

Unemployed grad? Start a desert commune. Government hates it. She does it anyway.
Lamia is an active girl also known as Lamada, who graduates from university, but fails to find a job and finds herself unemployed for several years. She takes matters into her own hands and decides to go into the desert with a few friends to cultivate a patch of it and build a community of their own. However, this angers some senior officials and they try to seize their project.
Acting
Sherihan carries the whole damn desert on her back.
Direction
Abdelaziz turns sand into character, oppression into tension.

Director
Mohamed Abdelaziz
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Made during Egypt's 1990s economic restructuring, the film channels real graduate unemployment crises that sparked actual desert settlement movements.
Sherihan was primarily a dancer and TV star — this rare dramatic lead was considered a major risk that paid off critically.