What happens when traditional views on the position of women clash with the modern way of life embodied by social media? This is what Egyptian director Ayten Amin addresses in her film, which she co-wrote and produced.
On the bus, a young student is telling one passenger about her fiancé being a soldier in the army, next she is chatting to someone else about her fiancé being a doctor. Both stories are untrue. 19-year-old Souad from Zagazig, a small town in Egypt’s Nile Delta, leads a complicated double life: her life in the virtual world of Facebook is filled with fun and excitement, it is the life she would love to have, but in the real world she has to adapt to the traditional views of her conservatively religious parents. It all leads to an inevitable collision, particularly when she can no longer hide her fantasy world from her family. The consequences are immense, especially for her younger sister Rabab.
Ayten Amin (1978, Egypt) studied film criticism and film in Cairo. Her graduation film Her Man screened at Clermont-Ferrand, among other festivals. She co-directed the documentary Tahrir 2011, which premiered at Venice. Her feature debut, Villa 69, screened in Abu Dhabi, Malmö and Cannes. Souad is a hybrid ‘documentary fiction film’ exploring the lives of two teenage sisters in Egypt’s Nile Delta.
