Post Production Film Projects

The Lottery​

Egypt / Arabic / 80 min

Director: Karoline Kamel

Producer: Mai Saad

 

Synopsis:

“The Lottery” is an intimate autobiographical portrait of a Coptic Egyptian middle-class family who holds on to an elusive dream; winning the Diversity Visa lottery of the United States. Markos (the father) has applied for 20 years and has never been selected. Nevertheless, Markos wants his three children, Cherry, Karoline, and Michael to do the same. Using sarcasm, laughter or heated discussions the siblings are always talking about their failure to leave. They blame their father for living an unstable life. Michael believes that the lottery isn’t enough of a plan, yet follows in his father’s footsteps. Cherry defies her family’s pressure to meet marriage suitors but complies with applying to the lottery. Meanwhile, Karoline tries to figure out her feelings towards her father’s dream. In “The lottery” Karoline shadows her family in their daily discussions and life, giving an authentic heartfelt story of family bonds and dreams.

Director:

Karoline Kamel:

Karoline is a journalist, researcher, and writer. Graduated from Tanta University-Media studies. Since 2008 Karoline has worked with various media organizations. She established her name by working on a number of investigative stories and opinion pieces first at Al Shorouk newspaper then at Mada Masr. She has published many stories about the struggles of the Christian community in Egypt and marginalized communities in Egypt. At the same time, she works with the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights as a researcher on women’s rights, refugee rights, and violence based on religious minorities in Egypt. She has completed a number of workshops on documentary filmmaking and photography. In 2020 Karoline wrote “The sky is the limit” a short documentary released on the Mada Masr YouTube channel. Karoline has also directed ” black suits you” an 8 minutes short documentary that is in post-production. “The Lottery” is her first feature documentary.

Producer:

Mai Saad:

Mai Saad is a producer, writer, and project manager. After studying English Literature she started her career as an assistant director with Youssef Chahine and quickly became the first assistant director for a number of prominent filmmakers in Egypt. She worked on several feature blockbuster films in Egypt which also doing Tv advertisements and short films. Then she made a shift to producing when she worked with a media collective, producing and directing short documentary films and videos that had social relevance. She joined SEE MEDIA PRODUCTION to launch its Film brand SEERA Films and has produced one Short documentary “Searching for Ghazala” directed by Bassam Mortada which was selected for several festivals including the Cairo international film festival cinema of tomorrow competition. Mai is currently producing a feature documentary in post-production “The Lottery”, producing the first feature narrative for SEERA films directed by Ahmad Abdalla.