Shall I Compare You to a Summer’s Day? is a contemporary queer musical taking Arab folktales as its formal reference, and Egyptian pop music as its primary sonic material. It is based on the filmmaker’s personal love diary and told in the form of a One Thousand and One Nights tale, where stories playfully unfold through conversations between Scheherazade, a narrator who never comes into view, and ghosts of former lovers.

Mohammad Shawky Hassan is an Egyptian filmmaker and video artist living and working in Berlin since January 2019. His last film And on a Different Note premiered at the Berlinale – Forum Expanded, and was acquired by the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in
New York as part of its permanent collection.

The screenings will be followed by a Q&A with director Mohammad Shawky Hassan.

Screening as part of SAFAR Film Festival: The Stories We Tell in Arab Cinema 1-17 July 2022

Screening at London Barbican on Friday 15 July at 18:00, and at Glasgow’s CCA on Saturday 16 July at 18:00.

For the full festival programme visit: www.safarfilmfestival.co.uk