Happy Birthday
A beautiful coming-of-age drama about 8-year-old Toha, who works as a maid for a wealthy family in Cairo. She helps her employer organize a birthday party for the family’s daughter, even though she’s never celebrated her own birthday.
8-year-old Toha works as a maid for a wealthy family in Cairo, the capital of Egypt. She’s best friends with Nelly, the family’s daughter. Nelly’s mother, Laila, is in the middle of a divorce and wants to throw the best birthday party ever for Nelly, in a final attempt to make things right with her husband. She decides to enlist Toha’s help, in exchange for a candle with which Toha can make a wish. Toha, who has never celebrated her own birthday, does everything she can to organize the perfect party for Nelly. Slowly, a bond begins to form between Toha and her employer Laila, but this isn’t accepted in their environment, where class divisions are strictly enforced.
On 12 October there will be a Q&A after the screening.
Trailers & Stills
Credits
- Original titleHappy Birthday
- CategoryLive-action
- TypeFilm
- GenreArthouse
- Age9+
- Production countryEgypt
- Year2025
- Duration92 min
- Subtitles & audio descriptionDutch subtitled
- Spoken languageArabic
- CompetitionsBest Children's Film Competition, Youth Jury Competition
- DirectorSarah Goher
- ScreenwritersMohamed Diab, Sarah Goher
- ProducerAhmed El Desouky
- ActorsNelly Karim, Hanan Motawie, Doha Ramadan, Hanan Youssef
- ComposerMina Samy
- Production companySkylimit Production