Zawya Cinema to Screen Week-Long Programme on Communist Histories

With the intention of exploring communism as a postponed or deferred dream, Zawya Cinema’s new week-long film programme, ‘It’s The Ghost of…’, will bring together a selection of documentaries spanning the 1990s to modern-day Egypt, looking at how filmmakers have revisited the stories and experiences of communists from the region.

The programme brings together five films including ‘My Name Is Mustafa Khamis’ (2013), ‘You, Wajeh’ (2005), ‘Abu Zaabal 89’ (2024), ‘Into Studio Masr’ (2018) and ‘Four Women of Egypt’ (1997) and eight guests for a series of screenings and discussions, revisiting different chapters of Egypt’s political and labour history, from workers’ struggles and political persecution to the stories of those who challenged class, gender and ideological divisions.

The first film to be screened, ‘My Name Is Mustafa Khamis’ (2013), written and directed by Mohamed Elkaliouby, revisits the events surrounding the 1952 Kafr El-Dawwar workers’ strikes, including the execution of Mustafa Khamis, a member of a secret Communist organisation who was not yet 19 years old. Drawing on archival research, historical documents and testimonies from surviving witnesses, it looks back at a chapter of Egypt’s history that took decades to reach the screen.

The programme is prepared by Mohamed Hoogla-Kalfat as part of his research project, ‘Al-Kader: Egyptian Cinema and Communist Ghosts’, developed in association with the Arab Alternative Screens Network (NAS) in 2025–2026.

All showings will take place at 7 PM, starting November 1st to 8th, 2026. Admission is free, subject to availability.