Fajr (Yasmin Raeis) is a famous actress in Egypt playing the lead role in a young director’s feature debut. But after shooting most of the film, she refuses to participate in a kissing scene, and the filmmakers scramble to find a solution or face changing the entire film. While this fiasco ensues, one of the crew members begins filming a documentary about the history of kissing in Egyptian cinema, a project that incorporates archival footage from classic films and interviews with renowned Egyptian directors Mohamed Khan and Khairy Beshara. While the documentary temporarily distracts the filmmakers from the problem at hand, the situation with Fajr becomes more complicated than they could have imagined. This comedic mockumentary tackles tradition through an interrogation of Egypt’s present society and its filmmaking past.
Mizna presents the thirteenth Twin Cities Arab Film Festival in partnership with the Film Society of Minneapolis St. Paul. The Arab Film Fest showcases modern Arab cinema, featuring debut screenings of independent narrative, documentary, and experimental features and shorts.