About the team
Tamer El Said (Director, Producer, Co-writer) is a filmmaker living in Cairo where he was born in 1972. He studied filmmaking in the High Cinema Institute – Cairo and journalism in Cairo University. He went on to make many documentaries and short films that received several international and local awards. Tamer founded Zero Production in 2007 to produce independent films. He also founded, along with others, Cimatheque – Alternative Film Centre in Egypt. In the Last Days of the City is his first feature length film.
Khalid Abdalla (Actor, Producer) is an actor who works across fields, as a producer and filmmaker but also in cultural production and alternative media. He has played leading roles in films including Paul Greengrass’s United 93 and Green Zone, Marc Forster’s The Kite Runner, Tala Hadid’s The Narrow Frame of Midnight, and Danis Tanovic’s Tigers. His upcoming films include: Susanna White’s Our Kind of Traitor, Justin Kurzel’s Assassin’s Creed and Faruk Sabanovic’s Birds Like Us – in which he plays a bat. In documentary film he has producing credits on Hanan Abdalla’s In the Shadow of a Man, and the upcoming film by Hanan Abdalla & Cressida Trew, The Vote. He also appears as himself in Jehane Noujaim’s Oscar nominated The Square. Khalid is a founding member of three collaborative intitiatives in Cairo – Cimatheque, Zero Production and Mosireen. Born in Glasgow and brought up in London, he lives in Cairo.
Rasha Salti (Co-writer) is a researcher, writer and curator of art and film, based in Beirut, Lebanon.
Hana Al Bayaty (Co-producer ) is a co-founder of Cimatheque – Alternative Film Centre in downtown Cairo. Hana first studied Political Science and International Relations in London, later completing a Masters in Political Science at the Sorbonne in Paris and a DESS of documentary filmmaking in France in 2001. She directed two documentary films, Dar Al Salam in 2001, and On Democracy in Iraq in 2003. Hana acted in Leila Albayaty’s VU, a short feature which won the special mention of the Grand Jury of the Berlinale in 2009, and the feature film Berlin Telegram. While working as a line producer in Belgium, she became a member of the Brussells Tribunal Executive Committee’s initial founders. Hana has authored numerous articles and organized and coordinated various events focused on international law exposing the illegal occupation of Iraq.
Marcin Malaszczak (Co-producer) was born in Poland and emigrated to West Berlin with his parents as a child. He studied Film Directing at the German Film and Television Academy (dffb). His first feature length film Sieniawka premiered at the 63rd Berlinale (Forum) in 2013. It won several awards including the Best First Film Prize at FID Marseille and the ARTE Documentary Film Prize at the Duisburger Filmwoche. Orbitalna had its World Premiere at the 64rd Berlinale (Forum Expanded) 2014. His second feature film The Days Run Away Like Wild Horses Over the Hills had its World Premiere at the 65th Berlinale (Forum). Marcin co-founded the film production company Mengamuk Films in 2012. He currently lives and works in Berlin.
Michel Balagué (Co-producer) lives and works in Berlin where he has been based since 2003. He produces and co-produces feature films, documentaries and artistic projects. Previous films include Sieniawka by Marcin Malaszczak (63rd Berlinale – first film prize in FID); My Love Awaits Me by the Sea by Mais Darwazah (TIFF 2013), Face B by Leila Albayaty (65th Berlinale), Sign Space by Hila Peleg (66th Berlinale) and Muito Romantico by Gustavo Jahn and Melissa Dullius (66th Berlinale). Alongside his work as a producer, Michel co-founded the super 8 & 16mm collective LaborBerlin in 2006. He has also collaborated with a range of art institutions around the world, mostly on film related projects, and previously had a career as an award-winning DOP.
