Egyptian director Mohamed Diab's film Clash (Eshtebak) will compete for the Most Valuable Movie of the Year Award (2016) at the annual competition organised by the Cinema for Peace Foundation in Berlin, Germany, on 13 February.

"The Cinema for Peace Foundation endeavors to promote worldwide peace and understanding through the support of cinematographic works, and to further develop the goals and activities established by the Cinema for Peace initiative and annual Gala," the initiative's website reads.

"Since after 9/11, the non-profit organization Cinema for Peace has been aiming to influence through films the perception and resolution of global social, political and humanitarian challenges of our time," it adds.

"In recent years," the foundation writes, "Cinema for Peace has supported a number of important causes with the help of actors like Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio, Julia Roberts, Nicole Kidman and public figures such as the Dalai Lama, Muhammad Ali, Bill and Hillary Clinton, Mikhail Gorbachev and the former Honorary Patron Nelson Mandela."

Co-written by Khaled Diab and Mohamed Diab Clash premiered in the Un Certain Regard section of the 69th Cannes Film Festival (2016). The Hollywood Reporter named Clash one of the 10 best films at Cannes. 

Tackling the political unrest that prevailed in Egypt in 2013, and set within the confrontations between pro and anti Muslim Brotherhood demonstrators, the movie's events take place in an 8-meter police truck, crammed with detainees representing different sects of society. Their interactions are filled with madness, violence, romance, and comedy—driving the plot forward to a harrowing conclusion.

Clash has won 12 awards, including the Suwarna Chakoram Prize for Best Film and the Audience Prize Rajata Chakoram at the 21st International Film Festival of Kerala in India.

The film won the Critics Prize at the 16th Mediterranean Film Festival of Brussels, the Golden Pram award at the Zagreb International Film Festival, in addition to four awards at the 27thCarthage Film Festival, three awards at the 61^st Valladolid Film Festival (Seminci) in Spain, and the Grand Prix at the Festival du Film Arabe de Fameck/Val de Fensch in France. 

Clash also took part in the 60th BFI London Film Festival to compete within its Official Competition. It screened at the 38th round of the Cairo International Film Festival as part of a special section dedicated to showcasing the best Egyptian productions of 2015-2016. 

The film was Egypt's official submission to the Best Foreign Language Film category at the 2017 Academy Awards.

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