Give up the Ghost by Zain Duraie Takes Part in Alexandria Short Film Festival

Give up the Ghost by Zain Duraie participates in the 6th Alexandria Short Film Festival (26-31 January) to be screened on 27 January at 3:00 PM. This will be the second screening of the film after its screening at El Gouna Film Festival where it won El Gouna Star for the Best Arab Short Film.

Founded and organized by the Department of Art Association, the Alexandria Short Film Festival is a celebration that takes place in Alexandria every year focusing on the short film culture and on cultural exchange. It provides opportunities for young filmmakers from different countries and offers them workshops and seminars to allow them to develop their skills.

The film landed its world premiere at the Venice International Film Festival, and it recently took part in the Sudan Independent Film Festival and the Rabat International Author Film Festival (FICAR) (Festival International du Cinema D'Auteur de Rabat)

Give up the Ghost tells the story of Salam whose dreams of becoming a mother shatters when she finds out that she is unable to have children with her husband. Written and directed by Zain Duraie and produced by Tabi360 (Alaa Alasad), the film brings together Maria Zurek and Zaid Bakri in the leading roles and is shot by DOP Benoit Chamaillard. MAD Solutions handles the film's distribution in the Arab world.

Zain Duraie has worked on several regional and international films. As part of her graduation project at Toronto Film School, she wrote and directed two short films. In 2010, she kick started her career in the filmmaking world as a trainee at Philistine Films with prestigious filmmaker Annemarie Jacir and acclaimed producer Ossama Bawardi. She worked on projects at Different phases; from pre-production to post-production, including When I Saw You, The Rendezvous, Thank You for Bombing and Wajib. Duraie's debut short fiction film, Horizon, had its world premiere at Palm Springs Shorts fest. The film also screened at several film festivals including; Montreal World Film Fest.

Her latest film Never Leave Me, Duraie was selected in 2017 to work with acclaimed Bosnian filmmaker Aida Begić in Turkey/ Sanliurfa. Afterwards, Duraie began developing her feature film screenplay abroad, which was selected out of 70 countries with only one other participant to be developed with the prestigious Asia Pacific Screen Academy and in parallel with its selection at Meditalents Residence and Torino Film Lab. Duraie just finished shooting her recent short film Give up the Ghost, which landed its world premiere at the Venice International Film Festival, and won a Special Mention at the MAFF Market Forum in 2018.