Khaled El Hagar

HARAM EL GASAD

Egypt 2016,124′

SINS OF THE FLESH

A drama set against the 25th Jan 2011, revolution as a back drop, the story examines love, revenge, passion and the misuse of power and concerns four people who live on a desert farm during the Egyptian revolution… we are not seeing any images of the Egyptian revolution, the four people in the farm only get the news through the radio, and what is happing in the farm reflecting what is happing in Egypt. The whole film was shot in one location, a farm in the desert and we used only natural lights like fire and lamps, no electricity. The film went through a rough time with Egyptian censorship for it is political theme and was only allowed to be shown for audience over 18 years old. Since the film come out in Egypt last month it has created huge outrage from some critiques and some audiences but also created lots of  debates  in Egyptian television and media regarding the rights of freedom of expression for artists, writers, film makers after five years from the  Egyptian revolution and this debate is still going on. 

Khaled El Hagar

Born in Suez, Egypt in 1963. He gained a degree in Law from Cairo University in 1987.  Khaled worked as assistant director to Youssef Chahine and other national and international films in Cairo. In 1994, with support from the Ford Foundation, he acquired a post graduate degree in film directing and writing from The National Film and TV School, England. He now lives between Egypt and the UK. His film El Shooq (Lust) was number one at Egypt box office one week before the revolution in 2011, and won Best International Film, Golden Pyramid and Best Actress awards at Cairo International Film Festival, El Shooq. Lust was Egypt official Oscars entry for 2012. Till now he directed / wrote 7 award winning feature films, including Room to Rent, Little Dreams and Women’s Love and 5 short films. Between 2011 and 2014, he directed four award winning TV Drama series. In 2016 he wrote and directed Haram El Gasaad (Sins of the Flesh), produced by Gaby Khoury, Misr International Films. Khaled’s films have been shown in more than 150 international film festivals, including Montréal, New York, London, Rotterdam, Torino, Cairo, Burkina Faso. He has won 35 international and national awards for his films.

http://www.misrinternationalfilms.com

Karaman Cinema, Saturday 17/9, 18:30