Abu Bakr Shawky is an Egyptian-Austrian writer and director who studied film at the New York University Tisch School of the Arts and Egypt’s High Institute of Cinema. His works include the short films El Mosta'mara (09), The Road to Atalia (10), Martyr Friday (11), and Things I Heard on Wednesdays (12), and the features 30/30 Vision: 3 Decades of Strand Releasing (10) and Yomeddine (18). Hajjan (23) his latest film will be premiered at TIFF. Read More

synopsis

Beshay – a man cured of leprosy – has never left the leper colony in the Egyptian desert where he has lived since childhood. Following the death of his wife, he finally decides to go in search of his roots. With his meager possessions strapped to a donkey cart, he sets out. Quickly joined by Obama, the Nubian orphan he has taken under his wings, Beshay will cross Egypt and confront the world with all its sorrows, its hardships and moments of grace, in his quest for a family, a place to belong, a little humanity… Read More

Highlights

Cannes Film Festival, France

Egyptian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 91st Academy Awards, USA