Lagoonie Film Productions (Shahinaz Elakkad) will participate in Cannes Film Festival this year with its first film, Feathers of a Father, by Egyptian director Omar El Zohairy, which will land its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival (6-17 July). The film will participate within the International Critics' Week, which showcases first and second feature films by directors from all over the world. The film is a co-production between Egypt, France, Netherlands and Greece and received support from numerous international institutions during its different phases of production.

Marking his feature debut, Omar El Zohairy co-wrote Feathers of a Father with Ahmed Amer (Ghodwa and Kiss Me Not). The film is co-produced by the two French producers Juliette Lepoutre and Pierre Menahem (Still Moving), along with Lagoonie Film Productions (Shahinaz Elakkad); Mohamed Hefzy (Film Clinic, Egypt); Derk-Jan Warrink and Koji Nelissen (Kepler Film, Netherlands) and Giorgos Karnavas and Konstantinos Kontovrakis (Heretic, Greece). Film Clinic Indie Distribution (FCID) handles the film’s distribution across the Arab world.

The film was developed with the support of the Torino Film Lab and Cinéfondation, and received a Post-production Award at the Atlas Workshop of the Marrakech International Film Festival.

Shot by Kamal Samy and edited by Kamal Saqr, Feathers of a Father stars Domiana Nassar and Sami Bassuiny. The film follows a passive mother who’s stuck in her daily routine taking care of her house and children. Her life turns upside down when a magician, at her four-year-old son’s birthday party, turns by mistake her authoritarian husband into a chicken. As she tries to survive her new life alone without her husband, the weak passive mother‘s character will soon change into a new one.

Omar El Zohairy studied at the Cairo Cinema Institute and worked as an assistant director alongside some of Egypt’s most prominent directors, including Yousry Nasrallah and Youssef Chahine. His first short film Breathe Out won the Jury Special Mention Prize at the Dubai International Film Festival. His second short The Aftermath of The Inauguration of The Public Toilet at Kilometer 375 was the first Egyptian film to be selected for the Cannes Cinefondation at the Cannes Film Festival. The Feathers of a Father marks El Zohairy’s first feature film.