleague Sameh Alaa also uses very few words to tell a story of love, loss, and grief. In conversation, Mostafa will hopefully tell us why he chose this film.
Curated by Laura Walde and Senta van de Weetering
Mit freundlicher Unterstützung von: 
