Perfumed with Mint

Alaa is a 30-year-old doctor. One day, he is visited in his clinic by Mahdy, an old friend who needs help with a strange phenomenon that is afflicting him – mint is sprouting from his body. Alaa and Mahdy find themselves without shelter. The smell of mint attracts danger and pursues them through their deteriorating city. They are led through a series of disturbing encounters with former companions. Those who once shared a bond of devotion are now estranged, disloyal and reeking of mint. Will the two friends find a way out of this nightmare, endlessly haunted by memories of loss? Or will they be left out in the cold, waiting and hiding in the streets where they once lived peacefully?

The work of a skilled painter with light and shadow, “Perfumed with Mint” is thick with atmosphere and allegory marking a fascinating new voice in African and Arab cinema. Sedated and nearly non-narrative, Hamdy’s film captures the tranquilized paranoia of a wounded generation tormented by what they cannot forget and what they refuse to surrender. (Toronto FF)

The film premiered at the Venice Film Festival in the Critics’ section (The Settimana Internazionale della Critica).