ALFILM 2015

The Mice Room is having its German premiere in Alfilm - Arab Filmfestival Berlin. It is screened on Sunday April 12th and Tuesday April 14th at 8 pm in Babylon movie theatre in Berlin. Nermeen Salem is presenting the film this time, so if you are in Berlin go watch the film and meet her.

Nermeen Salem in one of the interviews she had in Berlin

Sofia MENAR Film Festival 2015

The Mice Room or "Стаята с мишките" is having its Bulgarian premiere in Sofia MENAR (Middle East & North Africa) Film Festival this month. The film will be screened 3 times, on the 17th at 6.30 pm in G8 Cinema, on the 23rd at 8:15 pm in Euro Cinema and on the 28th at 7:00 pm in Dom na Kinoto. The film will presented by Manal El-Shenawi; the Ambassador of Egypt in Sofia, on Friday, January 28th.

SIFF 2014

When we received the e-mail confirming that The Mice Room or "O Quarto dos Ratos" in Portuguese will be screened in the prestigious São Paulo International Film Festival, we were really overwhelmed. For us it was such a great opportunity to screen the film in a festival with many great filmmakers from all over the world. The film was screened four times in the official competition of the festival's 38th edition. It was screend on: Oct. 16th, Oct. 17th, 18th and 20th.

Again, not all of us could travel to Brazil to attend the festival. Despite it was Mayye, Zedan & Nermeen's turn to travel, Magdy was the only available one to go on that trip. And this time we were supported by the Egyptian Ministry of Culture who covered Magdy's travel expenses. 

Magdy during the Q&A after the screening

Magdy's interview in the festival's daily video (in English)

Bridge International Film Festival 2014

The film is going to be screened in Bridge International Film Festival on October 7th, 2014 in Kosovo. 

Tetouan International Festival for Mediterranean Cinema 2014

We had two GREAT screenings in Tetouan International Festival for Mediterranean Cinema in Morocco. The film was screened on April 1st in Avenida hall and on April 2nd in Espagnol hall. The Moroccan audience loved the film. Unfortunately, the 6 of us couldn't make it to the screenings, but those who did told us so. They kept sending us pictures, updates and great feedbacks about the film in Morocco.

Hend is putting the film's poster in the entrance of the movie theatre

The festival was only able to invite two of us. This time we had to choose who should go. Tossing a coin seemed the most fair option and Ahmed Magdy Morsy and Hend Bakr were the lucky ones. However, Mayye Zayed & Mohamad El-Hadidi decided to apply to ADEF travel grant "Jiran". Eventually, It was Hadidi who got the grant and he was able to join Hend and Magdy 2 days later. After a long trip, he actually arrived just few minutes before the first screening. Here is an interview, moments before the first screening.

Hadidi & Magdy's interview in MAPTVMaroc (in Arabic)

Hend, Hadidi, Magdy and the film's posters 

We are really grateful to the Moroccan audience who made these 2 screenings and the whole trip unforgettable. We are also very grateful to ADEF for its great support for the film and the filmmakers. Thanks to it and to "Jiran" travel grant, Ahmed Magdy Morsy and Mohamed Zedan were able to attend the film's world premiere in Dubai International Film Festival last December and Mohamad El-Hadidi was able to attend this screening in Morocco. 

Hadidi, Hend & Magdy before the film's premiere in Morocco

Waiting for the movie theatre to be full hopefully

Hend is testing the DCP copy before the screening

The film is being screened in Espanol Hall

LAFF 2014

The film was screened last Friday in Luxor African Film Festival as it was competing for the feature film award. It was the film's Egyptian and African premiere and it was disappointing because of the festival's lack of organization. First of all the film's information and the directors' names were wrong in the festival's catalogue !! The film was supposed to be screened twice; first in a city called El-Tod and then in Luxor but the 2nd screening's location was wrong in the festival's printed and online programme. We had to ask the organizers to print some announcements with the right information and post them with the film's poster all over the place to make sure people know when and where the screening is taking place. Luckily we had some post cards so we tried to invite people to the screening. 

