Egyptian documentary ‘Lift Like a Girl’ (or ‘Ash ya Captain’ in Arabic) – directed by Egyptian filmmaker Mayye Zayed - has just received the Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animated Film (aka Dok Leipzig)'s Golden Dove Award.

Staff Writer

Nov 03, 2020

Egypt's 'Lift Like a Girl' Wins Best Film at One of World's Oldest Documentary Festivals

The past few days are turning out to exhibit a series of achievements by Egyptian filmmakers on the international stage. After Sameh Alaa’s ‘I Am Afraid to Forget Your Face’ recently won the Short Film Palme D’Or at Cannes Film Festival, Egyptian documentary ‘Lift Like a Girl’ (or ‘Ash ya Captain’ in Arabic) – directed by Egyptian filmmaker Mayye Zayed - has just received the Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animated Film (aka Dok Leipzig)'s Golden Dove Award under the Long Film Category.

Dok Leipzig is one of the oldest documentary film festivals in the world, having just wrapped its 63rd edition. A couple months ago in September 2020, ‘Lift Like a Girl’ was selected for the Toronto International Film Festival, where it had its world premiere.

The documentary follows Captain Ramadan at his parking-lot-turned-makeshift-gym, which is located in a busy neighbourhood in Alexandria. For more than 20 years, the ex-professional weightlifter and Olympic athlete has trained female weightlifting champions, including his own daughter, Nahla Ramadan, a World Champion and Olympic athlete. He also trained the first Arab female two-time Olympic medallist, Abeer Abdel Rahman. In the documentary, we watch the emergence of another up-and-coming champion, 14 year-old Zebiba, who has been training with Captain Ramadan for five years.