''Marina of the Zabbaleen'' is a 2008

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...

written and directed by

Engi Wassef , also known as Entertainment Graphic Innovation, or Studio ENGI, is a Japanese animation studio founded by Kadokawa, Sammy Corporation, and Ultra Super Pictures, and is a subsidiary of Kadokawa Corporation. History On April 4, 2018, Kadokawa e ...

that examines the life of Marina, a 7-year-old

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

ian girl living in a

Zabbaleen The Zabbaleen ( arz, زبالين ', ) is a word which literally means "garbage people" in Egyptian Arabic.Assaad, Ragui. (1996) Formalizing the Informal? The Transformation of Cairo's Refuse Collection System. ''Journal of Planning Education & R ...

garbage-collecting village in

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...

. The film debuted at the 2008

Tribeca Film Festival The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by TriBeCa Productions, Tribeca Productions. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive progra ...

with sold-out screenings. The film piqued the interest of many movie goers with its poignant tagline, "Garbage and God are the only options: plight of Christians peasants in Cairo."

Synopsis

The film is set in the

Moqattam The Mokattam ( arz, المقطم , also spelled Muqattam), also known as the Mukattam Mountain or Hills, is the name of a range of hills and a suburb in them, located in southeastern Cairo, Egypt. Etymology The Arabic name ''Mokattam'' ...

village, on the outskirts of Cairo, where

Coptic Christians Copts ( cop, ⲛⲓⲣⲉⲙⲛ̀ⲭⲏⲙⲓ ; ar, الْقِبْط ) are a Christian ethnoreligious group indigenous to North Africa who have primarily inhabited the area of modern Egypt and Sudan since antiquity. Most ethnic Copts are ...

from rural Upper Egypt make their living as garbage collectors and recyclers. Moqattam is a toxic shantytown where mountains of trash stand in filthy contrast to the nearby Great

Pyramids A pyramid (from el, πυραμίς ') is a structure whose outer surfaces are triangular and converge to a single step at the top, making the shape roughly a pyramid in the geometric sense. The base of a pyramid can be trilateral, quadrilate ...

. Here, the impoverished but industrious locals earn their living by bundling and reselling paper, and raising pigs amidst the rotting refuse. Very few of the youngsters raised ever receive a proper education. The film transforms the gritty landfill Zabbaleen village (known locally as "Garbage City"), one of the very few Coptic Christian communities in a mostly Muslim-populated Cairo,''Slant Magazine'' review
/ref> into a beautiful, dreamlike portrait of family, childhood, and spirituality. The film introduces us to the intricate world of seven-year-old Marina, the middle child in a family of five, a girl who, despite the decaying ghetto she lives in, spends her days riding flying elephants and befriending mystical pigeons. She dreams of becoming a doctor.

Making of the film

Wassef was granted an unprecedented degree access to the normally very isolated and secretive city, filming everything from its trash-strewn streets to its immaculate churches that have been pridefully carved into the surrounding sacred mountains by the locals. She attributed this to the trust she had built with the local people, aided, perhaps, by the fact that like the Zabbaleen, she too is a Coptic Christian of Egyptian background. With time, the people of Moqattam become comfortable enough with her and her camera to allow her to film honest, complete views of their typical daily lives.

Reception

Banned in Egypt, ''Marina of the Zabbaleen'' premiered in April 2008 at the

. The film was hailed as a gorgeous and "painterly" account of the troubled daily life of an obscure but revealing Middle Eastern people. It was an official selection for the following festivals in 2008-2009: *

Dubai International Film Festival The Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF, ar, مهرجان دبي السينمائي الدولي) is the leading film festival in the Arab region. The 12th edition of DIFF took place from December 9 – 16, 2015. In 2018, the DIFF announce ...

*National Geographic DC Environmental Film Festival *Jerusalem International Film Festival *Lighthouse International Film Festival *Onghiara International Film Festival *Salem Film Festival *Sea Studios Film Festival *Thessaloniki International Film Festival *Vancouver International Film Festival *Beloit International Film Festival

Awards

*It won Silver Muhr (the 2nd place) for "Best Documentary" and "Best Arabic Documentary" at the

(DIFF).

Sources

Moving Pictures Magazine: 'Zabbaleen' Through a Child’s EyesRotten Tomatoes page of the film

References

External links

Official website
*
Facebook
*
Dubai Film Festival film page
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