Film program | Coming Forth by Day

In Arabic with English subtitles
Coming Forth by Day 
Dir. Hala Lotfy, 2012
In Arabic with English subtitles 
Color, 100’

This unadorned minimalist debut feature depicts 24 hours in the life of a dutiful daughter and an overworked mother. Daughter-mother pair Soad and Hayat vigilantly care for their stroke-ridden father/husband, the household patriarch, who lies dying at the center of their world. Confined to their cramped apartment, time stretches amid the timeless weight of their efforts. When the daughter decides that she must leave for a few hours, her mother worries that something will go wrong, and new events begin to shift the status quo. Coming Forth by Day is a breakthrough film in the new realist wave of independent Egyptian cinema. 

Coming Forth by Day was made possible with the support of the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture (AFAC) and with the participation of SANAD, the Development and Post-Production Fund of the Abu Dhabi Film Festival, United Arab Emirates.

Hala Lotfy is a director, producer and the founder of Hassala Films. She studied filmmaking at the Cairo Film Institute and graduated with honors in 1999. Her documentary Feeling Cold (2005) received a number of awards including the Special Jury Prize at the National Film Festival (Egypt); Best Composition at the Pyong Yang International Film Festival and the Golden Hawk at the Rotterdam Arab Film Festival. She has directed seven documentaries for the TV series “Arabs of Latin America” (2006) on Al Jazeera’s documentary channel. In 2011, she received the prestigious Katrin Cartlidge Foundation Award, for new cinematic voices reflecting integrity of spirit in independent film. Her feature-length debut Coming Forth by Day (2012) won more than 12 international awards including the FIPRESCI and Best Director from the Arab World at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival, the Bronze Tanit at Carthage Film Festival and the Best Film award at the Milano African Film Festival. It also featured in DIFF’s “Greatest 100 Arab Films” list (2013).

This screening is taking place as part of the Filming Revolution program at the Sursock Museum.