Maha has always been passionate about cinema, and as a set designer she's become an expert at creating imaginary worlds. Under immense pressure at work, she sights another life on the horizon and begins slipping between realities-one resembling the film set she's designed and the other her supposed real life. As she grows ever more entangled in each, the border between reality and imagination becomes blurred, and she must choose for the first time what she truly desires.
Production
The nested set designs blur reality so seamlessly you'll doubt your own room.
Acting
Horeya Farghaly carries two timelines with devastating, quiet precision.
Direction
Abdalla's patient unraveling of Maha's psyche mirrors her own dissociation.
Director
Ahmad Abdalla
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Director Ahmad Abdalla cast actual Egyptian indie filmmaker Ibrahim El Batout as himself, blurring documentary and fiction in ways that echo Maha's reality slippage.
Released during Egypt's post-revolutionary creative renaissance, the film's exploration of women trapped between tradition and ambition resonated deeply with Cairo's artistic class — many of whom saw their own burnout reflected in Maha's fractured psyche.
EG
