Egyptian film Poisonous Roses will be screened at the 47th International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR).
The film, which is written and directed by Ahmed Fawzi Saleh, will be screened at the festival’s Bright Future section. The section follows the work of emerging film talent worldwide.
Poisonous Roses is Saleh’s first feature film. It stars Mahmoud Hemida and Merihan Magdi, and follows the life of Saqr, who seeks “to flee from the grubby Egyptian tanners’ district where he lives and works,” according to the IFFR description.
Among the dried skins and punch-drunk mules, a shaman silently watches from his improvised throne. He is to help Taheya with an occult solution in this intriguing, skittish portrait of poverty in today’s Egypt. The film shows phenomenal shots of the towering scaffolding of a glue factory, juxtaposed with moving scenes in which the everlasting love between brothers and sisters prevails.
A graduate from the Cairo Film Institute’s screenwriting department, Saleh is a screenwriter, filmmaker, and human rights activist.
Last year, another Egyptian film, Cactus Flower, Hala El-Koussy’s debut work, had its worldwide premiere at IFFR.
