Warda to screen at EFM

The Arab Cinema Center (ACC) is screening Egypt’s first-ever found footage horror film, Hadi El Bagoury’s Warda, at the EFM tomorrow [Feb 10]. 

Produced by Egypt’s Film Clinic and The Producers, the film follows a video blogger who returns to his Egyptian rural home to investigate strange happenings that have been disturbing his family since the death of his father. Film Clinic founder Mohamed Hefzy scripted the film and Aroma Pictures co-produced. 

The film, which represents a new genre for the Arab world, created a stir on social media when it was released across four Arab territories last November. It went on to break non-holiday season box office records in Egypt. 

Mad Solutions, which is hosting the ACC, held test screenings before its release, a rare move in the Middle East, after which the filmmakers adjusted the final cut. 

The ACC is also introducing three Egyptian projects currently in production to buyers at the EFM – The Producers’ Hepta, X-Rated’s omnibus Cairo, Visions Of Love and Middle West Films’ Kiss Me Not, starring Yasmin Raeis.

Hepta is an adaptation of the best-selling novel of the same name by Mohamed Saded. Cairo, Visions Of Hope is an anthology film from 16 Egyptian directors about life in the country’s capital. Ahmed Amer’s Kiss Me Not, about kissing in Egyptian cinema, is the country’s first ever mockumentary.