Two years ago, on the opening night of the Panorama of European Film at Zawya, I happened to sit next to a woman who seemed very familiar to me, though I couldn’t figure out who she was. Only when I went home did a friend who was there remind me of where I’d seen that face: alongside Amr Diab in a 1990s music video, and as his costar in Khairy Beshara’s 1992 Ice Cream in Gleem. When I saw her again at Zawya for the special screening of a new, widely anticipated short, I thought Sabrine El Hossamy had come to see the film only to discover that she was the debut director.
I grew excited, very curious to find out what her first creation as a filmmaker was about, and it was reassuring to find out the film was produced by Saadi Gohar, with producer Mohamed Saadi – as well as other high-profile figures such as the aforementioned Beshara at 78, women actors Reham Abdel-Ghaffour and Arwa Gouda, the star of the film Khaled Kamal, and Minister of Social Solidarity Maya Morsy. The event opened with a musical prelude inspired by the film score, with a distinctly ancient Egyptian character, featuring three talented singers with powerful and beautiful voices alongside harpist Manal Mohieddin. New names in the credits promised just the kind of fresh blood, experimentation and delight I was looking for, too.
Written and directed by El Hossamy, the 25-minute Ahlam Dendara (Dreams of Dendara), which won the Best Short Film Award at the 2026 Luxor African Film Festival, is the coming-of-age story of a girl named Ahlam (played by Fatma Khaled, a young talent from Luxor), whose principal distinction is that she is born in the temple of Hathor, the ancient Egyptian goddess of love and sound. The temple dominates the complex of monuments in Dendara, Upper Egypt. Ahlam’s life begins in tragedy when her mother dies in childbirth. She is raised by her loving father, Selmy (a powerful performance by the talented Khaled Kamal), the temple’s guard.
Like her mother when she was pregnant with her, Ahlam visits her father at his place of work, and so the temple becomes a space for growth and bonding. Astounding cinematography by Tarek Hefny reflects Ahlam’s mental state as she spends time in different places in and outside the temple, with the sun illuminating her face like a pharoah’s at one point. She is close to her father, both of them being custodians of the rich ancient Egyptian tradition.
Early on we see Ahlam stepping into the house singing in her magical voice, wearing kohl, but before too long her uncle, who holds onto misogynistic traditions, is scolding her for making her voice heard and making herself beautiful; her father manages to spare her female genital mutilation, but he dies just as she is about to leave to attend university (as an adult Ahlam is played by Haneen Saeed, who made her debut in Daye) and she is forced to confront her uncle’s cruelty. The poetic ending, evoking a moment of a divine revelation, reveals much about the director’s vision, which goes beyond the usual advocacy efforts against FGM and other forms of misogyny. The film is rather about something larger—more urgent, more human—than the ethics of gender equality.
El Hossamy was introduced to the audience by producer and filmmaker Hala Galal, who described her as someone who is passionate about cinema as well as a leading musician with a strong interest in rhythm, since she plays the darbuka or tabla. When she first heard about the project, she said, Galal thought the idea was good but doubted it could be pulled through effectively. Saadi went on stage briefly to say he was moved by El Hossamy’s passion, which is so deep it “leaves you no choice but to support her”. Khaled Kamal concurred: “At the beginning we discussed a lot of details, but I finally made my decision to part of it because, as Saadi said, Sabrine’s enthusiasm is contagious and that’s why I decided to embark on this project which I’ve enjoyed so much.”
El Hossamy, for her part, began by expressing gratitude that she belongs to a generation “that still goes to the cinema” – a statement that gave me goosebumps since it reflected a deeply held sense that, with the decline of the movie theatre as a space to gather and interact, we are losing part of our being – and it was poignant considering she spoke to a full house.
El Hossamy says she never formally studied cinema, but relies on her emotion and intuition, having attended courses to help her with the technical aspects of filmmaking. She is also constantly exposing herself to films, watching at least two films every day, she says. For this dream project one of the greatest challenges was casting; she needed two actors to play Ahlam as a child and an adult and they had to be similar and enjoy a rapport with the actors playing the mother and father. Another challenge – also discussed by Galal in the context of the film market in Egypt – was the fact that this is a short film. Noticing that the film would cost a lot of money and concerned that producers would want something that could be commercially released, Beshara suggested that El Hossamy should turn this project into a long feature, and although she would have loved doing so, she wasn’t sure a producer would be encouraged to offer the huge budget required for a long feature and her debut film. She added, “This short film is part of a bigger project that I wish to continue.”
Sabrine El Hossamy is a model, musician and multidisciplinary artist. Her debut film grew out of a video art piece Min Wahy Hathor (Inspired by Hathor).
* A version of this article appears in print in the 18 June, 2026 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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