Yousry NASRALLAH

Director, Writer

Egypt

Egyptian filmmaker Yousry Nasrallah studied economics and political sciences at Cairo University and went on to become a film critic and assistant director in Beirut. Upon returning to Cairo in 1982, he worked with Youssef Chahine on Bonaparte in Egypt, with production company Misr International Films going on to produce his first films. He shot his first feature film Summer Thefts (Directors’ Fortnight) in 1988, following up with The Mercedes (1993) which was selected at the Locarno Film Festival, On Boys, Girls and the Veil (1995), a documentary about Egypt’s young people, and The City (1999), which was awarded Locarno’s Special Jury Prize. His eponymous book-to-screen adaptation of Elias Khoury’s novel The Gate of Sun was in the Festival de Cannes’ Official Selection in 2004. He went on to film The Aquarium (2008) and Scheherazade, Tell Me a Story (2009) which was screened at the Venice Film Festival. In 2011, his Interior/Exterior was included in 18 Days, an anthology of shorts screened at the Festival de Cannes in honour of Egypt. The following year he was back in the Official Selection, in Competition with After the Battle. His last film Brooks, Meadows and Lovely Faces was presented in Official Competition at the Locarno Film Festival in 2016