Thursday March 28th, 2024
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Egyptian Documentary 'Dream Away' to Compete at BFI London Film Festival

This dreamy piece about desperation is sure to tingle you.

Staff Writer

Dream Away, an Egyptian documentary by Marouan Omara and co-director Johanna Domke, is competing for the Best Documentary award at BFI London Film Festival in October. The independent film has already done the rounds in Europe, and is also showing at El Gouna Film Festival this week.

The film is set in the desolation of a beachside resort in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, where tourism has dwindled. In one clip, it shows an animation team performing to no-one, and a reception of just one guest.

Other works by the documentary filmmaker include Crop, which is set in the publishing halls of a big newspaper around the 2011 revolution and The Visit, which follows a team from the World Bank as they conduct research in the Egyptian countryside. His most recent work, One Plus One Makes a Pharaoh’s Chocolate Cake, in which he brings together Egyptian electro-shaabi musician, Islam Chipsy, and Swiss electronic music producer, Aisha Devi, and documents their subsequent collaboration. It screened at the Berlinale.

BFI London started in the 1950’s to compete with Cannes and Venice, and is now one of the largest film festivals in Europe and the UK. Dream Away is going to screen among a total of 225 feature-length films from 77 countries.