A.B. Shawky on Casting Egypt’s Foreign Oscar Contender ‘Yomeddine’ In a Leper Colony

It took a long journey before Egyptian-Austrian director Abu Bakr Shawky managed to bring his unconventional road movie “Yomeddine,” which is Egypt’s candidate for the foreign-language Oscar, to the big screen.This ultimately uplifting drama in which a middle-aged man raised in a leper colony embarks with a sidekick and a donkey on a journey across Egypt to try to reconnect with his family was tough to finance and shoot.

But Shawky and producer Dina Emam’s efforts paid off handsomely in May when “Yomeddine” world-premiered in competition at the Cannes Film Festival, a rare case of a first feature making the fest’s official competition cut.

Shawky, who is an NYU Film School graduate and the recipient of Variety’s Mena Talent of the Year Award, spoke to Variety during the Cairo Film Festival about the impressive progression of his unique labor of love and how he chose,

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