Director

Omar El Zohairy

Egypt, France, Netherlands, Greece | 2021 | 112 min | Arabic

• Producer Mohammed Hefzy, Shahinaz Al Akkad, Juliette Lepoutre, Pierre Menahem
• Production Company Film Clinic, Lagoonie Film Production, Still Moving, Kepler Film, Heretic
• Screenplay Ahmed Amer, Omar El Zohairy
• Cinematography Kamal Samy
• Editing Hisham Saqr
• Sound Ahmed Adnan, Julien Gonnord
• Cast Demyana Nassar, Samy Bassouny, Fady Mina Fawzy, Abo Sefen Nabil Wesa
• Contacts

  Heretic ioanna@heretic.gr | www.heretic.gr Middle East Distributor Film Clinic jessica.khoury@fcidistribution.com
  

About the Film

A gently paced but bitingly satirical film about men and chickens, Omar El Zohairy’s debut feature Feathers won the Grand Prize at Cannes Film Festival's Critics' Week.

Set against the dour backdrop of a bleak industrial zone, a diligent woman (an excellent Demyana Nassar), who initially barely speaks, lives with her husband and three children in a squalid apartment. The scene is set for a dark comedy that tackles the situation of women in Egyptian society… and adds in a few chickens for good measure.

The woman’s bombastic husband (Samy Bassouny) plays the lord and master, claiming he will buy a beautiful house one day, but the only person he is kidding is himself. Then, at a birthday party for one of the children, a magician convinces the husband to volunteer to take part in a magic trick. Placed in a wooden box, he is transformed into a chicken to the delight of all.

The only problem is that changing him back proves a challenge, and the woman is left with a chicken in place of her husband. Left to be the sole breadwinner – as well as guardian of the still needy chicken – she sets about doing all she can to provide for her family as well as trying to find out what actually happened to her husband.

Director El Zohairy keeps the comedy engagingly wry and offbeat, and while initially it seems to be surreal comedic fare, it also heads into darker territory, appropriately allowing the woman to change and develop as she has to deal with her unexpected situation and eventually seeing her stop short of nothing to make sure her new-found liberation is protected.

Mark Adams