About the film

An award-winning director duo sweeps us into the chaotic world of a family of voluptuous female belly dancers in working class Cairo as they struggle to practice an art in danger of disappearing. The film centres on Reda, a charismatic widow and ex-dancer with seven children and one on the way, her wise confidante, and three of her daughters, who now dance at raucous all-male celebrations for a living. Reda has all-out fights with her own mother about money, argues fiercely with her daughters about their love lives and drug use, and acts as an agent for their contracts, but she just as passionately defends them from dangerous clients, bails them out of jail and dispenses advice about love and life. Music, dancing, a blistering daytime sun and the magic of Cairo nights pulse throughout this astonishingly intimate and rare portrait of women whose art is desired but no longer considered reputable.

Wybrane nagrody i festiwale / Selected Festivals and Awards: 2010 - Międzynarodowy Festiwal Filmów Dokumentalnych w Montrealu (RIDM), Wróżnienie Jury do Nagrody Kino-Pen/Montreal International Documentary Festival (RIDM), Jury’s Mention for the Kino-Pen Award, 2011 - MFF Cannes /IFF Cannes, 2011 - MFF Dubai /IFF Dubai, 2011 - DOK Leipzig, 2011 - Festiwal Filmów Dokumentalnych w San Francisco/San Francisco Documentary Festival, 2011 - Festiwal Filmów Dokumentalnych Doxa Vancouver, Honorowe Wyróżnienie, Nagroda Colina Law’a dla Najbardziej Nowatorskiego Kanadyjskiego Dokumentu/Doxa Documentary Festival Vancouver, Honourable Mention, NFB Colin Low Award for Most Innovative Canadian Documentary, 2011 - Hot Docs, Specjalna Nagroda Jury dla Kanadyjskiego Filmu/Hot Docs, Special Jury Prize for Canadian Feature