Palestinian director Mai Odeh took her 8-month-old baby, Elia, with her to the El Gouna Film Festival, where Odeh is supervising the Palestinian cinema program that was added to the festival’s program in its sixth edition.
“200 Meters,” One of the most prominent works of Odeh, a co-production between Palestine, Jordan, Italy, and Sweden. The film tells the story of Mustafa and his wife, who come from two Palestinian villages separated by a separation wall, despite the distance between them being only 200 meters.
The film follows the life of a married couple whose unusual living conditions pose a challenge to their marriage. When their son falls ill, Mustafa rushes to cross the security barrier but is denied entry. Here, the 200-meter journey turns into a terrifying odyssey. The film participated as a project in the El Gouna Launchpad in the development phase of the inaugural edition of the El Gouna Film Festival, where it won the Mentor Arabia Award for Empowering Youth and Children and received 5 awards from the El Gouna Film Festival.
An exceptional edition of the El Gouna Film Festival is being held after it was postponed from its scheduled date last October due to the events in Gaza, after adding a program dedicated to Palestinian cinema, in addition to the festival program, to include screening a group of films about Palestine in cooperation with the Palestinian Film Foundation.
The sixth edition of the El Gouna Film Festival includes 23 films in the feature films competition, 15 films in the feature documentary films competition, and 14 films in the short films competition, in addition to a group of films that are being screened outside the competition.
Published December 19, 2023.
