Safar: Before the Summer Crowds + Q&A

We are offering a special multibuy deal for the Safar Film Festival: book tickets for three or more individual films and get them for £9 each

A Q&A with curator Rasha Salti and scriptwriter Ghada Shahbender follows the screening.

A gorgeous beachfront resort, deserted during the low season, provides the evocative backdrop for this finely wrought psychological drama, directed by one of Egypt’s most celebrated master filmmakers, Mohamed Khan.

Before the Summer Crowds plays with a remarkably dexterity with contrasts, characters hiding in plain sight, an attractive divorcée spurned by her lover who seduces the alluring younger beach boy, an esteemed executive who creepily spies on her every move. It also pushes the boundaries of some of Egyptian cinema’s pervasive taboos (implemented since the 1980s as “clean” cinema), as it films a luscious kiss and a woman enraptured with lust.

Before the Summer Crowds (Qabl Zahmet al-Saif), dir. Mohamed Khan, Egypt 2015, 90 mins. Arabic with English subtitles.