Mohamed Mamdouh

Aisha, a 26-year-old Sudanese woman, lives in Ain-Shams, a neighborhood in Cairo with a large African migrant community. The authorities’ indifference to the violent tensions between Egyptians and various African nationalities, has allowed different gangs to seize control of the neighborhood. The situation quickly turns sour after one of them offers Aisha security in exchange for a favor.

El Maxiky is accustomed to carrying out theft and smuggling operations alone without help. However, he gets embroiled in a major operation that requires outside assistance but eventually discovers that those he chose for help are implicating him in problems that threaten the operation's success.

Khadiga is a young 18-year-old mother living alone with her baby after her husband left for work in a remote city. One day, she makes her way through the hustle of Cairo streets to do some visits where she feels uncomfortable with the surroundings.

The theft of a famous painting from a museum leads to an unexpected conflict between members of the gang and museum staff, and amidst this, an unusual love affair develops.

Mariam goes to a public hospital with her husband and her daughter, bleeding and suffering from a severe pain in her abdomen.

Following a violent incident, Eissa, a 17-year-old African migrant in Egypt, strives to beat the clock to save his loved ones whatever it takes.

Hayam, an unmarried twenty-year-old girl, passes away, and her brothers, Zaher and Murad, discover love bites on her neck and chest just before the body washing, which hinders the completion of the washing for fear of scandal.

We follow the journey of former soldier Nassif, who fled the war in Iraq by hiding in dark cinemas. During this time, he used to watch his favorite film, “Papillon” (1973), starring Steve McQueen. Nowadays, he is looking for this film among the Iraqi cinemas’ ruins. The search for this lost film copy in the old and obsolete cinemas becomes the sole purpose of Nassif and his primary motivation to leave his house. “Take me to the Cinema” allows us to discover Baghdad through Nassif’s eyes as he takes us to streets that contrast with his silent and quiet world. A lot has changed in today’s Iraq. The street where cinema theaters were is now a market that sells military uniforms. It is crowded with young men, fitting military shirts and shoes. The quest for “Papillon” becomes the quest of character, who does not want to acknowledge the transformations of his city, and who wants to cling on to its luminous past through the light of cinema and his inner world.