Ibrahim El Batoot not angry for excluding “Hawi” from the official competition of the Alexandria International Film Festival.

Director Ibrahim El Batoot stated that he has no hard feelings about his movie “Hawi” being excluded from the Alexandrian International Film Festival to represent Egypt and replaced by the movie “Palm of the Moon” for director Khaled Youssef.The organizing committee had originally asked El Batoot to enter his movie as the representative of Egypt in the contest after Khaled Youssef had declined with his movie “Palm of the Moon” in fear that releasing it in the competition will burn the movie on a commercial level. Later on Khaled Youssef changed his mind and accepted the offer which meant that El Batoot’s movie will withdraw from the competition.Al Batoot stated in an interview with “Al Sherook” newspaper that of course he wanted to enter the competition, but more importantly he wanted to release the movie in the festival of the country the movie was made in.“Hawi” takes place in Alexandria portraying different characters living in the community and how their lives were affected with the constant changes surrounding them and how they in turn interact with it, under severe social conditions. “Hawi” had already achieved the prize for best film in Doha Tarabeeka Cinema Festival last year.