Cairo's Zawya cinema keeps artistic ambition alive and screens indie films that others won't

Malay Mail

03-06-2025

CAIRO, June 4 — In the heart of Cairo, a small cinema has for over a decade offered a unique space for independent film in a country whose industry is largely dominated by commercial considerations.
Zawya, meaning 'perspective' in Arabic, has weathered the storm of Egypt's economic upheavals, championing a more artistic approach from the historical heart of the country's golden age of cinema.
Zawya was born in the post-revolutionary artistic fervour of the 2011 uprising that toppled longtime president Hosni Mubarak.
'There was this energy where people wanted to produce and create, not just in cinema, but in all the arts, you could feel it,' said Zawya founder Youssef Shazli.
In the time since, it has escaped a wave of closures – some forced – of art centres across the capital.
Egypt had long been known as the Hollywood of the Arab world, but in the decades since its mid-century heyday, the domestic industry has largely been restricted to crowd-pleasing blockbusters.
'It's often said that we're lucky to have a large film industry, with infrastructure already in place,' said filmmaker Maged Nader.
'But the truth is this industry operates solely on a commercial logic,' leaving little room for independent filmmakers, he added.
Yet Zawya has survived in its niche, in part due to the relative financial stability afforded to it by its parent company Misr International Films.
Founded in 1972 by Egyptian cinematic giant Youssef Chahine -- Shazli's great uncle -- the company continues to produce and distribute films.
Young talent
For Shazli, Zawya is 'a cinema for films that don't fit into traditional theatres'.
But for young cinephiles like 24-year-old actress Lujain, 'it feels like home,' she told AFP as she joined a winding queue into the larger of Zawya's two theatres.
Since 2014, Zawya's year-round programming – including both local and international short films, documentaries and feature films – has secured the loyalty of a small but passionate scene.
Its annual short film festival, held every spring, has become a vital space for up-and-coming directors trying to break through a system that leaves little room for experimentation.
'I didn't even consider myself a filmmaker until Zawya screened my short,' said Michael Samuel, 24, who works in advertising but says the cinema rekindled his artistic ambition.
For many, that validation keeps them going.
People arrive at the Zawya cinema in downtown Cairo on May 1, 2025. — AFP pic
'Zawya has encouraged more people to produce these films because they finally have somewhere to be seen,' said the cinema's manager, Mohamed Said.
When Mostafa Gerbeii, a self-taught filmmaker, was looking for a set for his first film shoot, he also turned to the cinema.
Without a studio or a budget, Zawya 'just lent us their hall for free for a whole day', he said, saving the young director 100,000 Egyptian pounds (around US$2,000) to rent a location.
The heir
The light of its marquee spilling onto downtown Cairo's Emad al-Din Street, Zawya is the 21st-century heir to a long artistic tradition that still lingers, though often hidden away in corners of the district's broad avenues.
'It's a unique neighbourhood with an equally unique flavour of artistic and intellectual life,' said Chihab El Khachab, a professor at the University of Oxford and author of the book 'Making Film in Egypt'.
Starting in the late 19th century, the area was home to the city's biggest theatres and cabarets, launching the careers of the Arab world's most celebrated singers and actors.
Today, its arteries flowing out of Tahrir square – the heart of the 2011 uprising – the neighbourhood is home to new-age coworking spaces and galleries, side by side with century-old theatres and bars.
Yet even as it withstands the hegemony of mall multiplexes, Zawya cannot escape Egypt's pervasive censorship laws. Like every cinema in Egypt, each film must pass through a state censors before screening.
'Over time, you learn to predict what will slide and what won't,' Shazli said.
But even the censors' scissors have failed to cut off the stream of ambition among burgeoning filmmakers.
'Around Zawya, there's a lot of talent – in every corner,' Shazli said.
'But what I wonder is: are there as many opportunities as there is talent? That's the real issue we need to address.'