Egyptian director Kamla Abouzekri’s Yom Lel Setat (A Day for Women) will open the 38th Cairo International Film Festival, scheduled to run between 15 and 24 November, according to a press release issued by the festival on 5 August.
The film, which will also participate in the festival’s official competition, is produced by Egyptian actress Ilham Shahin who also stars in the film, and is scripted by Hanaa Attia.
A Day for Women also stars Nelly Karim, Mahmoud Hemeda, Farouk El-Fishawy, Ahmed El-Fishawy, Nahed El-Sebaei, Ahmed Daoud, Eyad Nasser, and Hala Sedky.
The film, which brings Abouzekri back to the silver screen after a seven-year hiatus since her last film Wahed-Sefr (One-Zero), takes place in a working class quarter whose youth centre “allocates a women-only pool day and traces the repercussions of such a decision on the social, psychological and private lives of these women,” reads the press release.
Abouzekri's repertoire comprises the films Sana Oula Nasb (First Year Con-2004), Aan El-Eshq Wal Hawa (Abou Love and Passion-2006), Malak Wa Ketaba (Heads and Tails-2006), and the TV drama series Bent Esmaha Zaat (A Girl Called Zaat-2013) and Segn El-Nesa (Women’s Prison-2014).
The 38th CIFF is headed by Magda Wassef, with Youssef Cherif Rizkallah as its artistic director, and Mahmoud Hemeda as its honorary president.
Shakespeare will be this edition’s "special guest," with screenings of local and international films either inspired by the playwright's dramaturgy or that are cinematic adaptations of his plays.
The committee responsible for film selection was announced in May and comprises a number of prominent Egyptian critics, including Essam Zakaria, Magdi Tayeb, Magda Khairallah, Magda Morris, Hanan Abu Diaa, Khaled Mahmud, Amal El-Gamal, Mohammed Atef, Nihad Ibrahim, Andrew Mohsen, Safa Laithi and Mahmoud El-Ghitani.
The festival’s advisory committee includes actress Yousra, lawyer Mona Zulficar, screenwriter and producer Mohamed Hefzy, scriptwriter Mariam Naoum, director Mohamed Diab, director Mohamed Qaliouby, and critic Tarek El Shennawy.
In July, Magda Wassef announced in a press release that five halls would screen the festival’s films this year-- three in Odeon Cinema and two halls in Cinema Karim.
With Cairo Opera House’s five screening halls, the total number of screening rooms will be 10, expanding the festival’s audience capacity.
This decision comes four years after the festival halted screenings in Downtown Cairo for security reasons and has since been confined to screening films within the Cairo Opera House grounds.
