Italian
Egyptian filmmaker Sara Shazli explores personal history in ‘Your Daughter’
A journey of self-discovery
Egyptian filmmaker Sara Shazli is set to present her latest documentary, Your Daughter, at the Venice Production Bridge’s Final Cut workshop. This event focuses on films in post-production from Africa and the Arab world. Shazli’s second feature is a deeply personal narrative that delves into her struggle to step out of the shadow of her mother, the renowned producer and filmmaker Marianne Khoury, while also preparing for motherhood herself.
Moving out and moving on
The documentary follows the 32-year-old Shazli as she grapples with the idea of severing the metaphorical umbilical cord that still ties her to her industrious mother. In an effort to carve out her own identity, she moves from her childhood home in downtown Cairo to a small house in the suburbs. As she oversees its construction, memories of her childhood and her Ethiopian nanny, who played a significant role in her upbringing, resurface. This sets off an emotional journey to confront the lingering pain of her mother’s absence during her formative years.
Revisiting the past
Shazli’s directorial debut, Back Home, premiered at the El Gouna Film Festival in 2021. It focused on her relationship with her father, a larger-than-life figure who had been estranged from her for many years. The film was shot largely in Shazli’s family home during the coronavirus lockdown in 2020, when she returned from film school in Cuba to shoot her graduation short, after previously studying in Montreal.
During visits from Havana, Shazli finally felt ready to confront her mother with difficult questions about her childhood. “I pointed the camera at her. We were just hanging out in the kitchen. That’s when I started to ask her: ‘What happened? Were you really not there? Because I don’t remember you being there,’” Shazli recalls.
A workaholic mother
Khoury, the niece and longtime collaborator of the late Egyptian screen legend Youssef Chahine, runs Misr International Films. Shazli describes her mother as a “workaholic” who was more concerned with the day-to-day grind of the movie business than the task of raising her children. This responsibility largely fell to the family’s Ethiopian nanny, Woody, who Shazli says “filled the void left by my mother.”
Your Daughter was initially conceived as a search for Woody, who emigrated to Canada in 2004. However, Shazli realized during development that the real drama and conflict lay with her mother.
Love and hate with cinema
Growing up among cinema royalty in Cairo led Shazli to develop a “love and hate relationship” with the film industry. Her mother’s physical absence was partly due to the location shoots, festivals, and red-carpet premieres that came with the life of a successful producer. But there was also an emotional absence, a consequence of what Shazli describes as her mother’s compulsion to film everything, to always have the camera rolling.
“This was the most important thing for them — capture everything, document everything,” Shazli says. “If you put the camera aside, that’s when you give real attention. That’s when you give real affection.”
Crafting ‘Your Daughter’
Your Daughter, produced by Khoury and currently in post-production, utilizes an extensive archive of photos and home videos amassed by Shazli’s family over the years. Working alongside editor Nadia Ben Rachid, a longtime collaborator of Malian-Mauritanian auteur Abderrahmane Sissako (known for Timbuktu), Shazli combines archival material with contemporary footage and fictional recreations of scenes from her childhood.
While Shazli describes it as a “privilege” to revisit the family archive, she is equally determined to set her own course as a filmmaker and a mother. “With my daughter, I’m not obsessed with filming everything,” she says. “In fact, it’s the contrary. I want to put the camera aside and really be with her.”
Embracing motherhood
The experience of having a child has allowed Shazli to step out from Khoury’s shadow and become a woman no longer defined solely by her relationship to her famous family. “Having a baby, and becoming a mother, is also a way of cutting the umbilical cord. It’s like, ‘That’s done. I am done with being the daughter of my mother, in a way, and I’m ready to become that new person,’” she says. “That really helps to forget about your past.”
For more information and to watch the trailer, visit Your Daughter.
Reflections for cinema enthusiasts
For those passionate about cinema, Your Daughter offers a unique glimpse into the personal and professional dynamics of a family deeply entrenched in the film industry. It’s a compelling exploration of how personal history and professional legacy can intertwine, creating both opportunities and challenges for the next generation of filmmakers.
