Hend Bakr’s "The Tedious Tour of M" to Compete at Independent International Documentary Film Festival

Hend Bakr’s Egyptian documentary "The Tedious Tour of M" is set to screen at the 2024 Independent International Documentary Film Festival (OSA) in Moscow, Russia from May 23-25.

It will be competing for the festival’s Best Documentary Award.

The film is set to screen on May 24th, at 8:20 pm at the Voznesensky Center in Moscow.

Dedicated to the memory of famous Russian poet Andrei Voznesensky and his wife and muse Zoya Boguslavskaya — a novelist, essayist, and author of some of the largest cultural projects in Russia and internationally — OSА focuses on films about poetry, art, history, and memory.

"The Tedious Tour of M" follows filmmaker Hend Bakr as she breaks through Mohamed Hafez Ragab’s — one of the most renowned writers in the modern history of Egyptian literature — solitude to find out the reason behind his radical decision to self-isolate for the better part of 30 years, abandoning writing at the peak of his career.

The film premiered at the Aswan International Women’s Film Festival and received a Special Mention from the Gabes Art Festival in Tunisia.

It also screened in Cairo’s Downtown at the Goethe Institute’s headquarters and Alexandria’s Jesuit Cultural Center.

Written, directed, and produced by Bakr, "The Tedious Tour of M"  — which was co-produced by Ahmed Nabil, edited by Peter Adel, and lensed by Tamer Nady — also screened at last year’s edition of the Amman International Film Festival - Awal Film.

During the event, Bakr held a post-screening Q&A to discuss everything from meeting the man behind the myth in the flesh to the challenges she faced while filming the documentary, MAD Distribution handles distribution in the Arab world, and MAD World handles sales internationally.

Moreover, it participated in the IDFA Academy, the DOX BOX e-course — mentored by Raed Andoni — as well as the Robert Bosch Project Market, the Thessaloniki Agora Doc Market, and the Visions du Réel VdR – Film Market.

Hend Bakr is a director and producer who is interested in exploring common territories between writing and cinema.

Upon finishing her studies in filmmaking at the Jesuit Cultural Center in Alexandria, she co-founded Rufy’s Films — a major film production company based in Alexandria.

In 2013, she co-directed and co-produced "The Mice Room" an omnibus feature-length film that was officially selected for international film festivals in Dubai and Sao Paulo, among others.

Later on, in 2023, she made her first documentary, "The Tedious Tour of M."

She's currently directing and producing her second feature documentary, "Nas El Kabayen," and producing the feature documentary "And There Was Evening. And There Was Morning. The First Day."

Contributed by Yara Sameh