Cat Villiers (Co-producer) is an award-winning film producer who with her company Autonomous has produced, executive produced and co-produced many films including; Before the Rain, winner of the Venice Film Festival’s Golden Lion and an Academy Award nomination; Bernard Rose’s poison pen letter to Hollywood Ivan’s Xtc; Golden Globe and Academy Award winner No Man’s Land, as well as Danis Tanovic’s Circus Columbia and the recent Tigers; Nick Cave and John Hillcoat’s acclaimed Western The Proposition; Tala Hadid’s debut feature The Narrow Frame of Midnight; and Hanan Abdalla’s debut documentary In the Shadow of a Man. Cat is also a Trustee, with directors Mike Leigh and Simon Mcburney, of the Katrin Cartlidge Foundation, annually awarding new directors and producers from around the world. Past recipients include; Cary Joji Fukunaga (Sin Nombre, Beasts of No Nation), Academy Award nominated Juanita Wilson, Hala Lotfy (Coming Forth by Day), Syrian filmmakers and producers Orwa Nyrabia and Diana El Jeiroudi (Silvered Water, Return to Homs), Dyana Gaye (Under the Starry Sky), artist and filmmaker Ran Huang. The Foundation’s International patrons and curators include; Ken Loach, Stellan Skarsgard, Danis Tanovic, Jeremy Irons, Charlotte Rampling, Lars Von Trier, Danny Huston, Emily Watson and many more.
Bassem Fayad (Actor, Director of Photography) lives in Beirut, where he works as a director of photography and filmmaker. He has worked extensively as a DOP on films in the Middle East in countries including Libya, Lebanon, Iraq, Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt. In 2002, he was named by Kodak International as one of the 10 best talents working in Eastern Europe and the Middle East. His films as a director include the award winning films Beirut-Baghdad and The Road Beyond Sunset. Recent films as a cinematographer include Simon El Habre’s feature documentaries The One Man Village and Gate #5, Akram Zaatari’s essay film Letter to a Refusing Pilot, and Ghassan Salhab’s The Valley, both of which had their European premieres at the 2014 Berlinale Forum. His latest feature documentary Diaries of a Flying Dog premiered at the 2014 Dubai International Film Festival. In the Last Days of the City is his first film as an actor.
Mohamed Abdel Gawad (Editor) is an editor and filmmaker based in Cairo. After acquiring a degree in medicine from Ain Shams University in 2008, he participated in a number of filmmaking workshops, and started enhancing his practice working in and around the independent film scene in Cairo. In 2010, he joined a masters program in Aqaba, where he received an MFA in scriptwriting and editing. His work was featured in film festivals and art exhibitions. In the Last Days of the City is his first feature film as an editor.
Abdel Gawad (Editor) is a co-founder of Cimatheque – Alternative Film Centre. He is currently conceiving his first feature screenplay.
Vartan Avakian (Editor) is a multidisciplinary artist working with film, video, photography and installation. Avakian studied Architecture and Urban Culture at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya and the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona and Communication Arts at the Lebanese American University. He is a founding member of the Beirut-based art collective Atfal Ahdath and a member of the Arab Image Foundation (AIF). Avakian was awarded the Abraaj Group Art Prize in 2013. He lives and works in Beirut, and is represented by Kalfayan Galleries (Athens-Thessaloniki).
Barbara Bossuet (Editor) studied Editing and Post Production after graduating from her high school in southern France in 2005. Her desire to explore new horizons led her to internships in Lisbon, Ougadougou, and Ingelheim before returning to Paris in 2009 to begin work as an assistant editor alongside editors such as Andrée Davanture on Min Yé by Souleymane Cissé (Cannes 2009 – Special Screening) and M√∂rbayassa by Cheick Fantamady Camara; followed by Rodolphe Molla on Annie de Francia by Christophe Le Masne, Black Diamond, the Fools’ Gold by Pascale Lamche and Josie Miljevic, La Pirogue by Moussa Touré (Un Certain Regard, 2011) and The Tightrope by Simon Brook (Venice 2012 – Official Selection). As an editor, she has worked on the documentary films The Storm Makers by Guillaume Suon (Award for Best Asian Documentary Film, Busan 2014), Nidosih Naisseline, a word that does not die by Nun√´ Luepak, Heirs of Vietnam by Arlette Pacquit, (official selection, Lussas 2015), and the fictional feature film Run by Philippe Lacôte (Un Certain Regard, 2014).
