Adel Khalaf

When Egypt's climate changes , turning the country into a frozen state, a group of intelligence officers travel to Italy to get a device that can stop the frost, posing as a movie crew.

Three sexually-frustrated friends are determined to watch a porno video but have no private place, no VCR, and no TV, so they go on a misadventure in which their group constantly increases, taking on more and more sexually-frustrated people and falling into one mishap after another, all because of the restrictions of society.

The crusades come to life in Egyptian artist Wael Shawky’s beautiful Cabaret Crusades. Inspired by the writings of Lebanese writer Amin Maalouf, Shawky’s film trilogy explores the horrors of the medieval holy wars in the Middle-East – from an Arab perspective. With a cast made up entirely of puppets, the third part, The Secrets of Karbala (2014), centres on the period between the 7th and 12th centuries, covering the crusades as well as a dispute between two Islamic sects. Beautifully made of handblown Murano glass, the puppets have amazing expressive power, making the scenes full of violence, repression and torture all the more awe-inspiring.