From heartfelt journeys to sharp social satires, this year’s Cairo International Film Festival (CIFF) — running from November 12 to 21, 2025 — pulses with creativity, courage, and cinematic flair. The Egyptian lineup in particular stands out for its emotional depth and inventive storytelling. Here’s a look at some of the homegrown stories lighting up the big screen — each with its own rhythm, heartbreak, and humor.
Complaint No. 713317 – Yasser Shafei
What if your broken fridge could expose the absurd machinery of modern life? Yasser Shafei’s Complaint No. 713317 turns a simple household malfunction into a full-blown bureaucratic odyssey. As Magdy and Sama, a retired Maadi couple, try to get their appliance fixed, they tumble down a rabbit hole of red tape, revealing both the cracks in the system and in their marriage.
Featuring Mahmoud Hemida, Sherine, Hana Shiha, and Mohamed Radwan, the film mixes dark comedy with biting social insight — a debut feature that proves Shafei’s humor cuts deep.
Life After Siham – Namir Abdel Messeeh
In Life After Siham, director Namir Abdel Messeeh turns grief into art. Following the loss of his mother, Siham, the filmmaker — facing his own creative paralysis — decides to bring her memory back through cinema.
Moving between Egypt and France, the film gently unravels questions of memory, mortality, and the magic of filmmaking itself. It’s a tender exploration of how stories — like mothers — never really die; they just transform.
The Unnamed – Abanoub Nabil
A dancer collapses, a daughter rises. Abanoub Nabil’s The Unnamed follows Jannah, a young girl whose mother — a professional dancer — suffers a devastating fall that shatters their world. As Jannah sets out to save her, she discovers new dimensions of love, loss, and identity.
The short film, premiering in CIFF’s Short Film Competition, promises emotional depth, delicate performances, and a rhythm that dances between heartbreak and hope.
Triangle of Love – Alaa Mahmoud
Alaa Mahmoud’s Triangle of Love took ten years to complete — and it shows, in the best possible way. What began in 2016 as a personal film for Maha, a woman battling cancer, evolved into an intimate documentary about love, grief, and time.
Spanning a decade — five years of Maha’s final struggle and five after her passing — the film traces the emotional aftermath for her son Mostafa and the filmmaker herself. Screening in Special Screenings, this debut feature documentary feels less like a movie and more like a love letter to life’s most fragile connections.
One More Show – Mai Saad & Ahmed El Danaf
The circus comes to Gaza — not for spectacle, but for survival. One More Show, a 72-minute documentary, follows the Gaza Free Circus troupe as they perform for displaced children amid the ongoing genocide.
Between laughter, juggling, and rubble, the film captures the defiant beauty of joy in the face of horror. Directed by Mai Saad and Ahmed El Danaf, it’s both a tribute and a testament to resilience under siege.
Pasha’s Girls – Mohamed Al Adl
Beauty, death, and secrets collide in Mohamed Al Adl’s Pasha’s Girls. When beautician Nadia dies suddenly after a terrorist attack, her colleagues scramble to conceal what looks like suicide.
As they prepare her body, layers of guilt, fear, and loyalty unfold — revealing a mosaic of women navigating moral dilemmas in a society that doesn’t forgive easily. A sharp, character-driven drama that paints grief with shades of irony and grace.
The Last Miracle – Abdelwahab Shawky
When an obituary editor misspells the name of a revered Sufi sheikh, he expects a reprimand — not a phone call from the deceased himself. The Last Miracle takes this bizarre premise and spins it into a soulful dramedy about faith, guilt, and second chances.
Abdelwahab Shawky’s surreal, witty storytelling walks the fine line between the divine and the absurd, asking what happens when belief literally calls you back.
Eman – Amir Youssef
In Eman, filmmaker and artist Amir Youssef blurs the boundaries between faith, memory, and motion. A young Egyptian Copt travels to the Basilica of Saint-Quentin, seeking his missing mother — and, perhaps, a miracle.
Through layered imagery and philosophical inquiry, Youssef transforms a personal quest into a meditation on belief itself. The film feels like a moving sculpture — intimate, intellectual, and cosmic all at once.
Cone – Mark Ayman
Mark Ayman’s Cone bursts with the raw energy of Cairo’s streets — fitting, since it began as a student graduation project. Inspired by the people and rhythms of the city, the film plays with urban imagery, youthful experimentation, and a fresh sense of storytelling freedom.
Ayman’s playful visual language captures the beautiful chaos of everyday Cairo.
Curtain Call
From Gaza’s circus performers to Cairo’s broken refrigerators, from love triangles that span a decade to mystical phone calls from the beyond, Egyptian filmmakers at CIFF 2025 are boldly reimagining what stories can do. Each film — whether a short, a doc, or a feature — reminds us that cinema here isn’t just entertainment. It’s resurrection, rebellion, and reflection — all in one reel.
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