The film is directed and produced by Manal Khaled, who co-scripted it with Rasha Azab.
Manal Khaled’s feature debut Trapped is slated to land its world premiere within the Global section at the South By Southwest Festival (March 16-20), marking the first Egyptian film to participate in the American festival in ten years.
Due to the Covid-19 spread, the festival will be held online and will be streamed exclusively to 2000 viewers inside the US. The participating features are vying for the prestigious Film Independent Spirit awards.
Trapped revolves around a number of women from different walks of life who are all under one siege. As the story unfolds, their own personal stories reflect on a far bigger siege that depicts the constraints imposed on them by the male dominance in their lives be it a father, a husband, or the society and the government. The film marks a different approach in terms of similar films that tackled the revolution. It tells the story of women who seek to be understood rather than to be pitied and that without limiting woman to an issue of a” body” that is perceived as both the problem and the solution.
The film was screened for 13 minutes within the events of El Gouna Film Festival as part of efforts to raise funds for the film. This comes after the creators of the film had launched a fundraising campaign for Trapped on Indiegogo website.
Directed and produced by Manal Khaled who co-scripted it with Rasha Azab, Trapped stars Caroline Khalil, Reem Higab, Osama Abo Al Ata, Ne’ma Mohsen, Mona Mokhtar, Tharaa Goubail, Rajwa Hamed, Zeina Mansour, Habiba Effat and Fadel El Garhy. MAD Solutions handles the film’s distribution across the Arab world.
Manal Khaled is an Egyptian filmmaker who studied Philosophy at Alexandria University. She worked in Misr International Films as an assistant director and has a vast experience working with award-winning directors, such as Saad Hendawi, Kamla Abo Zekri, Hani Khalifa and Mohamed Ali. Also, she attended many master classes and workshops on filmmaking, screenwriting and film critique. Most recently, Manal finished shooting her long documentary An Hour or So.
