Om Amira Wins Best Documentary at AanKorb: BBC Arabic Film and Documentary Festival

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BBC Celebrates Naji Ismail's Film

Om Amira Wins Best Documentary at AanKorb: BBC Arabic Film and Documentary Festival


With its slice-of-life portrayal of a mother's toil, Naji Ismail's Om Amira succeeded in grabbing the attention at Aan Korb: BBC Arabic Film and Documentary Festival, after receiving the Best Documentary Film Award. The festival mainly focuses on screening the best works discussing the enormous changes that swept over the Arab world since 2010 uprisings.

According to BBC's official page on Twitter, the crowd received Om Amira with a vehemently loud applause on its screening. On his personal Twitter account, Mohammed-Ali Abunajela, Communication Advisor at BBC Arabic Service, described Om Amira as
"A heartbreaking story from the heart of Egypt."

Written and directed by Naji Ismail, Om Amira is produced by his Rahala Production and Distribution. The 24-minute film tells the story of Amira's mother (Om Amira) who resides with her family on a roof top in Downtown, Cairo. Having no other option but to toughen up to support her family and her sick daughter suffering from a heart condition, she sells home-made fried potato sandwiches for living all night long until the sunrise in the streets of the sleepless city of Cairo.

In the few upcoming weeks, Naji Ismail's Om Amira will compete at the 56th International Festival of Documentary and Short Film of Bilbao (ZINEBI), which runs through November 14-21. First launched in 1958, the festival is considered one of the oldest film events in Spain.

From December 4-8, 2014, Om Amira will be part of The Author's Passage: Mediterranean Interlacements film event. First launched in Sant' Antioco, Sardinia in 2005, by the Cinema Club (Immagini), the festival presents non-competitive film screenings from across the Mediterranean countries, which have received awards from regional and international festivals, aiming to promote young filmmakers who use the short film to express their own point of view about the contemporary society.

Om Amira has received the ACT award as the Best Women's Film at the 17th Ismailia International Film Festival within the Short Documentary section. The film has also been officially selected to contend at the Short Film Competition within Berlin International Film Festival 2014, marking the first participation of an Egyptian film in the competition. Om Amira also was part of the Short Film Corner at Cannes Film Festival.