Opening on 27 February and running for six days, the 9th Cairo International Women's Film Festival brings a vibrant selection of 60 films by female filmmakers from 40 countries.

The festival will open with Futatsume no Mado (Still The Water, 2014) a Japanese film directed by Naomi Kawase.

The story is set on the subtropical Japanese island of Amami-Oshima, where traditions surrounding nature remain eternal. When teenager Kaito discovers a dead body floating in the sea on the night of a full moon ritual dancing, he and his girlfriend Kyoko try to understand the mystery around it.

Screening with free admission at downtown’s Falaki Theatre, the film will be subtitled in Arabic and English.

This year, the festival will pay tribute to Egyptian-Lebanese documentary filmmaker Nabeeha Lofty, who passed away in June 2015, by hosting the Egyptian premiere of her film Li’ann al-guzur lan tamut (Because Roots Do Not Die-1977).

Another of the festival programme’s highlights is a dedication to distinguished Finnish filmmaker Pirjo Honkasalo, who will attend the festival, screening a selection of her outstanding works.

Denmark is to be this year’s Country in Focus, with a screening of films from the ‘Dogme 95’ movement, which appeared in Denmark in the 1990s.

This year’s guest festival is the Dortmund/Cologne International Women’s Film Festival, which will be screening two films from the festival’s past edition.

Furthermore, the festival will have two special sections- Dance and Cinema and Spanish Short films.

Launched in 2008, Cairo International Women's Film Festival aims to “introduce the best films created by women both from Egypt and around the world,” and also acts as “a meeting point for the audience and women filmmakers, both international and from the Arab world,” as stated on its website.

Check the festival's full programme below.

Programme:
Still the Water screens on Saturday 27 February at 7pm.
Falaki Theatre, American University in Cairo, Tahrir Square, Downtown, Cairo

The festival runs from 27 February to 3 March, with screenings at Falaki Theatre, Artistic Creativity Centre and Goethe Institute.

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