Egyptian and Arab Features to Premiere at Toronto Film Festival

Although the full schedule of the Toronto Film Festival hasn’t been released yet, the organizers of the annual cinema event have released a lineup of 50 selections screening at this year’s event. Scheduled for September 10th to 20th, the line-up includes a number of Arab productions we can’t wait to see, including works from Egypt and Palestine!

Topping our list is Egyptian-German-Danish documentary 'Ash Ya Captain' by filmmaker Mayye Zayed which is an introspective look into the daily trials of an aspiring female weightlifter living in Egypt.

The second contender sees Egyptian-British actor Amir El Masry in a British production directed by Ben Sharrock titled 'Limbo', where El Masry stars as a Syrian asylum-seeker who is left to navigate a new life in a small and remote Scottish island.

Also featured at TIFF is the Palestinian film 'Gaza Mon Amour', which is also a running contender at the Venice Film Festival. It's directed by twins Tarzan and Arab Nasser, and is loosely based off of true events in 2014, when a Palestinian fisherman discovered an Ancient Greek statue off the coast of Gaza. In this film, his life is reinterpreted thanks to a spicy romance with a local dressmaker.

The full schedule will be released on August 25th, but until then you can check out the lineup on tiff.net/films