Egyptian-Austrian filmmaker Abu Bakr Shawky’s new feature The Stories is making its world premiere in the Official Selection competition at the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, before heading to the Red Sea International Film Festival as part of a wider festival rollout for the period drama. The film is produced as a co-production between Europe and the Arab world, with backing from companies in Austria, France, Belgium, Egypt and Sweden, and world sales handled by Paris-based Goodfellas.
Written and directed by Shawky, The Stories stars Amir El-Masry, Valérie Pachner and Nelly Karim in a narrative that stretches from the late 1960s through the 1980s. Set in Cairo during and after the Nasser era, it follows Ahmed, an aspiring pianist from a modest family of football devotees, who receives a letter from Liz, an Austrian girl answering his pen-pal ad. Their correspondence grows into a long-distance bond that relatives view suspiciously, while Ahmed clings to the dream of playing a public concert in Vienna. War, censorship, shifting governments and everyday setbacks complicate that ambition, even as Liz continues to urge him forward.
Festival notes describe the film as a tragicomic portrait of Egypt during years of political tension and football fever, structured as five interlinked chapters that leap across time. Shawky blends staged drama with archival material, including political speeches, football matches and period media, to evoke the rhythm of a country under constant change. The film’s pen-pal storyline draws directly on his family history: the director has said he wanted to reimagine how his Egyptian father and Austrian mother first met through letters, calling the project a story about “worlds meeting.”
The Stories continues a career that has already taken Shawky to Cannes with Yomeddine and to Toronto and Red Sea with Hajjan, and it arrives at a moment of rising visibility for Egyptian cinema on the festival circuit. At Tallinn, the film is one of two Egyptian titles competing for top prizes, alongside Sarah Goher’s Happy Birthday, while Red Sea has programmed The Stories as part of its 2025 lineup in Jeddah.
