Egyptian short film the Call of the Brook to compete at CFF

Egyptian short film El-Toraa or The Call of the Brook directed by Jad Chahine will compete in the 76th edition of La Cinef in Cannes Film Festival (CFF), which will take place between 16 and 27 April 2023.

The 12-minute film is the only Egyptian short film participating in the Short Film Competition and La Cinef (La Cinéfondation) segment on 25 April, according to a list which released by the festival.

The movie follows the story of a young boy who goes to a cursed brook and witnesses something that will seal his fate, the story written by Jad Chahine, starring Mahmoud Abdel Aziz, Heba Khayal and Sarah Shedid.

La Cinef is devoted to search for new talent, and it was created in 1998 with the goal of inspiring and supporting the next generation of international filmmakers.

This year, La Cinef has witnessed the submission of over 2,000 films from hundreds of schools from all over the world. El-Toraa made its way to the final selection of movies in the competition, which ended up being 16 movies.

The selection also includes Ayyurr by Zineb Wakrim which the first-ever Moroccan film to participate in this competition. The Jury is chaired by Ildikó Enyedi and will give out three La Cinef awards during the ceremony.

Jad Chahine is an Egyptian indie filmmaker, who was born in 1996. He studied filmmaking at the Higher Institute of Cinema, the Academy of Arts, Cairo, and graduated in 2018.