“Aisha Can’t Fly Away”, interview with director Morad Mostafa, producer Sawsan Yusuf and Alessandra Speciale, curator of Final Cut in Venice

The 2024 edition of Final Cut in Venice was won by “Aisha Can’t Fly Away”, a film directed by Morad Mostafa and produced by Sawsan Yusuf. Fred Film Radio interviewed them together with the curator Alessandra Speciale. The movie is about Aisha, a 26-year-old African migrant caregiver who lives in Cairo where she witnesses the underworld of African migrants’ society and the tension between the different groups.

Pressure, routine, dreary work and an undefined relationship make her dreams cross to her reality leading her into an impasse. Final Cut in Venice supports films in post-production from all African countries and five countries in the Middle East: Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine and Syria. The goal of the project is to enhance the role of the Venice International Film Festival as a bridge builder supporting the production of independent quality films coming from Africa and Arab countries; providing concrete help to film production, and promoting the competitiveness of their audiovisual products on the international market.

A movie about alienation

“For me, the film is about alienation. It’s about the character, she’s belonging and doesn’t belong at the same time for her community. So if I can say something about the film in one word, it would be alienation”, says director Morad Mostafa. But is there an image or an element he started with to develop the project? “The first moment that came from me, when I was in a public bus in Cairo, and beside me, an African migrant girl was sleeping deeply for a while. And suddenly she wakes up screaming and crying. And she scared all the passengers in the bus. And then the bus stopped and she left immediately without any reason about what happened or this panic happened. This scene was stuck in my head for a long time. And from this moment, I was thinking about this character. About her dreams, her nightmares, her life in Cairo, because Cairo is a very hard city amongst people. So how about the refugees or strangers?”.

A bridge to the future

What does it mean from a production point of view to have Final Cut in Venice support? “Being at the Venice Film Festival, one of the biggest festivals in the world, is something that I consider as winning. For Final Cut, the connections were really great. And we got to meet a lot of people that we wanted to meet, and the list was amazing. We have been meeting some of the distributors we were targeting and the industry people” admits the producer Sawsan Yusuf. “And ending by winning the prize, that was something that we were really hoping for. And when it happens, I know that we have this in our CV of the film. And it will help in the visibility of it for the upcoming steps. It’s the first time we share any footage, and we still have a long way to go in the editing and the mixing and everything else. So at this point, I consider this is one of the biggest winnings that we had, and the biggest support. The positive energy and the push to continue on the journey and make sure that we are on the right track”.

The future of Final Cut in Venice

What can be deduced from the 2024 edition of Final Cut in Venice and, after 12 editions, what should we expect for the future? “This year we had seven films in post-production, three films from Egypt. So that means that Egypt is living a very rich and productive moment. And five projects up to seven got prizes”, underlines the curator Alessandra Speciale. “We resist 12 years and we hope to go on. Also because we receive more and more good feedback. For instance, this year we have three films coming from Final Cut in Venice 2023 selected in Venice. We have two films this year in Orizontti, Carissa, a South African film, and a film from Palestina, Happy Holidays. And a third film, coming from Final Cut in Venice last year, already screened in Giornate degli Autori, Sudan, Remember Us. So I think that means that we have been supporting films that then have a very interesting career in the Festival”.

Plot