Writing the Self, Writing the Nation:

حدوتة مصرية (An Egyptian Story)
Youssef Chahine, Egypt 1982, 129 min. Arabic with English subtitles

Curated by Madi Awadalla.

Preceded by a talk with Madi Awadalla and Iskandar Abdalla

During heart surgery, a filmmaker imagines his childhood self on trial for killing his adult self, revealing his ambitions, identity struggles, and ties to revolutionary Egypt. Hadouta Masriya occupies a distinctive place in Egyptian and Arab cinema as one of Youssef Chahine’s most ambitious works. A bold, playful, and deeply moving classic of Egyptian cinema, it stands as a major work of autobiographical filmmaking: formally inventive, politically charged, and expansive in its understanding of how the story of a self can also become the story of a country.(Madi Awadalla)

Madi Awadalla is a writer and transdisciplinary artist whose practice work explores the politics of the body, borders, and belonging.

Iskandar Abdalla is an Egyptian researcher, writer, and film curator based in Berlin. He studied history, film, and  Islamic studies in Germany and has served as the Artistic Director of ALFILM – Arab Film Festival Berlin since 2024. His work includes numerous personal essays and published studies on Arab cinema, sexuality, diaspora, and racism in Europe.