“Hawwy” Represents Arab Cinema at the International Rotterdam Film Festival

Director Ibrahim Al Batout’s film “Hawwy” has been chosen to enter the competition at the 40th International Rotterdam Film Festival which will be held at the Dutch city between the 26th of January and the 6th of February 2011. The event is the largest independent films festival held in Europe.Also noteworthy is the fact that the producers of “Hawwy” received support from the Hubert Pulse institution and the Dutch Jan Frieman institution.“Hawwy” is director Al Batout’s second independent feature length film following “A’yn Al Shams” which was the first Egyptian production to be awarded a gold medal at the Taormina Mediterranean Film Festival. The work was chosen together with eleven others from 75 titles that were submitted to a workshop aimed to promote African cinema held at the 31st International Durban Film Festival. The International Durban Film Festival was held in South African between the 22nd July until the announcement of the winning titles on the 1st of August.