Leisure Time was the renegade box-office hit this summer in Cairo’s movie theaters. This low-budget film breaks radically with prevailing trends, a docu-fiction with a large cast of excellent actors, none famous or even known. The film also marks the return of once retired veteran producer Hussein Qalla. Leisure Time delves in the world of teen-agers from within and gives them unprecedented voice; we follow Ahmed, Hazem, Amr, and others, as they ask, “What to do?” The film does not attempt to answer the question nor dwell on its implications, it simply takes us to an adolescent world scripted from the inside. The film’s emphasis on real life rather than fiction was the source of its popular success. In Arabic w/ English subtitles.

Early in his career, working with the likes of Daoud Abdel-Sayyed, Mohamed Mostafa established himself as one of the most respected and solicited assistant filmmakers in Egypt. He eventually moved on to a successful career in production. Leisure Time marks his debut as a filmmaker.