15 Mar Alumni Project Included in the Red Sea Lodge 2022 Selection
Alumni, Sawsan Yousuf and Mostafa Morad (Egypt) have been selected for the Red Sea Lodge 2022, with their feature fiction project “Aisha Can’t Fly Away Anymore”.
The Red Sea Lodge is an 8 month mentoring programme held in collaboration with the Torino Film Lab, which is a key part of the part of the The Red Sea International Film Festival’s drive to support and promote talent and to nurture and support emerging talent, and drive the potential of Arab talent on the international stage.
After the programme is completed, the factory grant two $100K production standards for each winning project.
Sawsan Yousuf & Mostafa Morad (Egypt) were picked up in El Gouna by IEFTA in 2021 with this very project.
Read full article here.
Aisha Can’t Fly Away Anymore
EGYPT
Overview: Aisha, a 29 years old Somali carer, works with elderly Egyptian patients and lives in the historic Ain-Shams neighborhood at the heart of Cairo. These days, Aisha is at an impasse: work is demanding and dreary; her relationship with an Egyptian cook is loveless; and her neighborhood, home to the African immigrant diaspora, is tense and divided. And, as the title suggests, flight is no longer an option.
Morad Mostafa (Egypt)
DIRECTOR
Morad is an Egyptian Filmmaker, born in Cairo. After Study at Cinema Palace, he began his work in the industry, assistant directing several independent films, before stepping into the executive director role for “Souad,” a feature that became an official selection of the Cannes Film Festival 2020 as well as the Berlinale. He is the writer and director of two short films “Henet Ward” and “What we don’t know about Mariam,” both of which premiered at Clermont-Ferrand and made the official selection of other distinguished festivals (BFI London – Palm Springs – Busan – Thessaloniki – Stockholm – Karlovy Vary – FIFF Namur – Cinemed Montpellier – Shanghai – Durban – Buenos Aires – EL Gouna – JCC Carthage – Cairo), winning awards and accolades along the way.
Sawsan Yousuf
PRODUCER
Sawsan Yusuf is an Egyptian producer. Born in 1988, She earned a degree in Drama & Criticism from the Ain-Shams University. Starting as a film festival coordinator, she was soon booking work as an assistant producer/ line producer on independent projects.
In 2019, Sawsun established Bonanza Films, where, in collaboration with director Morad Mostafa, she produced the short film “Henet Ward.” That film premiered at the Clermont-Ferrand International Film Festival in 2020 and has since been selected by more than 150 festivals, winning 30 prizes.