While the two elements of international film festivals most people focus on are the appearance of celebrities and the participating films, a few cease the opportunity of the event to chase their dreams and have their written scripts become real films—an aspect that Tayarah workshop aimed to achieve in El-Gouna Film Festival.
Tayarah is a creative production media hub based in Egypt. With its short online videos, its team aims to inspire, educate, and entertain. By organising a workshop in the first edition of El-Gouna Film Festival, Tayarah aimed to provide an opportunity to the participating young filmmakers, who have ready scripts and in need for production, with the budget, equipment, and both pre- and post-production requirements in order to come up with a film that is capable of competing in other film festivals.
With a jury that consists of superstar Hend Sabry; young director Amr Salama; talented script writer Tamer Habib; Tayarah’s Managing Editor, Mohammed EL-Bassiouni; and head of products and services of Vodafone Egypt, Yousr Taher, five final scripts were picked out of more than seven hundred applicants who applied in 10 days.
The workshop started with a discussion led by Ramez Youssef, co-founder of Tayarah and the jury, in which they talked about the requirements of producing films in the current financial crisis, Egypt’s progress in producing online productions, and the differences between different screening portals regarding the idea, shooting, and directing.
The scripts finally selected competed over the first place, where Tayarah will produce the film, the second place with the award of EGP 10,000, and the third place with a prize of EGP 5,000.
The first place went to film “Shouka We Sekina” (Fork and Knife) for fledgling writer and director Adam Abdel Ghafar. In his film, Abdel Ghafar tackles the relationship between married couples as a fork and knife, each in need for the other to be completed and to perform well.
By portraying Salma and Khaled, a young elite married couple who tied the knot based on a rational decision as their social levels match, the script describes Salma when years later she feels trapped in living with a man she does not love.
While she’s out for a dinner once, she meets a total stranger who appears to be a womeniser and flirts with her. They end up having dinner together where both share the details of their lives. That’s when Salma states for the first time that she misses her previous boyfriend, and he admits that he’s married, but he can’t stop cheating on his wife.
The second place went to “Fe’l Fadeh” (Inappropriate Behaviour), a film by young director Khaled Khella. In his films, Khella features the problems of young people belonging to the working class.
The film tells the story of a couple who want to kiss each other in Egypt, and they go on a journey of several places to find one where no one interferes with their decision or prevents them from doing so. From Cairo’s narrow, empty alleys to abandoned apartments, the film features how basic human needs and decisions are hard to apply in Egypt.
The third place went to “Cinderella” by director Youssef Nasser. In a fictional film, Nasser readjusts the fairy tale of Princess Cinderella, imagining that, instead of losing her shoe while running to catch her curfew, the mansion’s guards in the film actually catch her by one leg. However, they are shocked that she has an artificial limb.
While rumours of the prince looking for the girl with the artificial limb in town go viral, families start forcing their daughters into cutting one of their legs, aiming to match what the prince is looking for. The film features social ignorance and its influence in harming one’s self.
