My Father's Scent
Spring Grants 2022 - Development Stage
Mohamed Siam / Feature Narrative / Egypt, Norway, Saudi Arabia, France, Qatar / 90 min / Original Language: Arabic / Interests: Drama, Thriller
Synopsis
A father returns home after a long absence due to his sudden illness and treatment. His teenage son is anxiously waiting for him, charged with anger, to have a postponed intense confrontation. Throughout a night-long battle, their dysfunctional relationship is finally brought to light, and many secrets come to the surface. His return coincides with the holy celebration known to Muslims as “The Great Feast”, where sheep are slaughtered as a symbol of sacrifice in the Quran. This social tradition has both religious value and visual impact. Everything is contrasted between festivities, lavish traditions, and the expected worry and sadness from the small family and two sons. The father’s arrival forces his son to relive all the harsh memories, painful incidents, and major conflicts he experienced with him. It evokes the son’s sense of anger towards his father’s long-held neglect. During one day and night, we live the emotional arc, and the geographical journey both the father and the son have to embark on.
About the Director
Mohamed Siam is a fiction and documentary filmmaker. A grantee of Sundance, World Cinema Fund, and Aide aux Cinémas du Monde, his films have been screened at NYFF, Karlovy Vary, and Carthage, where he won The Grand Prize and Best Cinematography in 2017 for his first film, 'Whose Country'? His film 'Amal' was IDFA Opening Film that won Sheffield Jury Prize, London and FidaDoc prizes and screened in Göteborg, CPH Dox, Vision du Réel and was sold worldwide. Siam is an Alumnus of Sundance, La Femis, La Fabrique des Cinémas du Monde in Cannes and a Berlinale, Durban & Beirut Talent Alumnus who has also won the Robert Bosch Film Prize and Thessaloniki award. He was a jury member at Karlovy Vary, Göteborg and Durban Film Festivals, IDFA Bertha and Hot Docs Funds. A fellow scholar and filmmaker resident at the American University in Paris in 2018, Siam was selected for the Netflix Fellowship in 2021. He is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.