‘Ali, The Goat And Ibrahim,’ directed by Sherif El-Bindary and ‘In The Last Days of The City’ by Tamer Said were announced as the two Egyptian films to be screened at the first edition of Sharm El-Sheikh Arab and European Film festival in March.

The festival will run between 5 and 11 March and is headed by Samir Seif.

Artistic director of the festival Ahmed Hassouna said that both films will be premiering in Egypt after they had their world premieres at international festivals and garnered awards.

The festival is organised by the Noon Foundation for Culture and Arts (NOONCA).

Journalist Gamal Zayda, secretary-general of NOONCA, stressed in a report on Al-Ahram Arabic his keenness to present distinctive contemporary Egyptian films to the local and international audiences of the festival.

Ali, The Goat, And Ibrahim had its world premiere at DIFF alongside eight other Egyptian films.

Directed by Sherif El-Bendary, Ali, The Goat And Ibrahim was written by Ahmed Amer and is based on the story by Ibrahim El-Batout.

Ali, The Goat, And Ibrahim tells the story of a man who believes that his dead girlfriend has been reincarnated as a goat that he names Nada. At the healer’s clinic, Ali meets Ibrahim, and they are both diagnosed as being cursed.

When the healer prescribes a solution to break the spell, it sets them off on an adventure that takes them to the Mediterranean, the Red Sea and the Nile.

The film premiered at the 13th Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF), where Egyptian actor Ali Sobhy won the Muhr feature award for Best Actor.

Directed by Egyptian filmmaker Tamer El-Said,In the Last Days of the Citysees his alter-ego, actor Khalid Abdalla, star as a Cairo-based filmmaker strugging to make a film about the city, which is in a state of uproar. 

Also starring Laila Samy and Hanan Youssef, the shooting of the film began in 2008, taking the filmmakers to Cairo, Alexandria, Beirut, Baghdad and Berlin and bringing together many talents from the Arab world. 

The film premiered at the Berlinale, where it received the Caligari award, and later won the Grand Prix at the Polish MFF T-Mobile Nowe Horyzonty Film Festival in Wroclaw. 

It also won the Grand Prix and the Jury of Youth Best film Award at the Festival des 3 Continents in France, and also garnered the Best Narrative Feature Award at the Arab Film Festival in San Francisco. 

In October, the film was excluded from participating at the Cairo International Film Festival after it had been accepted, a decision the filmmakers tried to fight.

For more arts and culture news and updates, follow Ahram Online Arts and Culture on Twitter at @AhramOnlineArts and on Facebook at Ahram Online: Arts & Culture