Still from Naji Ismail's Om Amira
Aan Korb (“Close up”), the BBC Arabic Film and Documentary Festival co-organised with the British Council is set to take place in London from 31 October to 3 November.
This is the festival's first edition established to celebrate and highlight fictional and non-fictional visual storytelling from the Arab world.
Several Egyptian films were selected for the festival including Naji Ismail's documentary film, Om Amira, which is a portrait of a famous female street vendor in downtown Cairo who makes homemade potato wedges. Patience by journalist and filmmaker Abdo Farag is another Egyptian selection which documents a day in the life of one of Cairo's informal garbage collectors.
Reem Morsi's Their Feast, a short film on the return of a prisoner who was unjustly imprisoned by his family, will also be screened.
Other short films to be screened in the festival include Girl by Sondos Shabayek which captures moments of harassment faced by women in Egyptian streets. Omar Hamilton's award-winning film Though I Know the River is Dry shows the struggle of a Palestinian man who is torn between leaving for his son's future and staying behind to support his brother’s political activism.
Journalist and activist Ahmed El-Sheikh's Eyes of a Revolution, which showcases the stories of citizen journalists during Egypt's revolution, will also be screened.
Members of the judges panels which selected the films included Egyptian political and cultural commentator Ahdaf Soueif, among others such as film critic Kaleem Aftab, Yemeni-Scottish filmmaker Sara Ishaq and Maggie O'Kane of Guardian films.
Short link: