Maydoum is the film I began work on after leaving the London Film Academy in 2008. I wrote it with my mother, the novelist Ahdaf Soueif - the idea being that the film would be a prequel to her new novel. Three years later, the film is now online, but the book is still mostly in her head.
We shot the scenes in Cairo in late '08, and then followed up in London with a different crew in summer '09. The shoot was hugely interesting and very testing - I was hospitalized by a falling brick, Khalid got swine flu, whole tracks of sound didn't get recorded etc. But it was my first time working in Egypt, so it was all very exciting. And everyone worked incredibly hard on it with me, almost always without being paid anything - so for that it was a great experience.
The film premiered in competition at the 2010 Dubai Film Festival. It then played at three more (Detmold, Adana, National Geographic) and maybe could have done more. But in times of revolution the ultra-laborious festival submissions process is deeply unappealing, so I decided I'd rather let it begin its online life, and hope that it finds an interested audience out there.
Very touching. I really like this. Well done. Shame it didn't get a chance to travel to more festivals.
ReplyDelete