Karim Elalfy’s ‘Empty Lands’ Debuts at Red Sea Intl Film Festival

‘Empty Lands’ by Egyptian screenwriter and director Karim Eldin Elalfy will premiere at the Red Sea International Film Festival in Jeddah, which will run from December 4th to 13th, 2025. The fifth edition of the festival will feature over 100 films from more than 70 countries.

Elalfy is known for directing the hit Egyptian series ‘Nesr El Scene’ (2022), and will now be bringing his 19-minute short film to Saudi Arabia with a multi-cultural cast that includes Gratiela Brancusi, Michael Monasterio, and Jessica Damouni.

The plot follows Gustav, a loyal officer, and his wife Anna when they are rewarded a state-subsidised house in the “Empty Lands”—lands that were once occupied by a displaced family, or as the state calls them, “Barbarians”. When they discover traces of a missing daughter from the family who lived there, Anna grows unsettled, and their domestic life begins to spiral into fear and paranoia.

Through his short film, Elalfy aims to shed light on the global community’s desensitisation “towards the first genocide to be broadcast live to the world.”

“My decision to write and direct this film has been a result of my own experience and observation of reactions to the ongoing Gaza genocide," the director said. "Watching the collective moral apathy and the ability of so many to look away and absolve their duty to do everything in their power to stop such crimes has been both enlightening and disillusioning.”