A PROMISE TO THE SEA and LOSS awarded at the Cairo International Short Film Festival

Two MAD distributed short films, A PROMISE TO THE SEA and LOSS, were lauded with praise and laurels alike at this year’s Cairo Short Film Festival, running from December 14th to the 21st.

Starting off with Hend Sohail’s A PROMISE TO THE SEA, the captivating short film won one of the festival’s most esteemed awards– a Golden Tower for Best Fiction Film– as well as an honourable mention for Best Woman Director. The film follows the character Zain, who, after irrationally deciding to steal his mother’s lifeless body during funeral preparations, recklessly drives far from his humble hometown and hits the highway, whereupon he chances upon an unexpected friend. Together, they journey towards the sea on a quest for closure.

Director Hend Sohail revealed what she had hoped to achieve with A PROMISE TO THE SEA, saying, “Through this film, I wanted to tell the story of an extraordinary relationship between a son and his mother. When Zain loses her, he refuses to accept this, leading him to embark on a risky journey, discovering that the world is much bigger than he had previously thought.”

Directed and co-written by Hend Sohail alongside Omar Zinhom, A PROMISE TO THE SEA stars Nabil Botros Talaan, is lensed by Mostafa El Kashef, edited by Samir Radwan, and produced by That’s A Wrap’s Nourhan Yasser and co-producers Younes Medhat, Mohammed Al-Omda, Ahmed El-Naggar, Dina Shokry, and Hussain Hamadi.

On to LOSS, a harrowing short tale by Rami El Kassab based on true events, the story follows a group of migrants as they journey into Egypt on the back of a pickup truck. En route, in the middle of the desert, they suffer a significant and harrowing loss.

The film won an honourable mention for Filmmakers of Youth category.

Reflecting on the inspiration behind his film, Al-Kassab said “The story is based on a true event that took place in 2017. When I first heard about it, I was profoundly moved, fuelling my passion to bring the story to life through a cinematic lens, one that reinterprets the experience and delves into the complexities of loss, its causes, its impacts, and the search for meaning in its aftermath, documenting real-life moments that often go unnoticed.”

The short film stars Yara Qassem, Ayman Ta’ma, Hala Sardah, Ammar Shamaa, and Mohannad Maki, with editing handled by Mikhael Michel, cinematography by Abdullah Ashri, and composition by Sami Martini.

MAD Distributions is handling both film’s regionally, while MAD World handles their respective rights worldwide.

Hend Sohail is an Egyptian director and editor who studied editing at the High Cinema Institute, where she assisted a number of notable directors on several short films and commercials.

After graduating, she worked as a director’s producer for esteemed commercial directors, enriching her skills further before pursuing her dream of becoming a director and working on small social media projects and commercials. A PROMISE TO THE SEA is her directorial debut.

Rami Al-Kassab is a director, creative producer, and screenwriter who studied film at the Higher Institute of Cinema in Cairo. His focus is on films that address the suffering of refugees and the psychological effects of war on immigrants and Syrians residing in their homeland. He directed the short films MEDALLION and THE BUTCHER AND THE CAT.