Made in Egypt - 3-DVD Box Set ( Back to the Square / Palm Sweat (La sueur des palmiers) / Hawi / Cafe Regular, Cairo / A Resident of the City ) ( Arak el-balah (Date Wine) / Café Regular, Cairo )

Made in Egypt - 3-DVD Box Set (DVD) (*)

~~$31.99~~ $25.97

Original Title: Back to the Square / Palm Sweat (La sueur des palmiers) / Hawi / Cafe Regular, Cairo / A Resident of the City
Alternate Title: Arak el-balah (Date Wine) / Café Regular, Cairo
Screened, competed or awarded at:
Rotterdam International Film Festival
Other Film Festival Awards
Tribeca Film Festival

Language Selections:
Arabic ( Dolby Digital 2.0 )
Dutch ( Subtitles )
English ( Subtitles )

Product Origin/Format:
Netherlands ( PAL/Region 2 )

Running Time:
331 min

Aspect Ratio:
Fullscreen

Special Features:
3-DVD Set
Box Set
Interactive Menu
Scene Access

Movie filmed in 1998 - 2012 and produced in:
Canada ( USA, Canada )
Egypt ( Africa, Middle East )
Norway ( Scandinavia, Iceland )
Qatar ( Africa, Middle East )

Directed By:
Petr Lom
Radwan El-Kashef
Ibrahim El-Batout
Ritesh Batra

Written By:
Torstein Grude
Petr Lom

Radwan El-Kashef
Ibrahim El-Batout
Ritesh Batra

Actors:
Petr Lom
Hamdy Ahmed
Fayza Amasaib
Abla Kamel
Abdalla Mahmoud
Mohamed Nagati
Sherihan
Mahmoud Abodoma
Rina Aref
Hany El Dakak
Sherief El Desouky
Mirette El Hariry
Waguih El Laqany
Mohamed El Sayed
Ibrahim El-Batout
Fady Eskandar
Abdel Fattah Hussein
Saeed Kabeel
Mark Lotfy
Ayman Massoud
Perry Moataz
Mohamed Nabil
Mai Abozeed ..... Mai
Alaa Ezzat ..... Alaa

Synopsis:

***WARNING***La Sueur des Palmiers & Hawi DON'T contain English subtitles***
Back to the Square (2012)
A year after the euphoria on Tahrir Square, the demonstrators' goals have not even come close to being reached. The country is ruled with an iron fist and there is still no democracy. The 'eye of the world' has moved elsewhere. How things have been in Egypt since 25 January 2011 is explained using five portraits of people from various walks of life.

Hawi (2011)
All the while improvising, El Batout shot this mosaic film set in Alexandria, where everybody is looking for something or someone. A prisoner is released and is given a special mission, a man is shuffling through the city with his sick horse and a TV presenter needs a guest for his show.

Palm Sweat / La sueur des palmiers (1999)
'Palm sweat' is a colourful metaphor for the changing situation in the Egyptian countryside. In an oasis village, all the healthy men follow a caravan, leaving young Achmed as the only man.

Cafe Regular, Cairo (2012)
Taboos are broken during a candid conversation in a bar. A refreshing look at male-female relations in contemporary Egypt.

A Resident of the City (2012)
Powerful documentary about big city life as a stray dog. Survival instinct and territorialism; dogs are just like humans.

Back to the Square (2012)
What have the sacrifices on Tahrir Square at the start of 2011 yielded? Unfortunately, not a great deal; this much is apparent from the stories of five Egyptians involved, about six months after the historic revolution. A young horse herdsman tells how he drove to the square to ask for the pyramids to be opened again; he only just managed to survive that day. A taxi driver talks about his six years in prison, the torture, and how the police now behave worse than ever. A young woman talks about intimidation and unjust arrests, which according to human rights lawyers are happening continuously. The young Salwa describes how she met her first love during the demonstrations. And then the brother of Michael Nabil: a blogger who was arrested because of his internet comments and is now on hunger strike - he is followed on Tahrir Square during the protests that still continue against the ongoing violations of human rights.

Hawi (2011)
El Batout started his career as a documentary maker, and this is also visible in his third fiction film. He shot the film at existing locations in the Egyptian city of Alexandria, worked with an amateur cast and did not use a script. The story of Hawi, supported by the Hubert Bals Fonds, came about in improvisation. The structure is not straightforward, more of an organic mosaic. With characters who are linked, without knowing that about each other or actually even ever meeting. Youssef, Ibrahim and Fady spent 20 years in the same prison. Youssef has just been released in order to find several confidential documents. After 20 years, Ibrahim wants to see his daughter again. She is training with the musician Fady. Apart from that, there is an old horseman who hopes to cure his beloved red animal and a TV presenter who needs a guest for his show. They are all looking for someone or something in this kaleidoscopic portrait of loneliness and despair in today's Egypt.

Palm Sweat / La sueur des palmiers / Date Wine (1999)
La sueur des palmiers (literally 'the sweat of the palms') is a colourful metaphor for the changing norms and values in the Egyptian countryside, motivated by the great exodus of poor workers to the rich oil states in the Persian Gulf. From the arid desert landscape, a bizarre caravan treks through a small oasis in Upper Egypt, where palm trees offer shade from the scorching sun. The leader of the caravan talks to the villagers about distant lands filled with treasures. All the men join the caravan, apart from young Achmed, who has his own dream: to climb the highest palm tree in his oasisvillage. In it is a palm wine, a real elixir of life that could cure Achmed's grandfather, now paralysed and struck dumb. The women of the village, led by the beautiful Salma, gradually start to regard Achmed as the man of the village. Achmed is not too keen on this role, but is nevertheless drawn into what he sees as the sensual, sinister every day life of the women. In the meantime, the migrants send letters home, filled with complaints about bitter humiliations. When three men come back, they see that Achmed has grown up and influences the whole village. Achmed will have to die to wipe out their feelings of shame. With its indictment to the countryside, to the forgotten, dead south and to the problem of migration, Palm Wine forms an exception within Egyptian cinema.

Café Regular, Cairo (2012)
A young Egyptian couple has an honest conversation in public about their relationship. Recorded in a bar with real customers, with amateur actors who play their own lives. Taboo-breaking, humorous fiction about male-female relationships in modern Cairo. Ritesh Batra alternates between living in Mumbai and New York.

A Resident of the City (2012)
Documentary by an Egyptian film student about the big city is told and shot entirely from the perspective of a stray dog. Beautiful camerawork in a very powerful and urgent film, in which the political metaphor about finding and defending your own space is clear.

This product was added to our catalog on Friday 04 January, 2013.

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