El Sett

El Sett chronicles the life of legendary Egyptian singer Umm Kulthum, a treasure of the Arab world. With a remarkable lead performance by Mona Zaki, filmmaker Marwan Hamed celebrates the beloved performer who best echoed the aspirations and struggles of her time.

A stirring opening sequence transports us backstage to Umm Kulthum’s historic 1967 concert at the Olympia in Paris. Fans had crossed oceans to see her. Hamed shifts back and forth in time, imagining key moments in Umm Kulthum’s trajectory as an artist and as a woman, both strong and delicate. He traces her ascent – from reciting religious liturgies as a boy in disguise in her village in El Senbellawein to singing languorous love songs at the biggest theatres in Cairo. 

El Sett dexterously captures how Umm Kulthum’s purpose became entwined with major political events of her time, from the passage of the monarchy under British occupation, to the Egyptian Revolution of 1952 to the dream of Arab unity. Umm Kalthoum was larger than life: an influential woman of conviction, a pan-Arab heroine and the voice of a nation vacillating between hope and disillusionment. Emmy nominated music composer Hesham Nazih and Academy Award-nominated sound designer Wayne Pashley join Hamed (The Yacoubian Building, 2006; Kira & El Gin, 2022) to share her monumental story with grace.

– Delly Shirazi