The 43rd edition of the Cairo International Film Festival took place from the 26th of November to the 5th of December 2021. Given the historical importance of Cairo International Film Festival, A Kiss in the Desert, as the selection committee, has decided to narrow down the selection criteria by only considering the titles holding a world/international premiere status. By taking this direction, we agreed to make our program a unique event in the audiovisual world rather than functioning as a satellite of other major film festivals.

Still from Blind Spot, an animation by Lotfi Achour, Tunisia.

The short films curated for this 43rd edition exhibited a wide range of formats and styles, chosen to be in dialogue with the socio-political context of Egypt, as well as with themes that have a universal appeal.


Still from And I was Left Behind, a documentary by Maysaa Al-Mumin, Kuwait/Qatar.

The programme included different formats, genres, and styles: 11 fiction, 3 experimental, 6 documentaries and 2 Animation films. The films were selected from less represented regions/communities, like Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, and films produced by ethnic minorities elsewhere. In addition, the Egyptian films selected were in their majority debuts.

The Jury

The jury was selected to reflect the diversity of the programme. The Jury members were:
Cintia Gil, a Portuguese film programmer, and a member of the Executive Board of Apordoc 
– Associação pelo Documentário since 2015.
Sameh Alaa, an Egyptian film director, and the recepient of the Short Film Palme d’Or for his film
I Am Afraid to Forget Your Face, at Festival de Cannes 2020.
Machérie Ekwa, a Congolese director, and the recepient of the JCC jury prize and the Golden Screen at the Festival Écrans Noires in Youandé.

The Programme

Slot 1
Deliver Me by Jannous Aukema, South Africa. 27 min.
Nights and Days in America, by Louise Zhang, China/USA. 11 min.
Black Box by Yun Kinam, Republic of Korea. 10 min.
The Ditch by Amr Abed, Egypt. 16 min.

Slot 2
Prairie Flowers by Mariana Xochiquétzal Rivera, Mexico. 19 min.
And I Was Left Behind by Maysaa Almumin, Kuwait/Qatar. 7 min.
Echolocation by Nadia Shihab, Iraq/USA. 8 min.
Then Came Dark by Marie-Rose Osta, Lebanon. 15 min.
Memento Mare by Hala Elkousy, Egypt/Netherlands. 10 min.

Slot 3
Above the City by Malika Mukhamejan, Kazakhstan/Russia. 24 min.
Skin River by Mário Macedo, Portugal. 19 min.
Literal Legend by Dimitris Tsakaleas, Lida Vartzioti, Greece. 9 min.
IMNST by Noura A.Rahman, Egypt. 14 min.

Slot 4
Ambulantes by Emerson Eduardo Silva, Gabriela Nassar,
Gustavo Sibem, Henrique Grise, Brazil. 3 min.
Happy Town by James Camargo De Alba, Colombia. 8 min.
Habib by Nima Latifi, Afghanistan/Germany. 12 min.
Blind Spot by Lotfi Achour, Tunisia/France. 12 min.
Three Disappearances and a Song by Nadia Ghanem, Egypt. 25 min.

Slot 5
Poem for a Distant Village, LIU Bing, China. 28 min.
And That's It by Boris Khlebnikov Russia. 10 min.
Little Farewells by Shantel Liao, Taiwan. 4 min.
It's Nothing Nagy, Just Hang Up!, Youhanna Nagy, Egypt. 23 min.

De*Sync 16: The Short Film Competition CIFF

On March 20th, 2022, A Kiss in the Desert was invited by Cairo Image Collective to give a talk on the Short Film Competition at Cairo International Film Festival.


CIC Talk. courtesy of Cairo Image Collective 2022.

The Talk covered the story behind our participation in the programme, the criteria set by CIFF, the decisions taken from our side to choose relevant films holding an internation/world premiere status, our methodology using a colour coding system to better communicate, the challenges we faced to screen some titles, including censorship and cultural challenges, the films in competition, selecting the jury members and the reception of the programme, the feedback, and the errors we encountered during the screenings. The discussion was followed by the screening of Slot 5 (listed above) as a case study.


CIC Talk. courtesy of Cairo Image Collective 2022.

The discussion included screenings of excerpts from the films of the programme.