El Gouna: The Verdict
Taking place just two months after the onset of the horrendous war in Gaza, the El Gouna Film Festival’s ‘Special Edition’ was a sober but not gloomy affair that paid its respects to the Palestinian people and their cinema.
El Gouna 2023
El Gouna 2023: The Awards
The El Gouna Film Festival awards this year included ’Goodbye, Julia’, a Sudanese film by Mohamed Kordofani about two women divided by their cultures, which won the Cinema for Humanity Audience Award, while Egyptian director Ibrahim Nash’at’s ‘Hollywoodgate’ won as best documentary and Hong Sang-soo’s latest ‘In Our Day’ got the best narrative nod.
Egyptian star Yousra talks to Marianne Khoury
Two of El Gouna Film Festival’s leading ladies discussed Yousra’s film career in a special masterclass.
El Gouna Egyptian Shorts: Local Stories Impress
Egyptian filmmakers stand out in El Gouna’s official Short Film Competition.
Family Portrait
Director Lucy Kerr’s feature debut ‘Family Drama’ is slender and elusive, but highly atmospheric and hauntingly strange.
Zinet, Algiers, Happiness
A delightful Algerian documentary about cinema and the Casbah makes a superb companion piece to the newly-restored 35mm print of ‘Tahia Ya Didou’ by cult comic and director Mohamed Zinet.
A Window on Palestine at El Gouna
In a time of war, El Gouna’s special 2023 edition presents an insightful collection of recent films from Palestine, curated with the Palestine Cinema Days.
The Teacher
Gaining extra urgency in the light of current events, British-Palestinian director Farah Nabulsi’s debut feature ‘The Teacher’ is a well-intentioned but flawed drama set in the occupied West Bank
Seven Winters in Tehran
The cruel and gripping story of Reyhaneh Jabbari, a 19-year-old Iranian woman convicted of murdering a man who attempted to rape her, unfolds like a thriller in Steffi Niederzoll’s documentary recreation, ‘Seven Winters in Tehran’.
From Abdul to Leila
French-Iraqi director Leila Albayaty explores her own complex cultural roots, painful family tensions and buried traumatic memories in her emotionally raw docu-musical ‘From Abdul to Leila’.
Marwan Hamed: Industry First!
Marwan Hamed’s work cannot be separated from the industry aspects of his successful film career.
Dreaming & Dying
Magical realism and Far East ghost stories inject a thrilling, if not always crystal clear, element into Nelson Yeo’s fishy tale of an overage and not completely human love triangle, ‘Dreaming & Dying’.
Ahmed Shawky discusses FIPRESCI, diversity, and post Arab Spring cinema
FIPRESCI President and head of CineGouna SpringBoard Ahmed Shawky aspires for more diversity in film circles and more freedom for Arab narratives.
Marianne Khoury and Intishal Al-Timimi Negotiate El Gouna’s Special Edition
“Art should not be sacrificed during wars”: El Gouna’s Intishal Al Timimi and Marianne Khoury tell TFV
How to Have Sex
A timely coming-of-age drama about young women dealing with the complexities of sexual consent, writer-director Molly Manning Walker’s prize-winning debut feature ‘How to Have Sex’ is impressively nuanced and emotionally rich.
A “Special Edition” of El Gouna Film Festival 2023
Festival confirms dates will be December 14 – 21.