2019 Winners & Shortlists

Write a short summary of what happens in the film.

The film is an emotional roller-coaster, telling the story of how Mohamed Salah is perceived in the eyes of every Egyptian. The film opens on an establishment shot of Mohamed Salah. We see a man from his back, and the camera gradually moves to reveal Salah’s face. We cut to Salah running, then he pauses to catch his breath. We then intercut between shots portraying Salah in his natural habitat, and people naturally loving Salah. We see Salah playing with his daughter, and we cut to boys wearing Salah’s jerseys. Egyptians watching Salah playing soccer, and cut to Salah walking through the Anfield. Egyptians cheering for Salah, men taking pictures with his posters, his photos stacked in cars and carefully placed on walls; Salah is everywhere in Egypt even though he’s physically abroad. We end the film with Salah’s running shot, as he gets up to catch his breath.

Cultural/Context information for the jury

With a diverse population such as Egypt’s, disagreements appear on all fronts; politics, social issues, religious views, and even sports. When Vodafone decided to take a communal approach, we needed to find a strong common ground. Nothing to manifest the idea of community more than the power of unity, and nothing to portray Egyptians’ power of unity more than the extraordinary footballer, Mohamed Salah. He appears to be an admired figure, a success story, a dream, an inspiration. And so, in the eyes of 100 million, he is a phenomenon. People have seen Salah the soccer player, the winner, the achiever, and so this time, we portray the human side of Salah. We film him with his daughter, in his home in England and casually fooling around. Egyptians have hunger for Salah. And so, we feed this by giving them a fresh angle of his life.

Tell the jury anything relevant about the direction.

Shooting Salah was always going to be a challenge. Simply because Egyptians have seen too much of him. We thought of what they haven’t seen. They know Salah the footballer, but not Salah the father, or the Salah the husband living there in Liverpool on his own. We knew we wanted the film to cross cut between two cities, Cairo and Liverpool. Keeping the stark differences and contrast between them. Even climate and lighting would always be changing, between a cold over cast Liverpool and a warm, dusty and over populated Cairo, as we present a casual more dressed down version of Salah, who’s out on a sunday night enjoying his fish and chips.