Watch Before Deletion
Spring Grants 2019 - Development Stage
Mohammad Shawky Hassan / Feature Experimental or Essay / Egypt, Germany, Lebanon, Qatar / 75 min / Original Language: Arabic / Interests: Women, Politics, History, Social Issues, Based on a True Story, Docufiction
Synopsis
An episode of a radio show revisiting the life of an Arab music icon takes an unexpected turn when one of the callers refers to an “adult film” that she has allegedly starred in thirty years ago. While some claim to have seen the film, popularly known as “El Kotchina”, providing detailed descriptions of some of its scenes, others strongly believe that it was entirely constructed in the collective imagination of the Egyptian public through networks of rumour, gossip and hearsay. The subsequent conversations about the alleged film and the research journey they prompted reveal the complex political, social and cultural fabric that has shaped an entire society’s notions of sexuality, masculinity and censorship.
Credits
- Director
- Mohammad Shawky Hassan
- Screenwriter
- Nadine Khan, Mohammad Shawky Hassan
- Producer
- Maximilian Haslberger
About the Director
Mohammad Shawky Hassan is a filmmaker living and working in Cairo, Egypt. He studied philosophy, film directing and cinema studies at the American University in Cairo and Columbia University. His films include "It Was Related to Me", "On a Day like Today" and "And on a Different Note", which premiered at the Berlinale Forum Expanded, and was acquired by the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). A recipient of the Fulbright Fine & Applied Arts Grant and Open Society's Civil Society Leadership Award, his work has been supported by AFAC, Fonds Sud Cinema, YATF, and Al Mawred among others.