Hala Elkoussy
Hala ELKOUSSY (1974, Egypt) graduated from Goldsmiths’ College in London in 2001. In 2004, she co-founded the Contemporary Image Collective (CiC), an artist-run initiative dedicated to the visual image, based in Cairo. In 2006, she completed a two-year residency at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam, and in 2010 she won the Abraaj Capital Art Prize. In 2013, Elkoussy published her first book, a photographic journal about urban life after the Egyptian Revolution. Cactus Flower (2017) is her first feature film, while her film East of Noon (2024) was exhibited at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival’s Director’s Fortnight. Elkoussy lives and works in Cairo and Amsterdam.
Filmography
On Rooftops and Other Points of View (2005, installation), From Rome to Rome (2006, short), White Bra (2006, short), We’re by the Sea Now (2006, short), Mount of Forgetfulness (2010, short), Al bahth an madina – fi awraaq Sein/In Search of a City (in the papers of Sein) (2012, short), Zahret al sabar/Cactus Flower (2017), East of Noon (2024)
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Hala Elkoussy op IFFR
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East of Noon
Hala Elkoussy | 109' | Netherlands | Dutch Premiere
A modern fable of youngsters standing up to a tyrant showman who rules their town. -
In Search of a City (in the Papers of Sein)
Hala Elkoussy | 34' | Egypt | World premiere
Idler Sein’s perambulations become a layered declaration of love to the city of Cairo. Shot before, but edited after the Egyptian revolution. -
Cactus Flower
Hala Elkoussy | 104' | Egypt | World premiere
Struggling actress Aida and bourgeois lady Samiha suddenly find themselves on the streets of a tense Cairo. Smooth-operating street urchin Yassin lend -
Mount of Forgetfulness
Hala Elkoussy | 27' | Egypt | International premiere
Improbable heroes overcome problems in Cairo in this new, fresh variation on Egyptian oral and musical culture. -