This year’s Christmas movie release in Egypt may pull you away from the lingering holiday spirit. It certainly did for me. Though the final moral delivered in the script seemed jarringly inconsistent with the story itself, Banat Thanawy (High School Girls) gave a raw, gritty, and at times empowering telling of the vulnerability of working class women on the cusp of adulthood. An Ahmed El Sobky production, the film is directed by Mahmoud Kamel and stars Jamila Awad, Huda El Mufti, Mayan Elsayed, May Elghety, and Hanady Mehanna — portraying a group of friends with varying personalities and unique struggles that reflect some of the hardships faced by Egyptian women in vulnerable circumstances. The theme of struggling young women is a common one in Egyptian stories, however this film attempts to provide its own spin on it in a number of ways. Narrated through live Instagram broadcasts of Sally (Jamila Awad), Banat Thanawy tries to bring these girls’ stories decidedly into the digital age in its most current form. The story also seems to have done its best to delve into the main characters’ relationships with each other as much…
The Vulnerability and Power of Working Class Womanhood: a Review of Banat Thanawy
January 16, 2020
