Cannes Winner Ayman El Amir Preps Moon-Set Satire for Thessaloniki

Egyptian director Ayman El Amir, co-director of the Cannes prize-winning documentary “The Brink of Dreams,” is preparing a dark comedy about Egypt’s obsession with “fame at all costs.” The feature, titled “A Pair of Shoes in the Dark Corner of the Moon,” will pitch for partners at the Crossroads Co-Production Forum of the Agora, the industry arm of the Thessaloniki International Film Festival, running Nov. 5–15.

The film is in advanced development, with initial financing in place and plans to shoot at the end of 2028. It has already collected two $10,000 grants at the CineGouna Industry Platform — one from Arab Radio & Television and one production grant from ESLSCA University.

What is the story about?

Set in a remote Egyptian village, the film follows George, a quirky Coptic dreamer desperate to become a famous actor but stuck playing an extra in low-budget films. When his village is promised a sewage mega-project, George also catches a miraculous break on a space-themed reality TV show promising a voyage to the moon. Overnight, he becomes a celebrated national hero.

Then the show is exposed as a scam. George becomes a laughingstock. Exiled by his community, he returns home to discover the promised sewage project was also an illusion. The failed star embarks on a journey of self-discovery, uncovering his true identity, finding belonging and reclaiming a defiant spirit.

El Amir writes and directs. Nada Riyadh produces through their Cairo-based company, Felucca Films. The pair co-directed “The Brink of Dreams,” which won the Golden Eye Award for best documentary at the Cannes Film Festival in 2024 — the first Egyptian film ever to receive that prize. Variety also named them MENA Talent of the Year.

Why a satire now?

Speaking to Variety in Thessaloniki, El Amir situates the film in a precarious moment of Egyptian history, a period of “unregulated capitalism” in which government visions of a “New Republic” have produced “new satellite cities, massive highways, grandiose bridges, extravagant beach resorts and new upmarket luxurious gated cities” — an unattainable reality for millions living on the margins of this “Egyptian Dream.” The film, he says, asks: “How do you plan a future that is not in your control?”

“In a society where we only discuss failure as a precursor to success, ‘A Pair of Shoes in the Dark Corner of the Moon’ is a contemporary dark comedy fable that satirizes our obsession with success and fame at all costs,” El Amir says.

“At its core, this film explores the boundaries of aspiration in contemporary Egyptian society, the invisible barriers that block out dreams of equality, opportunity and self-made success,” he continues. “It’s a deeply reflective story about identity, belonging and how we perceive ourselves.”

A question of representation

“ The Brink of Dreams” followed the Panorama Barsha Troupe, an all-female theater group in a remote village in southern Egypt who staged street plays denouncing underage marriage, domestic violence and patriarchy in a deeply conservative society. It was the first Egyptian documentary ever distributed commercially in the country.

With the new film, El Amir returns to Barsha, where he spent several years. Daily life there — “an unforgiving sun, a parched earth and a high unemployment rate and a failed economy” — stands in stark contrast to the glitzy narrative of a “New Egypt.”

Audience Q&As after “The Brink of Dreams” surprised him with the stereotypes city-dwellers from Cairo and Alexandria hold about their fellow citizens in the south. “During the last decade, Egyptian cinema became predominated by images of people living in luxury compounds and gated communities that represents only less than 10% of Egyptian society,” he says. “We rarely see people from the south on screen. For me, that is a question of representation that I find very important and urgent.”

What does this change for the film’s path to screen? Co-production, most likely. “Our primary goal at Thessaloniki is to connect with strategic European and international co-producers who share our vision,” El Amir says. Village scenes will shoot on location in southern Egypt, while the space-themed reality TV sequence can be filmed in any co-production country.