Sand City Earns Major Recognition in Cairo

At the Cairo International Film Festival on November 21, 2025, the director Mahde Hasan’s film Sand City was awarded the Henry Barakat Award for Best Artistic Contribution in the International Competition category. The film, produced by Rubaiyat Hossain and Aadnan Imtiaz Ahmed under the banner of Khona Talkies in association with Cinema Cocoon, premiered in Africa and the Arab world at the Grand Hall of the Cairo Opera House as part of the festival’s 2025 edition.

The story centres on two distinct characters whose lives are shaped by sand: Emma (played by Victoria Chakma) finds a severed finger while gathering cat-litter sand and becomes haunted by it; Hasan (portrayed by Mostafa Monwar) steals silica sand from his factory to craft glass at home, eventually losing himself in a dangerous glass-empire fantasy.

Sand City has already generated international acclaim, having earlier won the Proxima Grand Prix at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.