Directed by Morad Mostafa
2020 | Egypt, Sudan | Drama | Arabic | 24 min

"Halima", a Sudanese henna painter living in Egypt. She goes to one of Giza's local areas to

prepare a bride for her wedding and her 7 years old daughter "Ward" accompanies her and

starts to wander around and discover the place.

Lists of awards/recognitions:

Premiere at Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival 202

Winner - Palm Springs International ShortFest 2020 Special Jury Award Best Live-Action Short Over 15 Minutes

Nominee - Stockholm Film Festival 2020 Bronze Horse Best Short Film

Nominee  - London Film Festival 2020Short Film Award Best Short Film

How to watch:

Registeration is required due to limited access to the films.

All registrants will receive a link and password to access the film on the first day of the screening.

If you register during the screening period, you will recieve the link and password by 5 pm on the same day. If you register after 5 pm, you will recieve the link the next day by noon.

Director’s bio:
Morad is an Egyptian Director, born in 1988 in Cairo. He studied Film directing in “Cinema Palace” in 2008 and other filmmaking workshops. He works in the filmmaking industry since 2010 as an assistant director with several directors as “Mohamed Diab”, “Hala Khalil” in Nawara, and “Sherif Elbendary” in “Ali the Goat and Ibrahim”, he directed his first short film “Ward’s Henna Party” in 2019-World Premiere at Clermont Ferrand 2020.

Additional Info:

CREW

Director - Morad Mostafa

Writer - Morad Mostafa, Mohamed Ali Mansour

Producer - Morad Mostafa

Production company - Bonanza Films

DOP - Zezo

Editor - Mohamed Mamdouh

Art Director - Adham ElHelaly

Costume Design - Gehad Usama

Sound Designer - Ahmad ElSawy

Sound Recorder & Mixer - Moustafa Shaaban

Colorist - Mahmoud Essam

Coproducer - Sherif Fathy

Executive Producers - Sawsan Yusuf

Line Producer - Ahmed Hussien

Production Manager - Mohammed Mekki

CAST

Halima - Halima

Ward - Ward

Amal Salah - Basma’s Mother

Marina Victor - Basma

Hagar Mahmoud - Mona

Emad Goniem - Hassan

PRODUCTION

Morad Mostafa

Bonanza Films

About the series:
Blessed Be the Searchers: A Quest for Life Itself
Past this year of thirst and avidity, here come the searchers! Blessed be the searchers! Blessed be the searchers who touch the ground with their feet and surrender their eyes to the light of the lives that dance before them, leaving behind them a quest of quests that leaves all seeking unto themselves. The contemporary Arab film programme makes a voracious return with heightened senses and a programme of films brought together by the act of searching together. Bolstered by the textures of bodies and spaces and shared through lived experiences, the films in this programme breathe full colour back into the big screen. This is a programme of searchers, of their heartbroken hunt for answers, of their obsession with victory, of their carving of names onto the face of the world, and of their moments of respite. Following a year lived in extremity, sparseness, and excess comes this programme to life: dancing, crying, and rebelling, all in stillness and noise, and not unlike life itself. Blessed be the searchers: the leopard hunters, the football champions, the artists, the lovers, and forever the dancers. Blessed be the searchers who come together to live.