1 week ago
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By Alissa Simon
Debuting feature helmer Morad Mostafa is proud to be representing Egypt with his Un Certain Regard-selected “Aisha Can’t Fly Away,” about the fraught existence of a lonely South Sudanese care-worker in Cairo. It represents the first title from his homeland in the section since Mohamed Diab’s “Clash” in 2016.
Even though “Aisha” marks his first feature, Mostafa is no stranger to Cannes. His most recent short, “I Promise You Paradise,” won the 2023 Critics’ Weeks Rail d’Or and the Valbonne Audience Award; he went on to develop “Aisha” at a Cinéfondation residency in 2024.
In addition to Cinéfondation, the top kudo from Venice’s Final Cut program and support from the Berlinale, a plethora of Arab film festival funds contributed to “Aisha’s” journey. Mostafa says he and producer Sawsan Yusuf held extensive discussions about the project’s funding approach. He notes, “The strategy was remarkably ambitious and exceedingly challenging, spanning the initial development phase through to the post-production phase. Sawsan executed it with remarkable brilliance, and in collaboration with our co-producers, who represent six diverse nations: France, Germany, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Qatar.”
Fusing drama and social commentary, yet highly cinematic, “Aisha” grew out of Mostafa’s desire to see outsiders play leading roles in Egyptian cinema. “I wanted to talk about our society through non-Egyptian characters and observe it in a different way, through their eyes, as part of the change in Egyptian society in recent times. This is, after all, a facet of modern Egyptian and urban society,” he says.
The film reveals the dreams and fears of the isolated, 26-year-old protagonist as she tries to survive in a megalopolis that is cruel to its own people and ever-ready to abuse vulnerable immigrants. “Without giving away too much, I aim to explore themes of justice in creative and imaginative ways,” Mostafa says.
As someone who spent his childhood years in Ain Shams, a district of Cairo that gradually transformed into a Sudanese enclave experiencing high crime and gang warfare, Mostafa is well aware of the problems that the new arrivals face. Many of the South Sudanese migrants like Aisha work as cleaners, cooks and basic health care providers. Their clients are assigned by unscrupulous local agencies that exploit the women’s labor with long hours and poor wages and keep them in servitude by confiscating their personal documents such as passports and identity cards.
“Aisha” features the feature acting debut of South Sudanese model Buliana Simon as the eponymous young woman trapped between the demands of her relationships, her work and her living environment. As she is pushed towards a breaking point, Mostafa edges the film’s heightened naturalism with fantastical elements. “The internal conflict she experiences becomes so intense that it triggers a physical manifestation of her struggle,” he says.
Another cast member making a strong impression is charismatic Egyptian rapper Ziad Zaza as gang honcho Zuka. With a voice full of silky menace, he pressures Aisha to “pay” for the apartment he rents to her by facilitating his group’s home break-ins.
Mostafa’s decade of experience as an assistant director on high-budget films and series stood him in good stead for a kinetic action scene that comes towards the film’s end. But probably nothing could have prepared him for working with the magnificent ostrich that becomes a powerful symbol in the narrative and serves as a counterpoint to Aisha.
Mostafa hopes that the Cannes selection will open new horizons for him. He harbors aspirations of making a French feature, shot and produced with French and Arabic actors. In the meantime, he’s preparing for a new narrative short centered around an Egyptian teenager. He says, “It’s a road movie as well, like my last short film, and that aligns with the thrilling drama genre I favor. I hope we can shoot it soon.”
English (US) ·