I Dreamt of Empire
Spring Grants 2016 - Production Stage
Kasem Kharsa / Feature Narrative / Egypt, Germany, France, Qatar / 2018 / 90 min / Original Language: Arabic / Interests: Drama
Synopsis
Cairo, 1980. Musa, a brilliant Egyptian professor, cannot move past the grief of losing his only son, Yusuf, an officer who died fighting the Israelis in 1956. Musa has been developing a method to travel through time in order to save his son from death. He succeeds and wakes up during the war – but unexpectedly finds himself in the body of an Israeli soldier named Ben. It’s as if Musa has woken up in a nightmare. While Musa looks for his son, Ben takes over Musa’s life in 1980s Cairo. Musa increasingly loses his grip on his own identity. Should he stay in the present and reclaim his life, or return to 1956 to complete his mission?
Credits
- Director
- Kasem Kharsa
- Screenwriter
- Kasem Kharsa
- Producer
- Jessica Landt, Falk Nagel, Alice Ormieres
- Production Company
- Beleza Films
About the Director
Kasem Kharsa is an Egyptian-American filmmaker and visual artist based between the Middle East and the USA. His films are inspired by his own fragmented past and are centred around memory, identity and survivorship. His work has been supported by both regional and international funding bodies, and he is a fellow of the Rawi Lab, the Sundance Directors/Writers Lab, and Binger Filmlab.