Award‑Winning Egyptian Film "The Settlement" Is Heading to Palestinian Audiences

After making waves on the festival circuit, winning awards, and earning widespread critical acclaim, Mohamed Rashad’s Egyptian workplace thriller "The Settlement" will be screened by Film Lab Palestine at 6:00 pm on Wednesday, February 11th, at the Ramallah Municipal Theater – City Hall.

The screening comes as part of CineMAD, a pioneering three-month pan-Arab film season launched by Cairo-based MAD Solutions to bring festival-celebrated Arab films to cinemas across the region.

Inspired by a real story, "The Settlement" WAS the only Egyptian title selected for the Perspectives section at last year’s Berlin International Film Festival.

The story revolves around two brothers — 23-year-old Hossam and his 12-year-old sibling Maro — living in a marginalized community in Alexandria. After their father dies in a workplace accident, the local factory offers them jobs as compensation, sidestepping legal accountability. As they settle into their new roles, the brothers begin to question the circumstances surrounding their father’s death.

Following its Berlinale premiere, the film earned the Audience Award at the sixth MiWorld Young Film Festival before embarking on an international journey.

It was later showcased at Italy’s African, Asian, and Latin American Film Festival (FESCAAL), Spain’s Afrikaldia Film Festival, where it won the Audience Award, the Oran International Arab Film Festival, where it received the Silver Whir Award, and Egypt’s El Gouna Film Festival, where it won the Bronze Star for Best Narrative Film, among other prestigious festivals.

In addition to the international reviews, the film also received regional praise, with Mohamed Tarek of Chorum describing it as “an Egyptian feature that deserves to be celebrated,” noting that it “significantly enriches the recent landscape of independent Egyptian cinema,” while Andrew Mohsen of Hia magazine wrote that “The Settlement presents a tragic character haunted by two pasts… which the director successfully conveys visually.

Featuring rising talents Adham Shukr, Ziad Islam, Hajar Omar, Hanaday Abd El Khalek, Mohamed Abdel Hady, and Emad Ghoneim, "The Settlement" is shot by cinematographer Mahmoud Lotfi and edited by Heba Othman, known for her work on the acclaimed Sudanese film "Goodbye Julia".

A joint production between Egypt, France, Germany, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia, the film is produced by Hala Lotfy of Hassala Films (Cairo), with co-producers Etienne de Ricaud of Caractères Productions (Paris), Kesmat Elsayed of Seera Films GmbH (Berlin), and ART (Jeddah).

Ricaud’s recent film "My Favourite Cake" won both the FIPRESCI Prize and the Ecumenical Jury Prize at Berlinale, while Elsayed’s ABO ZAABAL 89 was awarded Best Feature Documentary at the 45th Cairo International Film Festival.

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