The Movie Waffler

Director Zeina Durra's film comes to UK/ROI cinemas this Autumn.

One of the standouts of this year's Sundance Film Festival was writer/director Zeina Durra's drama Luxor, which stars Andrea Riseborough as a British aid worker who runs into an old lover (Karim Saleh) while retreating from the stress of her occupation in the ancient Egyptian city of Luxor.

Speaking about shooting in Luxor, Durra said "In Luxor you can almost hear the temple walls talk because people prayed there for thousands of years, which makes it the perfect setting for a film about birth and rebirth and second chances."

Luxor will have its UK digital premiere at 8pm on August 8th (including an exclusive panel Q&A featuring Riseborough, Durra, DOP Zelmira Gainza and renowned Egyptologist and Archaelogist Salima Ikram, hosted by Claire Binns), as part of ‘Celebration of Sundance Film Festival: London’ (7-9 August), in partnership with Picturehouse Cinemas. It will then be released in UK/ROI cinemas this Autumn.

Check out the trailer, poster and official synopsis below.

The official synopsis reads:

Set against the backdrop of the ancient Egyptian city of Luxor, the film centres on Hana, a doctor and British aid worker seeking mental peace and physical respite after an overwhelming period spent working at a clinic in Ramtha, on the Jordanian-Syrian border, where she specialised in treating victims wounded in the war in Syria. She finds solace in Luxor, where she lived in her 20s and dated an archeologist, Sul- tan, who was also studying there.

As she wanders, haunted by the familiar place, Hana struggles to reconcile the choices of the past with the uncertainty of the present. She lingers through memory-filled hotel lobbies and ancient sites as she begins to grapple with her grief and her emotions from the war—but when she runs into Sultan on a ferry crossing unexpectedly, the chemistry is undeniable.

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