Art house cinema Zawya is scheduled to hold a special screening for Giran (Neighbours), a documentary by Egyptian filmmaker Tahani Rached, on Monday 22 February.

Rached will be present at the screening, which will be followed by a Q&A session moderated by Samia Mehrez, professor of Arabic Literature and the director of the Centre for Translation Studies at the American University in Cairo, and Mona Abaza, professor of sociology at the American University in Cairo.

Neighbours (2009) focuses on the Cairene neighbourhood of Garden City, and “takes us on a journey through abandoned villas, opulent salons, foreign embassies, threatened businesses and rooftop living rooms,” reads the film synopsis published on the event’s Facebook page.

“Houses turn into witnesses as they make flesh of history's turmoil. Residents and dwellings become a voice telling a story of hope, rupture and endurance.”

The Egyptian-born Rached was raised in Quebec, Canada. She studied Fine Arts at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts (Fine Arts School) amid a period that was dominated by protest movements and small organisations supporting the Palestinian cause and women's rights.

From that time on, Rached has been engaging in the scene of documentary filmmaking, as she started to work for the National Film Board of Canada. From 1980 to 2005, she released a number of films which received a positive response from critics and audiences.

Her repertoire comprises an array of films including Four Women of Egypt (1997); For a Song (2001); Soraida, a Woman of Palestine (2004) and These Girls (2005), among others.

Programme:
7:30pm, Monday 22 February 
Zawya, Odeon Cinema, 4 Abdel-Hamid Said Street, off Talaat Harb Street, Downtown, Cairo

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