STROUBIA | The Beginning of a Dream
✦ FESTIVAL AWARD
In a city that barely knew the meaning of life — a quiet place where dreams seemed too fragile to survive — the story began with a coincidence.
A random meeting between me and Ahmed Hassouna.
We didn’t have a plan, or a crew, or even a camera that could promise much.
All we had was a spark — an idea born out of a simple conversation about cinema, about stories, about that first shot that changes everything.
Neither of us knew it then, but that moment planted the seed for a dream that would take years to bloom.
We started with almost nothing.
No studios, no funding, no lights — only belief.
While the city around us stood still, heavy with silence, we decided to move.
To create something alive from within the stillness.
We wrote, filmed, acted, and directed — two people driven by pure will.
Every frame was a challenge; every scene, a small miracle.
Stroubia wasn’t just a film we were making — it was a reflection of our own survival.
Four and a half years passed.
Years filled with exhaustion, hope, and the kind of waiting that teaches you patience more than time ever could.
Sometimes we stopped because the power was out.
Sometimes because one of us had no strength left.
But through it all, we never stopped believing.
The camera became our witness — it saw the struggle, the growth, and the silent victories no one else would ever see.
When Stroubia was finally finished, we didn’t expect anything more than to share it with people — to say, we did it.
But fate had other plans.
The film was accepted into the Alexandria International Film Festival, and for the first time in my life, I packed a suitcase that carried a dream instead of clothes.
That journey wasn’t about travel — it was about crossing the distance between the impossible and what could be.
When Stroubia was finally finished, we didn’t expect anything more than to share it with people — to say, we did it.
But fate had other plans.
The film was accepted into the Alexandria International Film Festival, and for the first time in my life, I packed a suitcase that carried a dream instead of clothes.
That journey wasn’t about travel — it was about crossing the distance between the impossible and what could be.
And then came the moment.
They called the name Stroubia — the winning film.
For a second, I couldn’t move.
I saw every night, every rewrite, every broken camera, every forgotten morning.
I saw the first day — that small table, that first idea, that first spark.
And suddenly, it all made sense.
That night wasn’t about victory.
It was about transformation.
It was proof that even in places where life barely breathes, art can still be born — and thrive.
Stroubia was never just a film.
It was a statement.
A beginning.
The first step on a journey that continues —
one of writing, directing, acting, and dreaming.
Because once you taste what creation feels like,
you never stop chasing it.
After Stroubia, something changed — not around me, but within me.
The city was still the same, the world still uncertain,
but I was no longer waiting for permission to dream.
I had seen what passion could do when nothing else existed.
✦ BEHIND SCENE
