Mohammad Saved from the Waters

Egypt, France, United Arab Emirates

Producers: Delphine Morel

Production Company: TS Productions

Project Logline:

Safaa Fathy’s brother Mohammad was sick from kidney disease when she began filming his response to the illness; as he gradually wastes away, she also records his family’s heartrending anxieties. Subtly and seamlessly, she expands her scope to include the Nile and its importance to all Egyptians, revealing how the river’s befouled waters are responsible for the spike in kidney failure nationwide. This is a sublime and regal portrait of distress.

Safaa Fathy was born in Minia, Egypt. She studied at the Sorbonne and received a doctorate in theater. She has directed, or co-directed, fictional and documentary films for television, including Hidden Faces (1991), Doisneau (1993), Ghazeia, danseuses d’Egypte (1993), Le Silence (1997) and Derrida’s Elsewhere (1999), which resulted in a book collaboration between Fathy and Derrida.