Give this director a confined space, and he will provide you with a meticulously crafted story, centered around skillfully drawn characters placed in unexpected predicaments. The audience at the El Gouna Film Festival fell in love with director Gustav Möller’s previous film The Guilty (2018) which follows an officer receiving emergency calls and embarking on a complete adventure from behind a computer screen. Now, he returns to the festival with a new story set in a closed world that confines people: prison.The Danish star and BAFTA award winner Sidse Babett Knudsen portrays the character of Eva, an ideal warden in a men’s prison, whose stable life is disrupted when a young, violent inmate—feared by everyone—arrives. She harbors tumultuous feelings for him due to an act he committed in the past, which complicates their relationship beyond that of a warden and inmate. Will Eva maintain her professional discipline, as everyone attests? Or will she find herself slipping into choices driven by resentment rather than the law?Can a person maintain their belief in justice if they are stripped of the luxury of remaining neutral? Does committing crimes outside of prison justify abuse within it? What is the dividing line between crime and lesser offenses? If someone knows the law well enough to punish a criminal without breaking any laws, does the distinction between criminal and innocent still hold? These philosophical questions are raised by the film regarding guilt and innocence, crime and punishment, and most importantly, the concept of motherhood. Is it truly unconditional love? Does it arise solely from biological reasons, or is it a feeling that can develop through practice, even sometimes in impossible circumstances?The film Sons was selected to compete in the international competition at the Berlin Film Festival and won the Golden Firebird Award at the Hong Kong International Film Festival.Ahmed Shawky