A deeply personal film, Al Qasas had its world premiere at the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, Estonia, in November 2025, and went on to screen at international festivals, including the Carthage Film Festival, where it won the Golden Tanit in December, and later received awards at the Diagonale Festival in Graz and the Luxor African Film Festival.
Following an impressive festival run, Shawky's third feature arrived in Egyptian cinemas on 17 June, and a day later it was distributed across the Arab world. On 1 July, the film was released in France under the title Our Story: Chronicles of Cairo (Notre histoire – Chroniques du Caire).
Al-Qasas tells the story of Egypt's transformations from the living room of a Cairo apartment rather than through the corridors of power.
Beyond its opening film, the Toronto Arab Film Festival presents a diverse programme of feature-length works from across the Arab region.
The line-up also includes Flana by Zahraa Ghandour, Hijra by Shahad Ameen, Life After Siham by Namir Abdel Messeeh, The Silence They Taught Us by Paula Sahyoun, screened alongside The Cats, the Sea, and Everything in Between by Karel Malkoun, while Moroccan director Maryam Touzani will close the festival with Calle Málaga on 1 August.
Three curated shorts programmes further highlight emerging voices from across the Arab world. The first programme titled "The Things We Inherit," features Teslam Idek (Bless Your Hand) by Joumana Baalbaki, Bukra by Alex Aljouni, Like a Spiral by Lamia Chraibi, Prisoner by Rame Ibrahim and Still Playing by Mohamed Mesbah.
The second shorts programme dubbed "The Characters We Play," includes Ambush | Kameen by Yassmina Karajah, Better Than a Mustache by Sameer W. Jafar, Mrs. Faiza & Dr. Love by Anissa Daoud, Nader's Girl by Omar Mouallem and No Harissa by Saifeddine Lahmar.
The final shorts showcase, "The Places We Remember," presents Beneath Which Rivers Flow by Ali Yahya, Khaled and Nema by Sohail Dahdal, My Brother, My Brother by Abdelrahman Dnewar and Saad Dnewar, One Last Time by Karim El Rahbani, Perishable Idol by Majid Al Remaihi and Tighrist – Threads of Exile by Samia Dzaïr before concluding with Sink by Zain Duraie.
Complementing the public screenings, TAFF's annual Shabaka industry programme will offer two days of professional development. Sessions include panels on financing independent films, capacity building within Canadian film unions, script development, director-producer collaboration and networking opportunities designed to support emerging and mid-career filmmakers.
The festival's international juries also bring together established figures from across the Arab film industry. The feature jury comprises Moroccan filmmaker Ahmed El Maanouni, Iraqi-Canadian filmmaker Anam Abbas and Saudi Film Fund manager Karam Masri, while the shorts competition will be judged by Palestinian comedian and writer Nour Hadidi, Egyptian filmmaker Reem Morsi and Moroccan filmmaker Youssef Mutawe.
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