Both films are screened within the Wavelengths, one of the festival’s sections whose programme was released last week.

More films from the Toronto International Film Festival will be announced later on. 

Egyptian artist Wael Shawky’s Drama 1882 is a filmed rendition of an original musical play of the same name.

Directed, choreographed, and carrying music by Shawky, the theatre work's plot is set between 1879 and 1882 around Egypt’s nationalist Urabi revolution.

The work explores themes of colonialism and resistance and fuses narrative and dramatic components against the backdrop of history.

Drama 1882 is sung entirely in classical Arabic in eight chapters.

Drama 1882 had its world premiere at the 60th International Venice Art Biennale 2024.

Born in Alexandria, Shawky is a multidisciplinary artist involved in film, theatre, painting, drawing, and sculpture.

His interests often draw from historical tradition reimagined to fit contemporary culture. 

The second Egyptian film to be screened in Toronto is Mohamed Hamdy’s Perfumed with Mint (Moattar Binanaa) 

Just days prior to its screening in Toronto, the director's first feature-length work Perfumed with Mint will participate in the Film Critics’ Week at the 39th Venice International Film Festival (8 August-7 September).

Its screening at the Toronto Film Festival will mark the film's North American premiere.

Hamdy’s film tells the story of two friends tragically afflicted by the problem of survival, fantastically depicted through mint growing on  bodies. The film reflects on an entire generation haunted by doubts about the future, which generates a sense of fear that appears in the form of a contagious disease. 

"My story is a ghost story, but the ghost here is not a scary one that can penetrate walls; on the contrary, it can be as delicate as a mint leaf in a strange world that allows unbearable feelings to resurface and expose wounds," Hamdy commented in the film's promotional material.

Hamdy has been working as a cinematographer in several films, the most prominent being The Square (2013), which earned an Oscar nomination and won an Emmy.

Egyptian films featured in previous editions of the Toronto festival, including titles such as The Swimmers (2022) by Egyptian-Welsh director Sally El-Hosaini and Sheikh Jackson (2017) by director Amr Salama.

The Toronto festival also revealed other names of films by Arab filmmakers to be screened in the upcoming edition.

They are the Danish-Palestinian filmmaker Mahdi Fleifel’s film To a Land Unknown and the French-Tunisian-Moroccan film titled Sudan, Remember Us, by Hind Meddeb.

The 49th Toronto International Film Festival is set to run between 5 and 15 September.

The full official festival schedule will be released on 13 August.