Feature Narrative
TOTAL BUDGET
$50,000
CONTACT
abshawky@gmail.com
e bravely decides to leave the colony for the first time since he was abandoned there as a child, and embarks on a journey across Egypt to his hometown to find out why his father never kept his promise to return.
BESHAY, a middle aged Egyptian leper, lives in an aging leper colony in the middle of nowhere among a handful of unfortunates forgotten by the outside world. He has built a comfortable life for himself selling reusable garbage.
After the death of his beloved wife, he bravely decides to leave the colony for the first time since he was abandoned there as a child, and embarks on a journey across Egypt to his hometown to find out why his father never kept his promise to return. Alongside his apprentice, a Nubian orphan nicknamed OBAMA (10), and his beloved donkey, HARBY, they travel through the labyrinth of Egypt where they find friends and enemies in unexpected places. When they reach their destination, Beshay and Obama’s newly formed understanding of home, family and humanity is put to the test.
Yomeddine is an amalgam of stories I had heard during the filming of my documentary, The Colony, which chronicles the stories of the residents of the Abu Zaabal Leper Colony in Egypt. The film’s characters opened their hearts and homes to me, and I came to realize that leprosy is more a social issue than a medical one, and has pushed the residents into seclusion. Yomeddine will be the first film to feature a leper as the main character, giving him a chance to be defined by his humanity, not his disease. The idea is to not look away from the outcasts we encounter in the film, but to see past their appearances and focus on their character. Despite the seemingly heavy content, Yomeddine is treated in a light-hearted manner, highlighting Beshay’s spirit in the face of misery -- a universal trait of Egyptians as a whole.