Monday 06 April 2026 – 02:04 AM
After its screenings at Zawya Cinema in downtown, the film Life After Siham, directed by Namir Abdel Masih, will begin showing next Wednesday in Cairo, at Madinaty and Giza Cinema in Dandy Mall, Qalyoubia at Nile View Cinema in Banha, and Alexandria in San Stefano.
The film will also participate in a number of festivals in the coming period, including the Malmo, Istanbul and Traverse Film Festivals in France, and the Hollywood Arab Film Festival.
Screening of the movie Life After Siham
In one of the discussions held at Zawya Cinema and moderated by director and producer Marianne Khoury, in the presence of director Namir Abdel Masih, the hall witnessed during the film screenings an interaction between laughter, applause, and many mixed emotions.
Khoury said to the audience before opening the floor for audience comments: I feel that you were affected by the film. I was also very impressed. The first time I met you, Namir, I was still a student or had recently finished my studies, and I came to Egypt wanting to go to Upper Egypt to visit your family there and get to know them after a period of absence from them.
He continued: The film Life After Siham took many years, and in the end it came out very well. When was the beginning and the decision to return, what prompted you to take it, especially since you are French-Egyptian and born in France?
Namir commented: I had made films before this film that had nothing to do with Egypt. I had made a film about my father and my mother did not appear in it. After watching it, she asked me where I was going? At that time, I realized that she wanted me to make a film that told about her, and I was overcome by a feeling of need to return to Egypt and visit my aunt and family. I did not know at the time how to return and began looking for a reason. The film was a way for me to return to Egypt. Cinema has always been a means of communicating with people, and through it I communicated with my father and mother. Because I am shy, but when I hold the camera, I gain courage and ask questions that the son cannot ask his father.
The events of the film take place in 76 minutes, and it is considered the second feature-length documentary work by Namir Abdel Masih, through which he continues to explore the themes of identity, belonging and memory, through a deep human treatment that touches the viewer’s conscience, as Namir dives into his family’s history extending between Egypt and France, using references from Youssef Chahine’s cinema that accompanies him on his journey, to tell about alienation and love above all else.
