On the Fence

El-Zayat turns the camera on her own family to explore Egyptian society’s expectations of women. Her father treated her as equal to her brothers when they were growing up in 1980s Tema, a small village in Upper Egypt, where women are still expected to wear the veil and obey male family members. The film explores the tension that this has created within the family, which has been acerbated by her father’s death, as her mother berates her – albeit warmly – for smoking and refusing to wear the veil when they return to visit friends and family in Tema.

Born in Upper Egypt in the governorate of Sohag. She studied sociology at the University of the South Valley in Egypt. She worked as a film critic and journalist at Rosa El-Youssef newspaper. Her first short documentary, Ward. No. 6, has been screened on France 3 channel and won the Jury Prize for the Human Rights Competition at the Baghdad International Film Festival and the Jury Prize for best short documentary at the 2009 Cairo National Festival for Egyptian Cinema. Her second short documentary, The Black Dress, 2013, was screened at festivals in Egypt, France, India and Morocco. On the Fence is her debut documentary feature film. It premiered at the Cairo International Film Festival in December 2020.

Contemporary Arab Female Directors

Year of production: 2020

Duration: 1h 12m

Countries: Egypt, Lebanon and Turkey

Language: Arab with Spanish subtitles

Direction and Edition: Nesrine Lotfy Elzayat

Cinematographer: Olla Elmalah

Production: Hala Lotfy and Nesrine Lotfy Elzayat

Premiered at the 2020 Cairo Festival, Special Jury Prize at the 2021 Amman Film Festival, selected at the 2021 Bangkok International Film Festival, at the Ciudad del Este Independent Film Festival, 2021 Paraguay and at the 20211 Malmö Arab Film Festival in Sweden

Premiere in Spain