Films in shooting or post-production
AISHA CAN'T FLY AWAY
Synopsis
Aisha, a 26-year-old Sudanese woman, lives and works in Ain Shams, a neighborhood in Cairo where a large African migrant community lives. The indifference of the authorities toward the tension and violence between Egyptians and inhabitants of various other African nationalities has allowed gangs to seize control of the neighborhood. The situation quickly turns sour after one of them offers Aisha security in exchange for a favor.
Mostafa Elkashef
Mohamed Mamdouh
Buliana Simon, Ziad Zaza, Emad Ghoniem, Mamdouh Saleh
Partners attached
Ahmed Amer, Amjad Abu Al Alaa, Shahinaz el Akkad, May Ouda
Director’s statement
I started thinking about this film a while ago, reflecting on moments stuck in my memory when I was riding a microbus. I was visiting the neighborhood and I noticed an African woman with a tired face, resting her head on the window and sleeping next to me. Suddenly, she woke up, frightened, and started crying uncontrollably. This startled the other passengers as well as me. Then, she left without any explanation. That triggered this project. The woman and that moment remained in my mind for days as I tried to penetrate her mind, wondering about her dreams and nightmares that had merged with the real world in a city that is cruel to its own people, let alone newcomers.
Biographies
Morad Mostafa, born in Cairo in 1988, has worked on several independent films and collaborated as an executive assistant director on Ayten Amin’s Souad (2020), which was presented at the Festival de Cannes and in the Panorama section of the Berlinale. Mostafa is an alum of Berlinale Talents, Durban Talents, and the Locarno Academy. He wrote and directed three short films that were selected for the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival, and that went on to screen at more than 300 festivals worldwide, winning several awards. His recent short film, I Promise You Paradise (2023), was selected for La Semaine de la Critique at Cannes and was nominated for a César Award.
Egyptian producer Sawsan Yusuf holds a degree in drama and criticism from Ain Shams University, is an alum of the Rotterdam Lab and EAVE’s Creative Producer Indaba, and participated in the Producers Network in the Marché du Film at the Festival de Cannes. Starting her career in 2009 as a coordinator for several festivals and film markets in the Middle East, she also worked as a line producer. In 2019, she established Bonanza Films and produced her first short film, Morad Mostafa’s Henet Ward (2020), which premiered in competition at the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival and won 25 prizes worldwide; followed by Khadiga (2021) and I Promise You Paradise (2023), which participated in La Semaine de la Critique at Cannes.
