Nour is a 13-year-old orphan living in the countryside in the early 1980s. He is smart, but is also a compulsive liar with vision problems and wears eyeglasses that don't quite remedy his weakened eyesight. To gain the respect of his fellow classmates, he ventures inside a haunted house right in front of the school, one that all the kids are afraid to enter. Inside, he finds a solitary old man who's hiding from the world. A friendship and apprenticeship are born between the boy and the old man, initiating a journey of self-discovery that lies at the very heart of this light-hearted drama.
Acting
Maged El Kedwany's grumpy hermit transformation is masterclass-level vulnerable.
Direction
Amr Salama balances 1980s Egypt nostalgia with genuine emotional stakes.
Writing
The lying-as-survival-mechanism thread pays off devastatingly well.
Director
Amr Salama
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
This was Egypt's Oscar submission in 2022, marking a rare moment when the country's Academy pick actually reflected domestic critical acclaim rather than political strategizing.
The 'haunted house' was a real abandoned villa in Mansoura that locals genuinely believed was cursed—Salama incorporated actual neighborhood folklore into the script.
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