Sisterhood is found at the El Gouna Film Festival

The fourth edition of the El Gouna Film Festival (GFF) saw the launch of the ‘Sisters in Film, Rawiyat’ initiative.

The Tunisia-Paris based non-profit came as a part of GFF’s mission to support and empower women in Arab cinema.

Founded by nine emerging women directors from across the Arab world, the initiative hopes to support and nurture new and existing female talent and challenge the status quo of the industry.

The idea for the collective was sparked in 2019, while the women met at a regional workshop held in Tunisia and then later again in Morocco. Whilst working together, it soon became apparent that they all shared the same social, cultural, and economic struggles.

“We wanted to do something as if we try to face our problems as a collective, we will be much stronger than facing them individually,” says Rawiyat co-founder, Kawthar Younis to Euronews.

The Egyptian director made her debut feature-length documentary ‘A Present from the Past’ in 2016, but when it came to producing her second film, she lacked the backing needed to get her project off the ground.