MPI fellow Engi Wassef is premiering her feature-length documentary, Marina of the Zabbaleen, at the Tribeca Film Festival this Friday. Here's what Downtown Express has to say about it:
“Marina of the Zabbaleen” revolves around a village of refuse, created by poverty-stricken trash collectors in Cairo. A gorgeous film about garbage, the documentary is beautifully shot and poetically told. It follows six-year-old Marina, whose family members are part of the “Zabbaleen,” or “garbage people,” employed by the city to collect and sort debris. The industrious community bundles newspapers and recycles and resells other waste. Marina dreams of becoming a doctor as she lives in squalor among vermin. As Coptic Christians, the family is a minority in the Middle East. Being of the same faith, director Engi Wassef had special access to the people and the site.Wassef was born in Cairo in 1980 and immigrated to the United States as a child. After attending Harvard and working on Wall Street, she pursued a graduate degree in film in New York, where she now lives. In 2006, while in production with “Marina,” her first feature, she was selected for Tribeca All Access, a program that supports filmmakers from underrepresented communities. The film will have its world premiere at the festival.
For showtimes and more about the film, see marinathemovie.org.