Mostafa El Kashef’s ‘The Village Next to Paradise’ Selected for Cannes

‘The Village Next to Paradise’, a film by award-winning Egyptian cinematographer Mostafa El Kashef, has been selected for the Cannes Film Festival. This is El Kashef’s second film to be showcased at the prestigious festival.

Directed by Somali filmmaker Mo Harawe, and co-produced by Austria’s Freibeuter Film and Somalia’s MAMAAI, the film was entirely shot in Somalia and is set to compete in the Un Certain Regard section.

In 2023, El Kashef’s short film ‘I Promise You Paradise’ (also titled as ‘Eissa’) made history as the first Egyptian film to win the Rail d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival’s Critics Week. Directed by Morad Moustafa, the drama film earned El Kashef eight awards for best cinematography.