Egypt’s New Wave Redefines the Country’s Cinematic Identity

At this year’s Cairo Intl. Film Festival, Egyptian filmmakers arrive not just to premiere their films, but to stake a claim in the country’s cinematic future. Once the beating heart of Arab cinema, Egypt’s industry is no longer defined by its commercial past or nostalgic golden age. Instead, it’s being reimagined by a generation that views filmmaking not as revival, but reclamation. Across the festival’s lineup and its Cairo Film Connection pitching platform, directors are crafting a cinema that is at once personal, political, and daring. ‘I think my work is a mix of continuation and reinvention,’ says documentarian Yomna Khattab, who brings her deeply personal project ‘I Have Other Friends’ to Cairo Film Connection. ‘I’m inspired by the greats — Chahine, Khan, Khairy Beshara. Such a legacy makes me feel responsible not to imitate, but to create narratives and visual styles that are true to my generation.’ For filmmaker Mayye Zayed, whose in-development feature ‘Rainbows Don’t Last Long’ is being presented in the pitching competition, that generational shift also means rewriting who gets to be seen. ‘There haven’t been enough female-driven stories in Egyptian cinema,’ she says. ‘That’s why I wanted to tell stories about the women I know, independent films that still reach Egyptian audiences and have real impact.’ That spirit threads through this year’s Egyptian slate: from Yasser Shafiey’s deadpan satire ‘Complaint No. 713317,’ to Mai Saad and Ahmed Al Danaf’s frontline documentary filmed in Gaza, ‘One More Show,’ and Maged Nader’s meditative ‘All That the Wind Can Carry.’ Some are screening in competition, others are seeking partners, but all share the same quiet conviction that Egyptian cinema’s renewal begins with the personal. For Abanoub Nabil, whose short ‘The Unnamed’ premieres in competition, CIFF is more than a platform, it’s a homecoming. ‘During my student days, we used to skip classes to attend CIFF screenings and masterclasses,’ he recalls. ‘That festival was where I first discovered world cinema. It was our real classroom. To now stand there with my own film feels like coming home.’ Across fiction, documentary, and hybrid forms, these filmmakers are building a cinema that speaks first to themselves, and, in doing so, to everyone else.