‘The Tale of Daye’s Family’ Director Karim El Shenawy Discusses Adaptive Casting Process at Red Sea Film Festival

variety.com:

Andrés Buenahora From the Variety Lounge presented by Film AlUla at the Red Sea Film Festival, Variety‘s London Bureau Chief Alex Ritman spoke with “The Tale of Daye’s Family” director Karim El Shenawy.

The film, which screened at the opening ceremony of the Red Sea Film Festival, follows a 14-year-old Nubian albino boy who sets out to make it to an audition for an Egyptian show similar to “The Voice.” “This is a moment where you realize that the film is no longer yours,” El Shenawy said of his project’s world premiere. “It was lovely to see the reactions and see how people got this emotional journey…got the sense of magical realism in the movie.” The filmmaker explained that he initially found himself wanting to go back to the editing room to tweak certain aspects of the final cut.

It was seeing the collective cast and crew that empowered him to sit back and enjoy the long-awaited screening of “The Tale of Daye’s Family,” he added.

According to El Shenawy, his film is universal because it is full of passion, emotion and input from different people. The director detailed how “The Tale of Daye’s Family” centers the narrative journeys and struggles of various characters, from Daye’s mother to his Christian music teacher. “We wanted to make a film that is deeply culturally rooted,” El Shenawy said. “It’s a film about diversity and different skin tone, different dialects.