Mohamad El-Hadidi

Exploring the relationship between man and place by following the paths of six characters in contemporary Alexandria.

After fleeing from Cairo to Berlin to escape police prosecution, photojournalist Alaa meets Lia at a party. A mutual attraction ignites, except Alaa doesn't know who Lia really is.

An intimate journey into the inner life of an aspiring athlete and the female weightlifting community of Alexandria. For 4 years, Zebiba goes through victories and defeats, including major losses that shape her, as she finds her way from dust to gold.

On a street in Berlin, Sara joins her boyfriend Tarek in a line to view a flat. Sara just came from the gynecologist; she is 10 weeks pregnant. Tarek starts discussing marriage plans, after all an Egyptian couple they have no choice but to marry. But Sara who has left Cairo in search of free life struggles to accept that they should ignore all their problems as a couple and rush to marry for the baby. When she fails to stop Tarek’s excited planning, she breaks the news; that she already had an abortion. Miles away from home, Sara is still battling the demons of her patriarchal society that are mirrored in her relationship with Tarek.

Through the interactions between two film directors and a longtime film extra, this documentary questions the distinction between real and fake. A game of power between assistant director and director leads to the realisation that we all live our lives as extras, ‘accessories’ in the background who wait for the chance to become a star.

Mohammed, the son of a simple worker, lives in the city of Alexandria with his father and dreams of moving to Cairo to become a filmmaker. In Cairo, Mohammed meets Salma and Bassam and is impressed by their self-confidence. When he discovers that Salma and Bassam’s parents were left-wing activists from the 1970s, he looks for a similar sense of purpose in his own father’s life. As he compares lives, Mohammed the filmmaker discovers answers. More importantly, he is led to new questions that connect the past with the present.

A portrait for Nubar in his shop. An Armenian-Alexandrian who belongs to a fading community.

Over 30 years of fieldwork, photographer Randa Shaath built an extensive archive of Palestine: decades of photographs of the people and places she calls home. In her living room, we open the archive together, guided by her rare gift for remembering a story behind each photo. One more return to Albelad (the homeland), she glides through the photos, and with every return, a story surfaces. She holds onto a narrative in which hope was possible, and a free Palestine never felt far away.