The title of an Egyptian pop song BASHTAALAK SA’AT (‘I miss you sometimes’) and a Shakespearian sonnet SHALL I COMPARE YOU TO A SUMMER’S DAY question the time and space of the narration. A female narrator recounts a meeting between two men. A love story – how does it begin? A look, a smile, a date. Director Mohammad Shawky Hassan reclaims the narration and the story from A Thousand and One Nights, exploring it in the context of a queer love story. This experimental feature film plays with the boundaries of language and cultural traditions.
The director, Mohammad Shawky Hassan, and the two actors, Nadim Bahsoun and Ahmed El Gendy, tell us here about BASHTAALAK SA’AT on the occasion of the 19th edition of the Africa Film Festival in Cologne.