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After stumbling upon a story through a link on Facebook about a team of blind footballers from Egypt who arrived in Warsaw and disappeared into thin air after it turned out they could actually see, writer-director

“They literally disappeared into thin air and it turned out they could all see,” Hilal said during a conversation about the movie at Deadline’s Contenders Film: International. “I was laughing and everyone in Egypt was laughing.”

Hilal decided to use the premise of this true-life event for his directorial debut Voy! Voy! Voy!, which has not only topped the Egyptian box office since its September release in Cairo, but is also Egypt’s official submission into the Best International Feature Oscar category for 2024.

“It was such a perfect vessel to tell this story about illegal immigration, which is a huge problem, the whole social issue of poverty and the lack of opportunity, which...

Egypt has selected Omar Hilal’s comedy Voy! Voy! Voy! as its candidate for Best International Feature Film at the 96th Oscars.

Producers Vox Studios, Film Clinic and Image Nation Abu Dhabi announced the selection at the film’s glitzy UAE premiere ahead of its theatrical release across the Gulf on September 21.

Inspired by true events, Voy! Voy! Voy! tells the story of Hassan, a security guard living an impoverished life with his mother who dreams of traveling and living abroad.

One day, he stumbles on the sport of blind football and cunningly decides to pose as a visually impaired man to join a team close to playing a World Cup tournament in Europe. On this journey, he crosses paths with several characters including a rising female journalist following the team and a middle aged coach.

The ensemble cast is led by Mohamed Farrag and also features Bayoumi Fouad, Taha Desouki,...

"Let's go find our family." Strand Releasing has debuted an official Us trailer for the Egyptian indie drama Yomeddine, from Egyptian-Austrian filmmaker A.B. Shawky making his feature directorial debut. This little film premiered in-competition at the Cannes Film Festival last year, and it's a buddy road trip comedy from Egypt about a couple of misfits who venture out into the world hoping to find a bit of hospitality and maybe a family. Rady Gamal stars as Beshay, a man cured of leprosy who has never left the leper colony in the Egyptian desert where he has lived since childhood. The small cast includes Ahmed Abdelhafiz, Osama Abdallah, Mohamed Abdel Azim, and Shahira Fahmy. This soulful story is full of heart and joy, despite their circumstances, and it is indeed a "life-affirming" and "cheerful" film worthy of discovering. Here's the official Us trailer (+ poster) for A.B. Shawky's Yomeddine, direct from...