Fatema Yasser’s LAST NIGHTS OF SUMMER to hold its world premiere at the Cairo International Film Festival

release date November 13 2024

Fatema Yasser’s Egyptian short drama LAST NIGHTS OF SUMMER will be holding its world premiere at the upcoming 45th Cairo International Film Festival, scheduled to run from November 13th to the 22nd at the Cairo Opera House.

The film follows cousins Farah, Rana, and Leila two years after their grandfather’s death as they return to their childhood home in Jordan for one last time.

Talking about the inspiration behind the film, Yasser said, “My cousins and I have a very strong relationship, one we thought could never be changed or challenged, even though we each lived in a different country and we only got to spend three months per year together. Still, our relationship felt unbeatable. If only we knew that no one can run from change.”

“My eldest cousin got married and afterward my grandfather died. He was a father figure to the three of us, for the lack of our real ones; his house was our home, a place where we spent days we could never get back. We grew, cried, fell in and out of love, played, danced, watched films, fought, and made up there. One day it was all gone, and to this day I don’t remember what our last time was like or when it was because we didn’t know it was the last one. I guess this film is my love letter to my home, my way of saying goodbye to these days.”

LAST NIGHTS OF SUMMER is directed and written by Yasser, produced by Beshoy Ayman Kaldas, lensed by Mohamed Ashraf Koushi, and edited by Khaled Moeit, with music by Donia Wael and sound by Sameh Nabil.

The film stars young actresses Tara Emad — who’s also one of the film’s executive producers — Shahd El Shater, and Farah Aboughattas.

Also, MAD World handles the film’s international sales while MAD Distribution handles its Arab-World sales and distribution rights.

Fatema Yasser is a visual artist who strives to express through the visual medium. She has worked on various projects as a one-woman crew, creating visual poems and experimenting with the film medium during college. She also has a major interest in photography, creating the Untold Stories About Everything & Nothing Exhibition at Photopia in Egypt in 2019 in addition to other exhibitions and commercial photoshoots, all while also working as a cinematographer on multiple short films and ads.

Fatema's films tend to explore the human state and emotions through a frozen moment in time. She is interested in films portraying complex relationships, mostly drawing from her personal experiences.