Morad Mostafa at the Cannes Film Festival
May 19, 2023
I Promise you paradise, the latest film by former Meditalents laureate Morad Mostafa, has been selected for the 62nd Critics' Week at the Cannes Film Festival.
"Intimate, political and anchored in an ultra-contemporary social reality, Paradis features the character of a mute but determined teenager, ready to do anything to save his loved ones. Rarely in cinema has there been a quest so intense and minimalist at the same time, taking on the traditional motifs of the race against time. The issues raised by the film go beyond the simple Egyptian context to invoke the freedom to love whoever one wants, to come and go as one pleases, and simply to live happily and with dignity.
After graduating from the Berlinale Talents Campus in Durban and the Locarno Academy, Morad Mostafa began working as an assistant director on several independent films before collaborating as executive director on the feature film "Souad", officially selected for the 2020 Cannes Film Festival and the Berlinale. This Egyptian director is also the writer and director of two short films, Henet Ward and What we don't know about Mariam, both selected and premiered in Clermont-Ferrand three years in a row, screened in more than 300 festivals worldwide (BFI London - Cinemed Montpellier - Shanghai - Durban - EL Gouna - Cairo) and awarded with more than 30 international prizes.
He is currently developing his first feature film Aisha can't fly anymore, at the Cinefondation, the film residency of the Cannes Film Festival. Before being selected for the new session of the Cannes Film Festival residency, he participated in the 11th and 9th editions of the Lab Med organized by Meditalents and the 2022 Co-production Forum. During three sessions spread over the year 2022 and three others in 2020, he was accompanied in the writing of his feature film by Meditalents' speakers.