From rural dreams to Cannes award winners
A still from Brink of Dreams (2024), Nada Riyadh & Ayman El Amir, Felucca Films
A film focusing on Karama partners Panorama Barsha has been named best documentary at the Cannes Film Festival.
The Brink of Dreams, directed by Nada Riyadh and Ayman El Amir, was named joint winner of the prestigious L'Œil d'Or. Filmed over a four year period, the documentary follows the girls and young women of Panorama Barsha, a theater troupe led by Youstina Samir based in a small Coptic village in Egypt’s Minya governorate.
The documentary was the only film from Egypt to feature at Cannes, as well as being the first Egyptian film to win the best documentary prize. In commending the film, the jury said:
“A film both simple and luminous, that could almost look like ‘a walk in the park’, but instead shows us the complexity of their struggle to conquer freedom, and the turbulences generated around them.”
Youstina Samir and the girls she works with are key members of the Wa’ed network for adolescent girls. Read more about the network here.
Find out more about the work of Panorama Barsha here.