The Brink of Dreams | Encounters SA International Doc Film Festival

Awards

Cannes Film Festival (2024) โ€“ Winner: L'ล’il d'or

El Gouna Film Festival (2024) โ€“ Nominated: Golden Star: Feature Documentary Competition

El Gouna Film Festival (2024) โ€“ Winner: Golden Star: Best Arab Documentary Film

Cannes Film Festival (2024) โ€“ Nominated: Nominee Critics' Week Grand Prize

Chicago International Film Festival (2024) โ€“ Nominated: Gold Hugo Award: Best Documentary

San Francisco International Film Festival (2025) โ€“ Nominated: Golden Gate Award: Documentary Feature

Prague One World Film Festival (2025) โ€“ Nominated: Vaclav Havel Special Award

Dokufest International Documentary and Short Film Festival (2024) โ€“ Nominated: Human Rights Dox

Torino Film Festival (2024) โ€“ Nominated: Prize of the City of Torino: Best International Documentary Film

Torino Film Festival (2024) โ€“ Winner: Special Jury Prize: International Documentary Film

International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights (2025) โ€“ Winner: Grand Prix de Genรจve: Creative Documentary

13 PG
Feature
African


Brink of Dreams Poster Poster
Film Poster

This intimately-made film follows a crew of young street performers in Southern Egypt who are intent on challenging the harshly proscriptive gender roles imposed upon Egyptian women. With a minimum of props and costumes, the all-female troupe devise small plays that feature the audienceโ€”and their complicity in the oppression of womenโ€”as central players. In documenting these scenes, along with the performers’ personal lives, The Brink of Dreams offers a heart-breaking critique of the position of women in Egyptian societyโ€”in a particularly haunting scene, the girls recite a litany of the often brutal comments directed at women who wish to become actors, singers, or simply independent women with their own lives. Beyond the specificity of its subject matter, the film provides a deeply empathetic portrayal of young womanhood and the ways in which the solidarity of women is opposed and disrupted by the demands of men.

Trailer
Previous Festivals

Cannes Film Festival (2024)

Chicago Int’l FF (2024)

Dokufest Int’l Doc and Short FF (2025)

El Gouna FF (2024)

Int’l FF and Forum on Human Rights (2025)

Prague One World FF (2025)

San Francisco Int’l FF (2025)

Torino FF (2024)