“I am back to Cairo. For work. You have changed your phone number, Omar. I must find you. I love you… Abdellah”. Moroccan novelist and filmmaker Abdellah Taïa reworks camcorder footage shot in 2007 into a tender, melancholy portrait of love and absence. As he wanders through Cairo searching for his vanished lover, fleeting encounters ‒with Youssef Chahine, night shoots by the pyramids, and moments of revelry‒ become fragments of memory where cinema and desire intertwine.

Born in Rabat in 1973, Abdellah Taïa has published several novels with Éditions du Seuil, which have been released in translation in Europe and the United States: The King’s Day (Prix de Flore 2010),Un pays pour mourir (PEN America Literary Awards 2021) and Vivre à ta lumière (2022). In 2014, he directed his first film, The Salvation Army. Based on his novel of the same name, the film was selected for the Venice Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival, and was awarded the Grand Prix at the Angers European First Film Festival as well as the Sundance Institute Global Filmmaking Award.