Mariam goes to a public hospital with her husband and her daughter, bleeding and suffering from a severe pain in her abdomen. After the medical examination things escalate between Mariam and her husband.
Original Title Ma la na'refo an Mariam Year of production 2021 Length 25min Country Egypt Shooting Format Digital 2K Aspect Ratio 4:3 Dialogue Arabic Director Morad Mostafa Producer Sherif Elbendary Production Africa Films Co-Production Concave Art Prodcution Writer Morad Mostafa Cinematographer Mostafa El Kashef Editor Mohamed Mamdouh Art Director Adham ElHelaly Sound Designer & Mixer Mostafa Shaban Costume Design Nour Fawzi First Assistant Director Fady Akarm Executive Producer Ahmed Zayan Line Producer Sawsan Yusuf Colorist Rami Eid Cast Doaa Ereiqat, Emad Ghoniem, Osama Abdallah, Noran Wageh
Director's Statement When I started writing this film, which is the second short for me, I was sure that I’m still hooked up to the narration method that I started in my first film; which is a dramatic build up that explodes from event that may be just a transient action or through a coincidence. This event creates a state of hidden tension in the building of the story and in the relationships between the characters that grows like a snow ball rolling in snow through the film. In "What we don’t know about Mariam", the transient dramatic event early in the film and is similar to the big stone that is thrown into stagnant water to reveal the nature of the relationship between the husband and wife, the problems between married people has now become the largest proportion within the Egyptian society with a variety and differences between a family and another. I started to think about that subject when I was in a local hospital waiting; and I witnessed a violent quarrel between a husband and a wife; and of course we didn’t know the reason behind such an escalation, but when I thought about it I had the feeling that the reason is not important and quarrels should never escalate to that point. At that time, I decided to write my next movie about the strained marital relationships within the Egyptian society, which have become present in many different places, such as hospitals, police stations, and Public Street. I like to always have lots of questions surrounding my simple social topics, questions to be asked and assumptions rather than providing solutions or closed brackets, as throughout the whole film questions appear and then disappears leaving place for other questions to surface! And we know a little less about Mariam with every question!
