Taha (Asser Yassin) is a middle-class pharmacist leading a solitary existence while caring for his disabled father, a former history teacher. His life is turned upside down when his father is suddenly and mysteriously murdered, prompting an obsessive quest to uncover his father’s dark past – one linked to an underground organisation with a dubious mission.
For their third consecutive collaboration, Marwan Hamed adapted Ahmed Mourad’s 2010 best-selling novel of the same name – another major commercial success for the pair. Their now-established trademarks of secret networks and dangerous substances are front and centre in the narrative.
The result is part murder mystery, part revenge thriller and part psychological neo-noir. Diamond Dust is an inquiry into the elusiveness of justice, the suffocating banality of middle-class life, the intergenerational inheritance of violence and the ambiguity of morality – a recurring theme in both Hamed’s and Mourad’s work. Beneath this dark genre piece lies a subtle commentary on the legitimacy of taking the law into one’s own hands in a lawless nation plagued by institutional corruption.
– Joseph Fahim
Film details
- Country of production
- Egypt
- Year
- 2018
- Festival edition
- IFFR 2026
- Length
- 162'
- Medium/Format
- DCP
- Language
- Arabic
- Premiere status
- Dutch Premiere
- Principal cast
- Asser Yassin, Menna Shalaby, Maged El Kedwani, Eyad Nassar, Rosaline Elbay, Shereen Reda
- Director
- Marwan Hamed
- Producer
- Zaid El Kourdy, Tamer Morsi
- Screenplay
- Ahmed Mourad
- Cinematography
- Ahmad Al Morsy
- Editing
- Ahmed Hafez
- Production design
- Muhammed Attia
- Sound design
- Hassan Abu Gabal
- Music
- Hesham Nazih
- Production company
- New Century Productions, Synergy Films
- Sales / World rights holder
- MAD Solutions
Shows of "Diamond Dust"
-
LantarenVenster 3In-personEnglish subtitled
-
Pathé 3In-personEnglish subtitled