''Yomeddine'' () (English: ''Judgement Day'') is a 2018 Egyptian

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...

written and directed by

Abu Bakr Shawky Abu Bakr “A.B.” Shawky () is an Egyptian-Austrian writer and director. His first feature film, '' Yomeddine'', was selected to participate in the 2018 Cannes Film Festival and was screened in the Main Competition section and compete for the P ...

, in his directorial debut. Starring non-professional actors, it follows Beshay (Rady Gamal), an outcast shunned and condemned by the outside world due his

leprosy Leprosy, also known as Hansen's disease (HD), is a Chronic condition, long-term infection by the bacteria ''Mycobacterium leprae'' or ''Mycobacterium lepromatosis''. Infection can lead to damage of the Peripheral nervous system, nerves, respir ...

. While searching for his father he meets the Nubian homeless boy Obama (Ahmed Abdelhafiz), together they travel through

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

. ''Yomeddine'' means "Day of Judgement" in

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

. The film had its world premiere in the main competition of the

2018 Cannes Film Festival The 71st annual Cannes Film Festival took place from 8 to 19 May 2018. Australian actress Cate Blanchett served as jury president for the main competition. Japanese filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-eda won the ''Palme d'Or'', the festival's top prize, fo ...

on 9 May 2018, where it was nominated for the

Palme d'Or The (; ) is the highest prize awarded to the director of the Best Feature Film of the Official Competition at the Cannes Film Festival. It was introduced in 1955 by the festival's organizing committee. Previously, from 1939 to 1954, the festiv ...

and won the

François Chalais Prize The François Chalais Prize ( French: ''Prix François Chalais'') is awarded at two main events, the Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Film Festival (; ), until 2003 called the International Film Festival ('), is the most prestigious film fe ...

. It was selected as the Egyptian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the

91st Academy Awards The 91st Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best 2018 in film, films of 2018 and took place on February 24, 2019, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles. During th ...

, but it was not nominated.

Plot

Beshay, a Coptic man who had

, was taken by his father to a

leper colony A leper colony, also known by many other names, is an isolated community for the quarantining and treatment of lepers, people suffering from leprosy. '' M. leprae'', the bacterium responsible for leprosy, is believed to have spread from East ...

north of

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

as a child. There he married the mentally ill Ireny. When Ireny dies, he sees her mother for the first time and realizes that he too has family. Beshay is cured of leprosy, but not of the scars: he has scars on his face, deformed hands and seems never to have grown up fully. He loads all his belongings onto a donkey cart with which he skims the garbage dump for a living and sets off for his native village near

Qena Qena ( ' , locally: ) is a city in Upper Egypt, and the capital of the Qena Governorate. Situated on the east bank of the Nile, it was known in antiquity as Kaine (Greek Καινή, meaning "new (city)"; Latinized transliteration: Caene) and ...

. Shortly after his departure, Obama, a Nubian orphan boy, jumps on the cart. Together they travel south through Egypt, in search of what is left of his family. They are confronted with setbacks and good fortune, people who steal from them and people who help them.

Cast

*Rady Gamal as Beshay *Ahmed Abdelhafiz as Obama

Reception

The film has 77% rating and an average rating 6.80/10 based on 30 reviews on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

. On

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

the film has a weighted average score of 62 out of 100 based on 12 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Release

''Yomeddine'' was selected to compete for the

at the 71st Cannes Film Festival, where it had its world premiere on 9 May 2018. The film was also screened in the official competition of the 2nd El Gouna Film Festival on 21 September 2018. At the festival's closing ceremony, ''Yomeddine'' was awarded the El Gouna Star for Best Arabic Narrative Film and was the co-recipient of the Cinema for Humanity Audience Award. ''Yomeddine'' received a theatrical release in France by

Le Pacte Le Pacte is a French motion picture company headquartered in Paris. It specializes in film distribution, co-productions and international sales. It was founded by Jean Labadie in November 2007, shortly after he was forced out of his previous co ...

on 21 November 2018. On 18 September 2018,

Strand Releasing Strand Releasing is an American film production company founded in 1989 and is based in Culver City, California. The company has distributed over 300 auteur-driven titles from acclaimed international and American directors such as Apichatpong W ...

acquired the North American distribution rights for the film. In May 2019, Strand Releasing premiered ''Yomeddine'' at

IFC Center IFC Center is an art house movie theater in Greenwich Village, Manhattan, New York City. Located at 323 Sixth Avenue (Avenue of the Americas) at West 3rd Street, it was formerly the Waverly Theater, an art house movie theater. IFC Center is ...

in New York as well as three Los Angeles' locations including the Laemmle on the Westside and various theatres in

Pasadena Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial d ...

and the

San Fernando Valley The San Fernando Valley, known locally as the Valley, is an urbanized valley in Los Angeles County, Los Angeles County, California. Situated to the north of the Los Angeles Basin, it comprises a large portion of Los Angeles, the Municipal corpo ...

References

External links