Egyptian documentary Coloured Dress (Fostan Melawen) and short film Berries Land (Are El-Toot) will represent Egypt at the 18th edition of the Beirut International Film Festival, which takes place 22-28 April.

Directed by Ehab Moustafa, the "docudrama" Coloured Dress is a blend of feature and documentary that explores the lives of 15 women who appear as themselves and offer a glimpse into their independent lives and the struggles they have overcome.

The women are from different backgrounds, from sculpture, to journalism, to fashion design, and also hail from different economic backgrounds, to showcase a variety of stories linked together by the same goal of success.

The all-women cast includes Mona Ahmed, Radwa Elawady, Houreya Elsayed, Rowaidah Bibers, Ola Ammar, Dalia Fakhr, Amany Moussa, Eman Elnasharty, Nour Arby, Aya Saad, Yara Shahwan, Pakinam Idris, Yasmin Eid, Salma Badr, and Hana Mousa.

The film will compete against six documentaries from the Middle East.

Coloured Dress was screened locally several times, including at the National Festival for Cinema in Egypt in 2018.

Written and directed by Khaled Mansour, Berries Land is a short feature.

Before her death a mother tells her son that souls of the dead rise up to rest on the moon, and the 11-year-old boy tries to reconnect with his mother’s spirit.

Mansour has previously directed two other films, Two Winter Nights in 2014, and Al-Darwish in 2015. 

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