Egypt and Sudan / 2019 / 75mins / Documentary / Arabic

A group of exceptional young women in Khartoum are determined to play football professionally, in spite of the ban imposed by Sudan’s Islamist authorities. In Khartoum Offside, Marwa Zein captures their unwavering, fearless and often humorous struggle to be officially recognized as Sudan’s National Women's Team. Through her intimate portrait of these women, filmed over a number of years, we witness their hopes, their disappointments, and their unwavering grit.

Marwa Zein

Marwa Zein, award-winning Sudanese film director, script writer and producer for her acclaimed debut Khartoum Offside and acclaimed short fiction films A Game and One Week, Two Days. Zein was born in Saudi Arabia and has lived in Egypt. She initially studied chemical engineering at Cairo University and left after three years to study Cinema at the Academy of Arts in Cairo, Egypt in 2005. She graduated with honorable mention in 2009. She is currently studying graduate film in Germany. Khartoum Offside was awarded Best Documentary for 2019 at the 15th Africa Movie Academy Awards AMAA 2019. Carthage International Film Festival JCC awarded the film best first work by TV5 Monde. The film won the Best Documentary award at FCAT Spain in 2019 and Special Mention Award at Malmo Arab FF Sweden 2019. It was also nominated for Best Arabic Film at Cairo International FF 2019. The film had its world premiere at Berlinale Forum 2019 and was officially selected into many prestigious international festivals; Visions Du Reel, CPH DOX, Hot Docs and Sheffield, JCC, IDFA and CIFF 2019. Zein has worked as Assistant Director to many acclaimed Egyptian directors such as Halah Khalil, Khairi Beshara, Dawoud Abdelsayed and Shady Fakharany between 2009 and 2015. She has also worked as festival programmer for Sudan Independent Film Festival between 2014 and 2017. She established her own production company ORE Productions in 2017 based in Khartoum, Sudan. Learn More