The three dimensions of Ahmad Al Fishawy in Cannes

Representing production companies Crystal Dog and Al Asdeqaa (The Friends) as well as the film Out of Order

The three dimensions of Ahmad Al Fishawy in Cannes

The Egyptian star Ahmad Al Fishawy is heading to the Cannes Film Festival to represent his production company Crystal Dog and its latest film Out of Order, which he himself stars in. He will also represent The Friends, a production company he helped to set up through the second edition of the Arab Cinema Centre (ACC) at the Cannes Film Market.

The film Out of Order was represented by the first edition of the ACC in 65th Berlinale European Film Market (EFM) in February this year, and released theatrically in Egypt that same month. The film is Crystal Dog's first production, in cooperation with tProductions. The film is written by Omar Sami and directed by Mahmoud Kamel.

Al Fishawy set up Crystal Dog in 2014, and named it after a piece of work made by the famous crystal designer Swarovski, which he encountered on one of his travels. The company seeks to produce world-class feature films that will attract attention and help develop the local and regional film industry. The company produces its own work as well as being a servicing producer for all stages of production, from development to post-production. The company has a slate of new projects, which, with the help of Al Fishawy's contacts and experience, they will realise in the near future.

Al Fishawy starred in Out of Order alongside Shereen Reda. The film is a psychological thriller that takes the audience on a journey exploring the strange relationship between two opposite people; Saeed (Al Fishawy) who lives a miserable life and is about to become homeless, and Hoda (Shereen) a loner who spends her days watching life go by.

Ahmed Al Fishawy will also be representing the production company Al Asdeqaa (The Friends), which was established in the early 80s by his parents, film stars Farouk Al Fishawy and Somaya El Alfy, with Ahmad Al Fishawy as one of the co-founders. They established this company to deliver projects that represent them as artists with a passion for cinema, and to prove that cinema is an industry, as well as art and culture, in order to develop a better quality of Egyptian cinema. Al Asdeqaa (The Friends) also produced the films Appeal from the Other World (Estighatha min Elaalam Elaakhar) and Omar's Journey (Mishwar Omar) both of which are considered classics of Egyptian cinema. Al Asdeqaa (The Friends) wishes to continue to produce such films, reflecting their first intentions in the art of cinema when they first founded the company.

The ACC is an international platform promoting Arab cinema. It is organised by MAD Solutions, whose strategy is to support filmmaking in the Arab world and promote it further by providing Arab filmmakers a window of opportunity to communicate with other international filmmakers through a number of activities organised by the ACC, thereby facilitating networking between production companies and co-producers, distributers and more.

The Cannes Film Market is the biggest film market in the world, which saw more than 960 films presented last year. The Film Market was established in 1959 to serve the many disciplines of filmmaking. The market attracts more than 10,000 film professionals annually from over 100 countries.