The Malmo Arab Film Festival announced the list of Egyptian films participating in the festival’s 9th edition, taking place from October 4th to 8th.
Egyptian cinema will have a strong presence with seven feature films and three short films in the various festival programs.
In the feature film competition, two films will be screened: Ahmad Abdulla El Sayed’s EXT. Night and Hadi El-Bagoury’s The Guest, while the feature documentary competition will include both Kilo 64 by Amir El-Shenawy and The Profession by Ramez Youssef. Three Egyptian films will take part in the short film competition: Eyebrows by Tamer Ashry, Fork & Knife by Adam Abd El Ghaffar and Extra Safe by Nouran Sherif.
In the non-competitive sections, Marwan Hamed’s Diamond Dust is screened in the Arabian Nights section. The festival organizes a special evening featuring Abu Bakr Shawky’s Yommedine, as well as a morning family screening of The Knight and The Princess by Bashir El Dik, in its international premiere.
“Since the establishment of the festival in 2011, Egyptian cinema has been very present every year, and it is a logical thing because you cannot organize an Arab cinema festival without presenting the very best in the oldest and largest Arab cinema industry,” said Mouhamad Keblawi, founder and president of Malmö festival. “Last year, Egypt was the festival’s guest of honour. In the 9th edition, the Egyptian presence will continue through a showcase of carefully selected films to shed light on the various aspects of modern Egyptian cinema.”
“We are delighted to participate in one of the largest Arab film events in Europe, in the midst of a series of the most important Arab films recently released, Which we trust to have been carefully chosen to reflect some of the latest contemporary cinema trends in the region for both European and Arab audience,” said Ahmad Abdulla El Sayed, director of EXT. Night
“Malmö Festival has become the largest Arab specialized film festival taking place outside the Arab world. All the team is very excited about screening the film in Malmö and meeting the audience of the city” said Abu Bakr Shawky, director of Yommedine, which competed last year at Cannes’ International Competition.
Malmö Arab Film Festival is the largest and most famous Arab film festival in Europe and the only one in the Scandinavian countries. Since its founding in 2011, MAFF took major steps towards offering a panoramic view of the Arab social and political situation and conducting constructive dialogues for both professionals and the public. The festival’s goal is to build bridges between cultures based on the film as a universal visual language, capable of imitating the diversity of human dimension.
Based on the remarkable development, MAFF launched the first edition of its market forum during its fifth edition in 2015, as a co-production platform. Since its establishment, the MAFF market forum helped a large number of Arab film projects creating productive partnerships with the Nordic countries.
