Egypt / 2024 / 23mins / Drama / Arabic

While living in isolation, Mona and her young son await the birth of a new baby while still carrying the weight of the grandma’s recent death. When son begins listening to her pregnant belly, convined his grandmother’s spirit exists inside and wants to return, Mona is unsettled by his quiet certainty. As she struggles to comfort him, she confronts her own fears of failing as a mother, of being unable to fill the absence left behind, and of opening herself to the unknown. With each passing moment, the fragile balance between grief and hope threatens to collapse, forcing her to face the life growing inside her and the love she’s afraid she can’t give.

Ahmed Samir

An Alumni of NYAFF31 with his short film “Mirah”. Samir was born and raised in Alexandria, Egypt. He started his filmmaking career in 2022 with his short film “Zaffa”, winning an award at ZIFF that funded his next short Mirah. Samir likes to take risks and experiment in every short film he makes, he thinks of shorts as a “playground” of filmmaking, where anything is possible. His first collaboration with a well known actress “Mona Hala” is in his film “TETA” an arthouse horror-drama short. His upcoming short is set in Zanzibar, Tanzania to be filmed this summer. Learn More