A World Bank inspection team arrives at an Egyptian village to assess its transformation of agricultural management. A TV presenter is making a series about women living in the countryside. A group of schoolgirls visits the Agricultural Museum in Dokki and takes selfies with its life size dolls, supposedly representing farmers. Through documenting a series of intrinsically different visits, Azziara (The Visit) deconstructs how stereotypes about the Egyptian countryside are shaped. The film questions the role of mass media, and rural people themselves, in this process. The main driving forces behind this medium duration documentary are Marouan Omara and Nadia Mounier. Marouan teaches Film Production at the American University in Cairo and directed Crop, his first documentary that was entirely shot at Al-Ahram newspaper’s headquarters. Nadia is a freelance photographer who is into street photography that revolves around the city and the dialogue between the people and the space they move into. Azziara (The Visit) is the result of their first professional cinematic cooperation as a couple, in collaboration with Islam Kamal. Where does the idea behind Azziara come from? Marouan Omara (MO): “I was commissioned to make this film…
Azziara: Exploring the Stereotyping of the Egyptian Countryside Through Film
March 14, 2016
