The director said the film's screening at El Gouna Film Festival was an exceptional moment.

 Sarah Gohar, director of "Happy Birthday Day": The film's response exceeded my expectations

"Happy Birthday Day"

Sarah Gohar, director of "Happy Birthday Day": The film's response exceeded my expectations.

Sara Gohar is one of the most prominent rising female figures in the Egyptian film industry, asserting her presence with short works that carry an intellectual and humane imprint.

Sarah is distinguished by her sensitive directorial vision of the characters' inner worlds, delving into psychological and social details with honesty in her new film "Happy Birthday Day," which screened at the 8th El Gouna Film Festival. Sarah Gohar asserts that cinema is an emotional experience that is lived, one that stems from life and returns to it. The film presents a vision that blends the intimate and the symbolic, the reality of childhood and the wounds of memory, based on human experience and a visual philosophy that considers small details as keys to understanding the world.

Sarah is increasingly convinced that cinema is capable of healing what cannot be expressed in words. Sarah spoke about the film's screening at El Gouna Film Festival, her own experience, and her journey with the film. Director Sarah Gohar emphasized that screening "Happy Birthday" at El Gouna Film Festival was an exceptional moment, and that the reactions exceeded her expectations. 

She felt deeply grateful for the warm reception the film received from audiences and filmmakers, believing that the festival provided a space for human cinema that addresses the self and others.

She explained that the idea for the film stemmed from a personal experience, making the production process "more of a complex psychological journey than an artistic adventure." She noted that motherhood played a fundamental role in shaping her vision and producing the film with these emotions. 

The film's director emphasized her commitment to authenticity in every detail, starting with the selection of the child, Douha Ramadan, as the lead actress, describing her as "a smart child with an innate, unfeigned talent."

She added that training the children was one of the most difficult stages of preparation, as she spent a full year building trust with them and their mothers through shared activities to make them feel safe in front of the camera. Sarah Gohar pointed out that water in the film carries a profound symbolism related to transformation, purity, and rebirth. The filming locations were carefully chosen to serve the story's inner meaning.

She spoke about the final scene between the child and the lead actor, saying that she actually cried during filming, as the young actress shared her feelings moment by moment, making the scene authentic.

 Sarah expressed her happiness at participating in the El Gouna Film Festival, which held the theme "Cinema for Humanity," emphasizing that her film intersects with this concept because it addresses human themes related to childhood, absence, and the search for security.

Sarah Gohar concluded her remarks by emphasizing that "Happy Birthday" is not just a film about a birthday, but about rediscovering existence. And the self, and about a girl searching for the meaning of life in a silent world. 

She hoped that the film would continue its journey to other festivals, because for her, every screening is a new birth for an idea that she thought was small, only to discover that it is bigger than her and the film itself.