PODCAST | Chiara Nicoletti interviews A. B. Shawky,director of the filmYo Meddine.
A few of us know that in Egypt there is still a leper colony where people with this illness are put aside from society. With Yo Meddine, A. B. Shawky takes this subject into the light to transform it into a story about a great friendship,the one between Beshay and little Obama. Yo Meddine is in competition at the 71st Festival de Cannes and he explains why the topic of leprosy is nowadays more of a social problem than a medical one.
Yo Meddine: Beshay – a man cured of leprosy – has never left the leper colony in the Egyptian desert where he has lived since childhood. Following the death of his wife, he finally decides to go in search of his roots. With his meagre possessions strapped to a donkey cart, he sets out. Quickly joined by Obama, the Nubian orphan he has taken under his wing, Beshay will cross Egypt and confront the world with all its sorrows, its hardships and moments of grace, in his quest for a family, a place to belong, a little humanity…
For the page of the film on the Festival website, click here.
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