Atteyat El-Abnoudy

A documentary portrait of a traditional peasant woman, Om Said.

El Abnoudy's first documentary depicts women in a mud-brick factory in the centre of Cairo, where they are treated like 'horses', working at repetitive and monotonous tasks in miserable conditions. Nevertheless, El Abnoudy brings out the women's dignity, showing a beautiful choreography to their movement. By giving control of the microphone to the workers themselves, she also allows the women's own stories to be interleaved with their work.

DIARY IN EXILE is a documentary film that uses a combination of sound, image, colour and peoples testimonies to historically account for the period following the fundamentalist military coup in the Sudan in 1989. This period witnessed the migration of a staggering number of Sudanese from their country to all parts of the World. The Sudan became an expellant of its people. The greater majority of Sudanese migrants headed to Egypt, where the film was shot, there is an estimated number of 3 million Sudanese migrants to Egypt since the military coup. Moving between different strata of Sudanese communities in Egypt the film, through various personal testimonies, throws light on the living conditions of ordinary people. All provide pieces of the saga, all have taken refuge in Egypt. All dream of returning back to Sudan, one day. The film was premiered at the United Nations Human Rights Conference, Vienna, in 1993.

A documentary directed by Ateyyat Al Abnoudy

In many ways the sister film to 'Horse of Mud', Al-Abnoudy’s graduation film at the Film School in Cairo is a portrait of Cairo’s street performers. The artistry of this community of fire-eaters, acrobats, child contortionists, and musicians is captured through the lens of Al-Abnoudy’s unobtrusive camera, accompanied by the spare and haunting narration provided by poet Abdel Rahman Al-Abnoudy. Playing with the poetry that offers image and cinema, she pays tribute to those underground enterteiners, giving back its letters of nobility to a marginalized and downgraded popular art.

Documentary by Ateyyat El-Abnoudy

Interview with Amal Abul-Qassem Donqol, an egyptian poet.

Documentary by Ateyyat El-Abnoudy