The film's post cards in LAFF 2014

We really wanted to go to the film's first screening but we were very surprised that there were no shuttles or cars to transport us to El-Tod which was one hour away so we couldn't go !! But we did go to the 2nd screening and it was ok. There were problems in the film's audio but at least people showed up.

The film is being screened in LAFF 2014

The 6 directors and the editor Islam Kamal in the Q&A after the screening

We do know that all these issues were not intentional and since this is just the festival's 3rd edition, we do hope that the upcoming editions will be better and more organized. Other than the film's screening we all had a great time in the city of Luxor. The best thing about this festival was the fact that some of the film's crew managed to travel with us. Sameh Nabil, Samir Nabil, Islam Kamal, Mark Lotfy, Mina Nabil THANK YOU.

DIFF 2013 Again

We were really surprised by most of the reactions we got after screening the film in Dubai International Film Festival which ended two weeks ago. We all know how important is the way this film was made but what was surprising and eye-opening is what people thought of the film itself whether they loved it or not. It was our first time to talk about it publicly and explain how it was made. The two screenings went really well and the film looked so different on the big screen. Many film critics wrote positively about the film and the film had its first review in the ScreenDaily :) We were also very happy to see regular people booking tickets in the movie theatre and paying actual money to watch our film. It was really quite an experience for the 6 of us and Mark Lotfy; the executive producer who joined us later in DIFF. 

Before the 1st screening

The film's ticket in the 2nd screening

We also had an panel discussion about teamwork with the filmmakers of another Lebanese film called "Void" that was competing for the Muhr Arab Feature award as well. It's also a collaborative feature made by 7 filmmakers so it was really important for both of us to talk about our different experiences especially with the fact the two films may sound similar but in fact they are very different.

Hend, Mayye and Nermeen during the panel discussion 

The most surprising thing for us was the press and all these interviews we had to do. At the beginning we had no idea what we should say but then by the end of the first day we did. Mohamad El-Hadidi's said it all in his live interview on Sky News Arabia. Thanks to the team of MAD solutions and especially Marwa, the film had a very good exposure and was always under the spot light. Here you can check all what was written about the film during the festival and afterwards.

Hadidi during his interview in Sky News Arabia

Hend during her interview in Nile Cinema

Many people are asking us now about our plans for the film in terms of distribution and we really have no clue. We want to submit it to different film festivals all over the world and maybe it's time now for us to learn more about distribution as we did learn everything else in the process of making this film.

DIFF 2013

The mice have finally left the room :) Yesterday we arrived here in Dubai to attend the 10th edition of Dubai International Film Festival. The film's World Premiere is today in 2 hours actually :) We are very excited but nervous at the same time. We are also very glad that the 6 of us could make it since the festival only invited 4 of us and we had no money to pay for the other two. This is why we applied to ADEF travel grant (Jeeran) to cover the travel expenses of Ahmed Magdy Morsy. Mohamed Zedan was coming anyway to DIFF to participate with a feature documentary in production in Dubai Docs in Dubai Film Connection but he was coming just for 4 days which means he was going to miss the screening. We were over the moon when ADEF accepted Ahmed Magdy Morsy's application. They were also generous enough to make an exception and cover the accommodation expenses of the extra 5 days Mohamed Zedan needed to attend the film's screening. 

So once we arrived yesterday we had no time to rest as we had to go to the festival's opening night. It was our FIRST time to walk on the red carpet and we really enjoyed it :) After all these years and all this hard time, it was our moment. 

The 6 filmmakers and their first time on the red carpet

Since the film is also part of Dubai Film Market, we had to print some postcards and the press kit. We also met MAD solutions our marketing and sales agent to give them all the needed documents.

The film's postcard on one of the festival's decks

Mohamad El-Hadidi has just came in and yelled at me because we have to go to the screening. I told him it's important to post something about the screening but he said it's more important to go to the screening and that was convincing :)