Life Is There

synopsis

In this film, Cairo becomes a space where personal memories intersect with historical memory, and history is etched directly into the city’s very fabric. The director wanders through its streets and, through free association, links Egypt’s past with her own life story – marked by relocations resulting from political events – as well as fleeting memories of previous visits to the country. On her journey, she encounters the city’s inhabitants: a man who feeds stray dogs, or a woman who runs a shelter for over a hundred cats. Animals are prominent figures in the film and an integral part of Cairo – its everyday life, history and religion. Lyrical scenes intermingle with unvarnished street footage and archive material, while a poetic voice-over is interwoven with testimonies from locals. The result is an associative mosaic in which the boundary between personal experience and history is constantly blurred. The final visit to a nursery for orphaned children from Gaza brings the film urgently back to the present day and links the current political situation with historical events, the traces of which the director seeks out during her journey.

“I find my home in the heart of Cairo. Here I lose myself, and as I walk aimlessly, I feel free.”

biography

Ishtar Yasin Gutiérrez (1968) is a Costa Rican-Chilean-Iraqi director, screenwriter, actress and producer born in Moscow. Following the coup in Chile in 1973, she moved to Costa Rica and later graduated from the VGIK film institute in Moscow. In 1998, she founded her own production company, Astarté Films.

film details

director:	Ishtar Yasin Gutiérrez
cast:	Nesrine Farid, Layla Mohammed, Khaled Soliman, Ammar Abo Bakr, Wejdan Diab, Imad Mustafa, Dr. Aya , Dr. Wesam , Hamdy Abeed, Mohammed Ali, Ahmed Aboul Hassan
producer:	Ishtar Yasin Gutiérrez, Hala Lotfy, Margo Mars
script:	Ishtar Yasin Gutiérrez
photography:	Ishtar Yasin Gutiérrez
editing:	Ishtar Yasin Gutiérrez
sound:	Ishtar Yasin Gutiérrez, Udit Duseja
sound design:	Udit Duseja

contact

Ishtar Yasin Gutiérrez / Astarté Films
ishtaryasin@gmail.com