Bassem Wadie

Najwa, a music teacher from the city of Minya, Upper Egypt, seizes the opportunity to come to Cairo on a trip with her students to search for Tahany, her first teacher that taught her music and used to live in an apartment in Heliopolis.

In a hot and politically challenged Cairo actress Aida and her neighbor, the aging diva Samiha, are thrown out on the streets. Together with the street smart Yassin, they try to find a place to live, forcing them to confront with their past.

Set in a confined world outside time, East of Noon is the fable of prodigy Abdo (19) who uses music to rebel against his elders: showman Shawky (70), an eccentric showman who rules with a mix of performance and fear, and storyteller Jalala (75), who provides relief with stories of the Sea, which no one else has seen. East of Noon is a satire on the inner workings of an ailing autocracy and its inherent vulnerability to youth’s unchained vision of a better world.