Nahed El Sebaï

Egyptian auteur Yousry Nasrallah brilliantly updates the Arabian Nights for our era of televised politics and women’s rights. Three love stories delving into gender struggles are cleverly interwoven with a talk show hostess’s crisis, in a stylish and savvy, deeply engaged neo-melodrama.

One of the most undervalued of recent Cannes competitors is Yousry Nasrallah’s impassioned After the Battle. Deftly weaving between melodrama, poetic flourishes and the socio-political complexities of Egypt’s mid-revolution democracy, Nasrallah has made an admirably energetic and smart film.