Tunisian actress Afef Ben Mahmoud just won Best Actress Award for her role in Streams, by director Mehdi Hmili. Ben Mahmoud received the award during the closing ceremony of the 43^rd Cairo International Film Festival that took place at the Cairo Opera House, where the film competed at the festival’s Horizons of Arab Cinema Competition.
 
Landing its Arab world premiere at the Small Theater - Cairo Opera House on Wednesday, the film’s screening witnessed a massive attendance by members of the press and the media, followed by a panel discussion in the presence of the film’s director. The Horizons of Arab Cinema’s jury featured Saudi actress Fatima Albanawi, Lebanese director Hady Zaccak, and director Tamer Mohsen.
 
The film also landed its world premiere at the Locarno Festival in the Netherlands in August, this year, where it competed at the Filmmakers of the Present (Concorso Cineasti del presente) competition. It then screened at Zurich Film Festival, Festival International du Film Francophone de Namur, Mostra de València – Cinema del Mediterrani, and the International Festival of Mediterranean Cinema in Montpellier (CINEMED).
 
Amel is released from prison after an adulterous affair. In the lower depths of Tunis, she is searching for her missing son Moumen. During her journey, Amel faces a Tunisian society in full collapse.
 
Written and directed by Mehdi Hmili, Streams stars Afef Ben Mahmoud, Iheb Bouyahia, Zaza, Sarah Hannachi and Slim Baccar and features music composer Amine Bouhafa. MAD Solutions handles the film’s distribution across the Arab world. 
 
Streams is a joint production between Yol Film House (Tunisia), Tarantula (Luxembourg), MPM Film (France), Clandestino Production (Tunisia), in association with Allam Film (USA). It was developed in the prestigious Canadian workshop (Grand Nord) and received the screenplay Prize of the Institut Français, the CineGouna post-production prize, as well as grants from The Tunisian National Center of Cinema, The Film Fund Luxembourg, and The French National Center of Cinema.
 
Mehdi Hmili is a Tunisian writer and filmmaker. He studied cinema in Tunisia before graduating from the Paris Film School. While in France, he directed his short trilogy about love and exile: “X-Moment” (2009), “Li-La” (2011) and “The Night of Badr” (2012). His first feature-length film, “Thala Mon Amour” (2016), was selected in worldwide film festivals like Torino Film Festival, Carthage Film Festival and won several prizes. His last production “Fouledh” was selected in La Fabrique Cinema at the 72nd Cannes Film Festival.