Souad

• Ayten Amin
• 102 min
• Egypt, Tunisien, Germany
• 2021
• Fiction

Two Egyptian teenage sisters navigate visibility, moral customs and the beginning of adulthood in a captivating and gripping portrayal of friendship and deep existential loneliness.

Souad and her sister, Rabab, live in the city Zagazig, where their existence is characterized by a distanced adult world and peer pressure. Young girls are held in check by both religious conservativism and sexual objectification, worsened by social media that hardly spares any teenager today. When Souad spiritedly fantasizes about Ahmed, an influencer from the major city Alexandria, it is her self-assured, but vulnerable, younger sister who, after a shocking event, seeks him out and establishes a diffuse relationship with the older, and urbane idol. In its style and tone, Ayten Amin’s acclaimed second feature film is similar to the shaky world of social media, which shapes our experience of reality.

- Katarina Hedrén

• Drama
• Samhälle
• Religion
• Kärlek