
ME & AYDAROUS

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6 AM
Director: Mehran Modiri
Sarah is leaving Teheran for three years to study for her doctorate in Canada. Her flight is at 6 am. After an emotionally fraught final dinner with her family, she heads to an impromptu farewell party at her friend Farida’s apartment, intending to go straight to the airport afterwards. That plan implodes, however, when the morality police swoop in. Drinks are emptied, musical instruments hidden and women put on their overcoats, while Sarah is seized with terror that they will all be arrested – and she, of course, will miss her plane. Mehran Modiri, Iran’s popular satirist, who also has a chilling cameo as a police hostage negotiator, proves here that he is just as at home with a nail-biting drama.

SUKKAR: SABAABAA W HOUBOUB AL KHARZIZ
Director: Tamer Mahdy
A beautiful day turns into a miserable one after the whole city gets infected with chickenpox. The children and the workers in the orphanage get infected as well and they try their best to figure out how to cure themselves. A doctor develops a vaccine for the disease against the approval of the policemen in the city. The children visit a magician called Frotto so he would cure their chickenpox. The children are rushed to the hospital after Frotto's failed attempts to cure them. An angel sent from heaven called Anisa, guides the children after they reach the hospital and she stays with them until the vaccine that is being developed by the doctor gets approved. The annual Circus visits the city and the children get invitations from Daddy- Long-Legs. After attending the Circus, Sukkar and her friends realize that the animals are being mistreated and they make a plan to save them. Sukkar celebrates her birthday in the orphanage with her friends. As a gift, Daddy-Long-Legs grants Sukkar a once in a lifetime opportunity and he sends her to a private school. The children get emotional and a feud occurs between Tarek and Sukkar. The children follow Sukkar to the train station to say goodbye for the last time but they get shocked at the quick transformation that happened with their dearest friend.

SABA
Director: Maksud Hossain
Saba, 25, lives in Dhaka with her demanding mother Shirin, a paraplegic whose frustrations and rage often find a target in the daughter who cares for her. When Shirin’s worsening condition requires surgery it falls to Saba to find the money to pay for it. Securing a job at a seedy Shisha bar, Saba befriends the manager Ankur and, for the first time, pictures what a life of her own could look like. Maksud Hossain’s debut feature is a close-up look at a complicated bond between mother and daughter that lurches between love and guilt, co-dependence and the longing for autonomy - but it is also a social drama, detailing the hardships that underlay the riots in Bangladesh earlier this year.

SHAFIKA AND METWALI
Director: Ali Badrakhan
Chosen by festival Honoree guest Mona Zaki, who is fascinated by the iconic Egyptian actress Souad Hosni. Drawing on a folk tale about a young man who murders his wayward sister, Ali Badrakhan gave the traditional story a new timeframe and socio-political twist, creating a work of art in the process. Metwally is a villager forced by the authorities to work as a labourer on the Suez Canal project, leaving his sister Shafiqi (Souad Hosni) alone and destitute. When he eventually returns, he discovers that his sister has succumbed to the attentions of the district chief’s son, dishonoring the family, and kills her. The original story saw him as justified, but Badrakhan gives it another twist to show both brother and sister as victims of an oppressive social system. The film was an immediate success; it remains a beloved classic.