2022 Winners & Shortlists

Write a short summary of what happens in the film

One Hell of a Ride is an Egyptian drug awareness film that depicts the sad and emotional journey of drug abuse. A young female teenager is strapped on a carousel, ecstatic and screaming in joy during the first half of the film - until at one moment she looks worn out, tired, regretful, broken and bruised. In the end, the rollercoaster metaphor hits the viewer with the reality of drug addiction.

Cultural / Context information for the jury

The film is universal in its core as drug addiction is a global problem. However, with Egypt drug addicts mainly being teenagers, we needed to find an activity (the rollercoaster ride) and the cast (young adolescents) to star in the film.

Tell the jury anything relevant about the cinematography.

The most important thing we needed to do is translate the concept of the amazing highs and horrendous lows of drugs. Our camera was fixed in one on the rollercoaster rollercoaster moving up and down - and this was done so that we show the effects of drug abuse in seemingly one shot to give it more relevance and power for the viewer watching. It was extremely difficult to give the film a one-shot effect - and the main reason it wasn't shot that way was because we needed to change the cast midway through the rollercoaster ride (due to sickness of the ride and to add make up to depict the downward spiral of drug abuse on the actor). We smoothly transitioned from joy to despair. The ad was shot in colour – transitioning to black and white, to give the uneasy feeling of drug use.