Arquivo / 49th mostra

Toha, a young girl working as a maid, faces all odds to ensure that her best friend, Nelly, the daughter of her employer, has a birthday party in exchange for a candle to make a wish. Laila, Nelly’s mother, is going through an impending divorce and is pressured to use the party as a last resort to reconcile with her husband. Toha, who has never had a birthday herself, takes the lead in organizing the celebration and becomes the driving force that makes it possible. In the process, she forms a bond with Laila, blurring the social boundaries between them. When attempts are made to stop Toha from attending the party by sending her back to her fishing village along the Nile, the girl’s unwelcome presence ends up revealing another side of the family. Disillusioned, Toha no longer understands her place within the classist paradigm to which she is subjected.

Winner of the Best International Narrative Feature, Best Screenplay in an International Narrative Feature, and the Nora Ephron Award, for Sarah Goher, at the Tribeca Festival.