2020/2021 Winners & Shortlists

Write a short summary of what happens in the film

There’s a certain freedom in anonymity; the freedom for example to skip work and go swimsuit shopping which is really for the greater good. Swimsuits mean beach holidays, and holidays mean happy employees. And if what it takes to convince your boss of that is to tell him your dad’s in the ICU, then so be it. He’s stuck in a full-day meeting anyway; what he doesn’t know won’t hurt him. But what about your boss’ boss? What if he’s swimsuit shopping too? Our film tells the sad tale of this busted lie. What starts as a rather dramatic, but ultimately white lie, ends with a showdown in the fitting room between an MD and a junior. Two men, yelling at each other, dressed in blazers up top, and watermelon-print swimming trunks down below. Don’t go to City Centre Almaza if you don’t want to be seen. Everyone’s there.

Cultural / Context information for the jury

Cairo’s a huge, sprawling city, but inside that chaos, we’re a very tight-knit society, and our favorite hang-outs are neighborhood spots where the patrons are all regulars and more like family. Malls however are the exception to this rule, and going to the mall is now an activity that can - and often does - take up the whole day. Each new mall that pops up is further away and larger than the one before. Forget bumping into anyone else there, you’ll lose yourself if you’re not careful. City Centre Almaza however bucked this trend. Instead of setting up shop in a satellite city, it’s smack dab in the middle of one of Cairo’s busiest, most densely populated districts. It’s big enough to house everything you’d need in a mall, but still compact and cozy - the opposite of the overwhelming mall experience that we’ve come to consider as normal.