Burnus made this 30-minute documentary just over a year ago during her artistic residency at Darb 1718, supported by the Pascal Decroos grant, a programme that funds investigative journalism.
The project stems from a personal experience, as she herself lived in Egypt for some time following a romantic relationship, marked by the ups and downs of a love shaped by a complex reality.
"I could travel back and forth, but he didn’t have that freedom," she recounts in an article for Brussels Morning. This fact led her to explore relationships between Western women and Egyptian men.
Rather than relying on simplistic romanticism or disappointed expectations, her work explores partnership in relationships, migration from North to South, and the foundations of bicultural families.
Using a small, discreet camera, the director follows four women in their intimate lives in Cairo: a young French woman exploring the beginnings of a relationship with an Egyptian man; two mothers, one German and one Belgian, who have built their lives with Egyptian partners; and a divorced British retiree continuing her life alone in Cairo.
Burnus deliberately approaches cross-cultural love through varied profiles. Whether in their twenties or retired, converted to Islam or not, married or divorced, these intersecting experiences confront the viewer with plural identities.
Through a close, observational style, the camera follows these women in their daily lives and intimate family moments.
At the same time, the film subtly portrays a city in transformation. During a visit to a compound, described as “one face of Egypt,” one family quickly experiences disillusionment when confronted with the gap between two worlds: a dense, complex Egyptian culture versus a sanitized version of Egypt.
The relationship to modernity and freedom is highlighted through differing viewpoints.
"Any girl takes a risk if she chooses something other than starting a family," says one Egyptian woman, prompting laughter from the audience at the clichés. Meanwhile, a Western acquaintance of one of the protagonists remarks, "Insurance in Germany is worth more than a husband in Egypt."
Since the women settled in Egypt at different times and under varying political and socioeconomic conditions, the film could have gone further exploring how shifting societal contexts shape their relationship not to one Egypt, but to multiple, contrasting "Egypts."
Complex questions
How do you communicate without a shared language? Within which value system do these women choose to define themselves? What values do they want to pass on to their children?
The film provokes audience reactions that reflect a need to question identity in a bicultural context. One example is the testimony of a non-practising Italian woman married to a very religious husband. "When I look at my son’s innocence, I wonder on what basis his identity will be built," she comments.
Anke, a Flemish Belgian who built her family in Egypt, explains that she converted to Islam as an individual even before marrying her husband and chose to wear the veil after completing her studies.
Beyond spoken testimonies, the camera deepens the protagonists’ identities through powerful and sometimes controversial scenes, such as a Belgian mother reciting prayers with her children in bed.
The theme of integration emerges as the women share a need to let go of their past, question what they were taught, and embrace the chance to learn more.
Jo, a retiree who has lived in Egypt for 50 years, says she still feels like "the foreigner." She also describes feeling "invisible" in England, both as an individual and as an elderly person pushed to the margins, highlighting a sense of loneliness in British society.
The notion of the "foreigner" raises deeper questions tied to a social reality still grappling with the legacy of colonial history and mindsets shaped by the belief in Western superiority. How do these women position themselves within relationships unconsciously influenced by a North–South hierarchy?
Due to limited time and resources, the documentary presents a one-sided perspective, that of the Western women, while the subject itself would benefit from multiple viewpoints.
As the director noted in a discussion that followed the screening, she aimed to present "one face of the issue," with the goal of "making people more curious about the question."
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*The article was originally published in Al-Ahram Hebdo (French) on 18 March 2026. Translation: Ahram Online.
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